The new MGs are assembled from kits at Longbridge - are they proper MGs?

MG3s like MG6s are assembled at Longbridge from kits, so are they proper MGs?
Is the 1963 MGB a proper MG? 

[per May's "Safety Fast" - Roger Boys]

- Bodyshell: assembled at Pressed Steel, Swindon (later via Pressed Steel Cowley where painted)

- Assembly of bodyshell to sub-assemblies, painting, part trimmed, add windscreen and hood - Morris Bodies, Quainton Road, Coventry.

- Engines and transmissions: Longbridge

- Front hubs, assembled back axle: BMC Tractors and Transmissions, Ward End, Birmingham

- Carburettors/fuel pumps: SU

- Grille, radiator, oil cooler radiator, exhaust, petrol tank: BMC Radiators

- Roadster windscreen: Auster

- Wiring & lighting: Lucas

- Dials/ heaters: Smiths Industries

- Hood: Coventry Hood

- Locks/ body fittings: Wilmot Breeden

Plus some sub-assembly work on engines and suspensions at Abingdon.

- Final assembly: Abingdon!

With no containers and before motorways, moving these parts about may have been a bigger headache than today!

So what was done at Abingdon?

Sounds like it was more or less in running state when leaving Coventry

Did they just fit the badge?  




Doesn't sound a very profitable operation.

There is a set of photos here that show the painted, glazed and trimmed MGBs arriving at Abingdon to have the badges glued on ;o)

http://www.angelfire.com/ia3/mg/history.html - about half way down the page (I don't know how to upload the pics, sorry)

Magnette wrote:There is a set of photos here that show the painted, glazed and trimmed MGBs arriving at Abingdon to have the badges glued on ;o)

http://www.angelfire.com/ia3/mg/history.html - about half way down the page (I don't know how to upload the pics, sorry)

They appear to still need the already assembled axle assemblies to be fitted too:

Further to this, I have just been reading Don Hayter's book about the MGB. He states that the cars would arrive via transporter (as seen on that link) and then were loaded into the top floor of the assembly block where 'minor details' were added:

Once the bodies came off the transport lorries from Bodies Branch or Pressed Steel, they were mounted on running frames (called stillages) on a guided track on the top deck. On this sub-assembly line, seats were removed, to be refitted later, as were bonnet panels, numbered to be re-matched to the car after engine and exhaust installation. Heaters, wiring and lamps were fitted, and each body acquired a build sheet and number for production identification and records. Electrical hoists lowered the bodies onto an elevated build track that provided access to the underside of the cars so that the engine, exhaust, axle and springs could be installed. From here, once wheels and tyres were fitted, each car descended onto the guided track again, before standing for the first time on it's own wheels. Every car was pushed by hand through the next assembly stages, the slower operatives being encouraged by the cry "Push 'em up".

As I understand it, the MG6 'kit' comprises a painted, glazed and trimmed bodyshell, separate engine/gearbox assembly, separate bumpers, wheels and other minor additions (engine management/suspension parts?). Apart from removing the seats to refit later and the fact that the MG6 comes with the wiring in situ, it seems the same as the MGB except that the parts come from further away than Swindon!

I suppose the gripe is that the MG6 'kit' presumably comes from one location in China, whereas the parts for the MGB 'kit' came from half a dozen factories in the UK. But of course, sourcing components from half a dozen UK factories just to make one sports car in Abingdon goes a long way to explaining why BL used to lose so much money...