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MG MGA - MGA Production Line

There is a very well known production line photo of a white MGA body being lowered from an upper tier onto a chassis. The picture I am looking at is in Malcolm Green's MGA Restoration Guide. The wording underneath says "MGA bodies, completely trimmed and wired, are lowered onto the awaiting chassis from the upper deck."

Now am I missing something? I thought the cable loom ran along the underside of the floor boards. So how could the body be lowered completely wired? At the very maximum it could only be almost fully wired in the engine compartment, with some 12 feet of loom to be fastened up underneath and connected to the rear end after mating.

Steve
Steve Gyles

That's a very good question Steve, never thought about it. I suppose that the "wired" body was just the dash wiring harness and the ends of the main loom were hooked up to the lights and dash harness when the body and chassis were mated.
Bill Young

Steve,

A bit of poetic license I suspect. I have seen another picture of a guy fitting a dashboard, but can't remember if the body was on the chassis.

Here is another picture of a body being lowered onto the chassis!

The harness is visible behind the heater.

Neil


Neil McGurk

Look at where the harnesses connect. The connection point above the brake switch and in the RR corner where the tail lights plug in. The loom along the bottom was also in with the fuel line and battery cable. I believe the harrness were in before the body was dropped on with the few ends connected after.
Every thing was pre wired. All that was left to hook up was the fuel sender(after tank installation), the front end of the battery cable and the loom connections in the rear (4 connectors) and above the brake switch (6 connectors).
R J Brown

Neil -

Is this the picture you're thinking of (in the link)? Looks like the body is on some sort of dolly.


David Breneman

Yes, thanks David. So the dash is clearly fitted before the body is lowered onto the chassis.
Neil McGurk

David, the picture you posted as you may be aware was of the very last Twin Cam produced and effectively after production ceased as a special favour to the owner and with non standard trim colour, so, the chassis being on a dolly could have been unique? I tend to agree with Neil's thinking though that the dash was fitted prior to body being lowered onto the chassis.... I may even have a pic somewhere supporting this.
Peter Steyn

Hi peter if that is the last twin cam then it must be the one shown in the original mga book owned by mike ellman=brown that still has very low mileage shown finished in brooklands green with biscuit interior he also had a 1500 A done in this same colour previously which is also still active


gordon
g c pugh

Hi all again, just to correct my earlier statement it was woodlands green i believe, does anyone happen to know the original blue colour used for the washer bottle holder, may have have been pagent blue , and what is the closest available today


many thanks gordon
g c pugh

That's interesting to know, Peter. I wasn't aware of that. There is another car beside this one, at the same level off the floor, so at least some number of the bodies, if not all, must have been assembled this way. The other car looks like it might be unpainted, so this could be a special prep area.
David Breneman

Just been browsing through "Call it MGA". It would appear that after the cars came off the production line they went for a 6 mile test run and then any faults found were corrected on the rectification line. Looking at the photos it seems like every car went back for rectification! I guess we have come a long way these days with quality control that the norm now is 'right first time'.

Steve
Steve Gyles

John Price Williams' book "MGA First of a new line" discusses production on pg 40.
He says " ... The bodies arrived from Coventry..... The bodies were mounted on four wheel trolleys and pushed along the floor as Lucas electrical equipment and other components were added" There is a pic on pg42 of the body being lowered using a sort of crane or hoist with straps down to the sills. This car has some wires dangling from the grill opening.. for fog lights?
There are severa more pics of production on these pages.
I notice the workers prop open the bonnet (hood) with a sort of broom handle, just like modern day concours displays!
David
David Marklew

And the price of those original circa-1950s British broom handles is going through the roof as a result! Moss may start reproducing them soon.
David Breneman

is this something else i have to start collecting !!!

I think I have one but my wife is still flying around on it



gordon
g c pugh

Yes, it's the Woodland's Green Ellman-Brown Twin Cam YD1/2611. Still original as it left the factory but for a cracked windscreen due to the car being parked on a slope without the gear engaged and with the handbrake on, the brake discs cooled down, contracted, and the car gained momentum down a slope and had a coming together cracking the windscreen!

All your questions are answered in the John Price Williams' book, Making MG's - chassis were fully wired before the engine was fitted and before bodies were lowered onto them. The bodies were also fully wired before being lowered onto the waiting chassis below. The body preparation work with all trim (except floor boards and seats)and wiring was fitted to the bodies while on dollies and before being lowered down from the floor above onto the waiting chassis below.

YD1/2611 as I pointed out in a prior post was the last Twin Cam produced by Abingdon (but not the world as Twin Cams were still being assembled in RSA from CKD kits a few years after this!) as a special favour in May 1960 for Ellman-Brown by John Thornley 6 weeks after production ended and can be seen in Making MG's in between American push-rod spec cars (white-wall tyres) on the production line. He even persuaded Thornley to record the whole process with photographs. One can pick up substantial info from these great pics as to what was painted black on the chassis and what was not - only for the purists at heart.

For Sale: 1 x original 'broom stick' bonnet prop circa 1957 - offers invited.
Peter Steyn

hi all with regards to the broom handles are they the ones with the pointed or rounded ends






only joking



gordon
g c pugh

We had a flying broomstick on my first Lightning Squadron in 1968. On one of the aircraft's first servicings following delivery from BAC, the engineers removed a jet pipe and found a broomstick, complete with head. The company went to some length to prove that they were not a broomstick deficient in their stock holdings!

More relevant though, we used to have short lengths of broomstick to prop the canopies open when the aircraft were sitting idle at 10 minutes alert. Otherwise, the canopy would slowly lower as the hydraulic pressure in the system dissipitated.

Steve
Steve Gyles

This thread was discussed between 22/02/2008 and 25/02/2008

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