Cars and Motors

Ben’s current love

In addition, part of my skill is the wood work in and on antique cars and engines. I mainly focus
on Dion Bouton and wooden pulleys. These ones I make for FN, Harley Davidson and Yale bikes.

We all know the walnut dashboards embedded in luxury vehicles. Yet - and this is not something that is widely known - wooden parts are also used in motorcycles. In the early stage of vehicle and motorcycle development, a lot more wood was used than is the case today. By then, the vehicle gradually transformed into an automobile.

Wood was used a lot on the automobile’s interior, the wheels and the spokes, body and floor. Often a wooden toolbox came along with the car. In motorcycles, for instance, wood was mainly used for the belt drive pulley and it was the material of choice for handles, knobs and sidecars.

During the development of the automobile and motorcycle, a lot of varieties and experimentations occurred. As a result, there are several insights in this period. If you have additions or want to share knowledge, I'd love to hear from you. Of course, you can also contact me if you have damaged or missing parts. These can be components such as wooden or ivory buttons, interior or exterior parts, body parts, pulleys or mudguards.

Dion Bouton

Right now, I focus on the Dion Bouton's wooden body. Around 1900 Dion Bouton released 5 different types of the model Voiturette Vis-à-Vis. This was one of the first production cars of which many remained.

I was given several parts of the original wooden body. I have mapped the parts into a technical drawing and researched the used woods in order to provide the owner with a new appropriate body.

Wooden Pulleys

I made wooden pulleys for a FN motorcycle from the 1902 – 1904 period. After attentively studying an original, I managed to make it myself. The pulleys are made up of 24 parts and get their final shape on the lathe. Besides this type of pulley FN has got several other types. Unfortunately, I have not been able to study them yet.

In addition to producing completely new pulleys, I am also repairing damaged ones. I fix them wherever necessary so the original piece is retained.

Furthermore I am also working on American motors. These are build up differently. Harley Davidson, Yale, Indian Motorcycle and many other brands apply a similar construction. These consist of 3 rings glued together and subsequently processed. Currently, this is still in the development phase, so please keep an eye on my website.

Parallelweg 30
5223 AL  `s-Hertogenbosch
The Netherlands

+31-(0)73-6131009
+31-(0)6-24272222
question@atelierbenbucx.nl