1921 Delage DE “Woody” Sedan. $24,500

[John Bloom]

For the ambitious, who doesn't like to see another car "just like his" at a car event.  This car is not for me, but I found it interesting.  

 

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/980267446529387/

1921 Delage DE “Woody” Sedan Our 1921 Delage is very rare car that has become a stalled project. Very good exterior and original interior in great shape. Engine rebuild nearly complete, loosely assembled, and can be installed for transport. The car is concours worthy when completed. For the collector/dealer with the ability to complete. Offered at $29,000, a fraction of what has been invested. Great history. Full information and photo library available. Scammers don’t bother. Please reach out with specific questions. Happy to discuss by phone. The add will be taken down immediately upon sale so no need to ask if it’s available. Located in Vermont with the possibility of delivery in the Northeast or to Hershey next month with cleared funds and paperwork complete. Sold on a Vermont Bill of Sale with a Vin verification by local law enforcement. Possibly the only wood bodied Delage by Millar of Paris remaining.

 

 

[wayne sheldon]

John B, It may not be your cup o' tea? But I love it!

I have been seeing this showing up in several places lately. Every time I see it again I like it even more! It needs a lot of work to get back onto the road, and being a moderately rare European luxury automobile would make it costly to do almost anything to it properly. If I had money (I never had that much!), was twenty years younger (like there is any way to make that happen?), this is a car I could really go for!

I expect that the wooden body was originally painted, not left natural. I sure would be curious what colors it may have been?

[kar3516]

11 hours ago, wayne sheldon said:

John B, It may not be your cup o' tea? But I love it!

I have been seeing this showing up in several places lately. Every time I see it again I like it even more! It needs a lot of work to get back onto the road, and being a moderately rare European luxury automobile would make it costly to do almost anything to it properly. If I had money (I never had that much!), was twenty years younger (like there is any way to make that happen?), this is a car I could really go for!

I expect that the wooden body was originally painted, not left natural. I sure would be curious what colors it may have been?

I agree completely; this car has attitude in spades!  Almost seems like a bare knuckled SUV of it’s time but with serious class!  I think it is a fantastic vehicle.  But yes getting it on the road with the original drivetrain is likely an intimidating project as expertise and parts will be tough.

[wayne sheldon]

Thank you John Bloom for posting this, and kar3516 for your comments! 

Cars like this should be discussed more for the benefit of all.

[John Bloom]

10 minutes ago, wayne sheldon said:

Thank you John Bloom for posting this, and kar3516 for your comments! 

Cars like this should be discussed more for the benefit of all.

Wayne, it is special and brings something new into our discussions here on the forum. So often topics get stale or repetitive (I still enjoy and learn a lot from those), but it is nice to see some less common makes and models. 

[TAKerry]

I can imagine at some point when the paint was being stripped someone said 'Hey thats a beautiful wood car, why did they paint it?' It does look cool in the raw though as a historical point. 

Similarly we were restoring a structure that was white plaster/stucco. The base is fieldstone. The stucco was put on top as the weather barrier and finish. Modern eyes see a beautiful stone building. The owner said, 'lets leave the stone exposed'.

[John Bloom]

18 minutes ago, TAKerry said:

I can imagine at some point when the paint was being stripped someone said 'Hey thats a beautiful wood car, why did they paint it?' It does look cool in the raw though as a historical point. 

Similarly we were restoring a structure that was white plaster/stucco. The base is fieldstone. The stucco was put on top as the weather barrier and finish. Modern eyes see a beautiful stone building. The owner said, 'lets leave the stone exposed'.

kerry, after looking at it for a couple days, I agree with you.  I actually like the wood more each time I look at it.  A challenging undertaking, but unique.  If It can be bought cheap and things break your way (getting its engine back in the car and running under its own power), it would be fun to own and enjoy with others.  If everything breaks against you (and it is always wise to consider this outcome), it is at least an interesting piece of history/art.

[wayne sheldon]

I imagine part of it is that I tend to be a "traditionalist". I like things preserved close to how they were way back when. And part of it is that I spend many hours looking closely at era photographs (sort of trains the "eye" in what to expect). But I tend to prefer wooden coachwork finely painted. I have been up close to horse-drawn carriage work from as far back as the mid 1800s. Talk about incredible workmanship! I see something like this Delage and picture it in an incredibly fine painted dark royal color! A really dark royal Brewster green, or maybe dark maroon/red. I saw a mid 1800s royal carriage in a private collection like that once.

Really fine wooden coachwork properly painted can be strikingly beautiful!

A friend had a late brass era Packard limousine like that. I was looking for something else yesterday, and ran into photos of it I took at a concourse about thirty years ago. Almost totally original, in fantastic condition. I think I spent over half an hour that day looking at that one car. He rarely took it out, and I had heard about it for a few years, but had not personally seen it before that day. That half hour at one car? Consider that at that concourse, Jack Passey introduced me to Otis Chandler! It wasn't Pebble Beach, but it wasn't some local slouch show either. Think of all the great cars there to be seen. Otis Chandler had at least a half dozen cars from his incredible collection there that day.

[TAKerry]

Could this have had a fabric covered body? I dont know what the substrate for a fabric bodied car was?

[Leif in Calif]

So Lovely! That engine is everything great about the period.

I looked up a quote reported by the late-great Beverly Rae Kimes; " One drives an Alfa, one is driven in a Rolls, and one give his mistress a Delage." 

Those were the days! 

[Walt G]

The car did not have a fabric cover over the wood. As mentioned here the comparison to a wood bodied/built carriage from the horse drawn era is the best comparison. The wood body would have been primed and painted _ all by hand with a brush and varnish based paint. then rubbed out to a smooth finish so it looked like it would have been sprayed on . Lots of information about how cars were built and painted before the use of an air compressor and spray paint that got popular in the mid to late 1920s. If you can ever get the opportunity to visit a collection of horse drawn coaches and talk to the curator or enthusiastic owner then the understanding of how ,what and why will be clearer.

My life long interest in art and in particular coach built cars has seen a cross over of study into how the cars were built/painted and then the transition to metal panels over a wood frame. That is a whole book in itself, and period journals of that era especially the periodicals of Europe explain an illustrate it the best. Most are not available nor looked at in library collections - almost to obscure for the computer generation era. Coach built carriages and cars just happen to be my near total field of interest. Yes, I have visited a number of carriage museums both here and in Europe.  the interior on the example shown here is exquisite . ( no I haven't used that last word in about 45 years).

 

Walt

[JFranklin]

Just look at a piano for a painted wood finish.