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The History of Automotive Aluminum
From
Automotive Body Repair
, November 1995
See TM Technologies
Aluminum Gas Welding System
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1908 Bugatti Type 10 with aluminum body.
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First discovered in the early 1800s, produced in quantity in 1824, then reliably cast, rolled and formed by
the turn of this century, aluminum was quickly put into use by automobile producers. It appeared on
motorcars as early as the
1908 Bugatti, whose construction included extensive aluminum sand castings and formed aluminum body panels
that were butt-welded with the use of the oxy-fuel torch and hand-worked to a polished condition. Pierce
Arrow bodies were cast for several years-from 1912 until 1917 or 1918. These cast bodies were actually
enormous sand castings and they showed evidence, in some cases, of very large oxy-fuel
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1934 Alfa Romeo 8C2300 with aluminum touring body. The Alfa was outfitted with an aluminum supercharged
inline 8-cyl. with twin overhead cams.
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torch welds. The casting thickness was between 1/4 and
3
/8
in. thick, and the bodies were of good appearance, durable and structurally sound.
Aluminum remained a choice for limited production cars until the 1960s because it was more easily formed
than steel and tooling could be more cheaply and easily made. The alloys in those days were principally
purer forms- 1100 and 3003- which did not lend themselves to corrosion, so the aluminum survived for
decades.
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