Hi Guest!
Hey - did you know if you click on the title of a thread it will take you to the first unread post since you last visited that thread?
but were afraid to ask: 
STOP!! Never post your email address in open forums. Bots can "harvest" your email! If you must share your email use a Private Message or use the 
smilie in place of the real @
Pretty Please - add it to our Events forum(s) and add to the calendar! >> 
5
57_BN4
Guest
Guest
Offline
How austin-healeys are assembled
Today I found an interesting article on how sports cars were built in 1957 from Motor Sport magazine so I OCR'd it here for anyone else interested.
"The Austin-Healey assembly line is quite a short one, because the bodies are supplied complete with seats, etc. After the power unit and suspension units have been assembled the cars go up a ramp for under-chassis pipework, greasing, brake-bleeding, etc., to be completed from a pit, after which they come back to floor level for the fitting of gearbox tunnel cover, carpets (which are then rolled up and stowed in the boot until needed for final fitting) and a slave seat for the use of the test driver. Every wheel is statically balanced on a Weaver balancing machine. Dunlop supply all the wheels, which are painted by Austin, and the “ Road Speed ” tyres, which arrive at the assembly line on overhead conveyors.
A skilled electrician who has been with Austin for some 35 years checks all electrical wiring on the car before the completed Austin-Healey is supplied with petrol, oil and water and taken to a bay where the engine is run slowly while carburetter adjustments are made, after which it leaves for a brief road-test. If the car is found to be generally satisfactory it is taken by a girl driver round the shop to another bay, any further adjustments required are carried out and the carpets and seats are fitted, any blemishes both exterior and under the bonnet are attended to, spanner marks removed from pipe unions, underbonnet flaws rectified by hand painting and the fan shield painted red, etc. A further road-test is then undertaken by a different test driver. Each Austin-Healey then goes to the rectification bay, in a corner of the latest vast assembly hall, and a very careful inspection is carried out."
Andy.
Today I found an interesting article on how sports cars were built in 1957 from Motor Sport magazine so I OCR'd it here for anyone else interested.
"The Austin-Healey assembly line is quite a short one, because the bodies are supplied complete with seats, etc. After the power unit and suspension units have been assembled the cars go up a ramp for under-chassis pipework, greasing, brake-bleeding, etc., to be completed from a pit, after which they come back to floor level for the fitting of gearbox tunnel cover, carpets (which are then rolled up and stowed in the boot until needed for final fitting) and a slave seat for the use of the test driver. Every wheel is statically balanced on a Weaver balancing machine. Dunlop supply all the wheels, which are painted by Austin, and the “ Road Speed ” tyres, which arrive at the assembly line on overhead conveyors.
A skilled electrician who has been with Austin for some 35 years checks all electrical wiring on the car before the completed Austin-Healey is supplied with petrol, oil and water and taken to a bay where the engine is run slowly while carburetter adjustments are made, after which it leaves for a brief road-test. If the car is found to be generally satisfactory it is taken by a girl driver round the shop to another bay, any further adjustments required are carried out and the carpets and seats are fitted, any blemishes both exterior and under the bonnet are attended to, spanner marks removed from pipe unions, underbonnet flaws rectified by hand painting and the fan shield painted red, etc. A further road-test is then undertaken by a different test driver. Each Austin-Healey then goes to the rectification bay, in a corner of the latest vast assembly hall, and a very careful inspection is carried out."
Andy.
Last edited:
