Doesn't the TR6 have a seperate body and chassis? At any rate, BMIHT make
TR6 bodies and deliver them on a transportation 'chassis', presumably
Pressed Steel or whoever could have done, if not actually did, the same.
I do remember reading something about soft-die tooling somewhere in the MG
story, but wouldn't it have been a bit early for the MGB? The special deal
I seem to remember was a higher unit price in return for lower start-up
costs. It was the only way they could get enough funding I think.
PaulH.
----- Original Message -----
From: <MGMagnette@aol.com>
To: <nagyt@stargate.duq.edu>; <mgs@autox.team.net>
Sent: Wednesday, December 22, 1999 6:37 PM
Subject: Re: Why unibody?
> I'm going to suggest that the way MG assembled the MGB had a lot to do
with
> the choice of a unibody. This might be a chicken before the egg idea, but
if
> MG had made MGs with chassis... where the traditional assembly order is
> chassis, running gear, body... then they would not have been able to have
> ready painted and assembled shells delivered from Pressed Steel to which
they
> later added the running gear. Just an idea, because I guess the Abingdon
> plant was too small tohave a paint plant and a body assembly area and what
> not.
> My second idea is that the stunning Frua MGA-replacement, which was
built
> on a chassis and noted in books as being VERY HEAVY, lead them to think
about
> unibodies to save weight.
> Also, BMC was really into unibodies at that time.
> Was there some strange deal between Pressed Steel and MG over an MG
that
> the tooling was "soft die" or something like that, and there was a deal
where
> MG had to pay for this cheaper experimental soft die tooling but if it
ended
> up not wroking, PRessed Steel would re-tool in normal body dies... and
the
> soft dies didnt' make it through the first pressing or something like that
so
> MG got real tooling on-the-cheap... So maybe PRessed Steel was trying to
make
> the MGB a show car for thier talents and urged a modern monocoque shell?
Was
> the MGB that car? I might be mixed up.
>
> Just a few ideas...
>
> John Elwood
> Visit The World's Greatest Site Devoted to Farina Magnettes:
> http://www.mgcars.org.uk/farina
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