From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Various car body construction methods, including pressed steel and observations at Mulliners Works.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 117\1\ scan0162 | |
| Date | 4th November 1937 | |
| -2- and state they take care to avoid any trouble in their present method of manufacture. Naturally, in any case, there seems to be some sort of press-ing necessary to carry the various items which we at present hang on the dash. (b) Pressed steel construction reinforced with wood. This is the way in which the present Daimler body, which was projected by Green, was being made. In this case, pressings are obtained for the bottom, sides, the back panel, the centre door pillar, etc., and fastened together in a jig but are reinforced with a wooden frame which serves to take a certain amount of the stress. This was giving a great deal of trouble because the pressings were very bad. We saw about 10 to 15 types of bodies in construction at Mulliners Works, including Daimler, Lanchester, Alvis, Standard, Austin, Humber and Hillman. The firm seems to be entirely capable of undertaking big production. They have, of course, recently taken control of a Company which produces panels and small pressings. At present they have about 1,000 employees. Mr. Antweiler took us out in his 25/30 Rolls-Royce, fitted with a Mulliner body, which seemed a reasonably good job. We know that Mr. Harrison of Birmingham, one of our most particular customers, has had a long series of Mulliners bodies, and has seemed quite satisfied with them. The attached experimental report shows our experience with the last Mulliner body we had. One naturally has a horror of wood screws, which of course, play a large part in the Mulliner type of construction, and everyone would like to have an all-steel body. It is necessary to remember, however, that 90% of the bodies fitted to our chassis at the present moment, for which the customer is paying £400 upwards, are probably inferior in general performance to the Mulliner composite body. We have to take Green over to Park Ward's before we can say that we have explored all the possibilities of bodies for the Bentley 50. | ||