Friends' Gallery Picture of the Month - March 2022

[Mike Costigan]

Aah! Well spotted, Robert. That makes sense - so this will be in the Longbridge body shop before the complete assembly was united with the rolling chassis.

[Tony Press]

I can't recall a 2 piece windscreen on an Australian built seven,  and have associated the swaged waistline as a feature of the Holden built Austin bodies but not other local coachbuilders. 
Happy to be shown otherwise.

As far as I am aware all Australian Chummy bodies had an angled one piece windscreen and as Russell notes mainly Holden bodies had the swage, although I believe they supplied Melbourne Motor Body and possibly others with panels.

[squeak]

Tony I have examples 27, 28, 29 with vertical windscreen pillars (no slope) and lamp brackets attached. The 29 car has gloveboxes as well.
  austin roadster holden body.JPG (Size: 60.01 KB / Downloads: 191)

[Tony Press]

Both 1928 Chummys with lamp brackets here have angled screens and from memory two Holden coupes as well so I don't know.

[Tony Griffiths]

If you look closely Mike you will see they are on trestles and not fitted to a chassis. Like other photos I've seen the body is fitted out and dropped onto a running chassis.

I was just about to make that point myself. Note the factory roof - it's a rather lightweight structure - and the mezzanine floor. Do we have any more picture of the interior of the Austin works to compare it with?

[Ian Wegg]

The thing that struck me was how young most of the workers appear to be. People in pre-war photos normally look about 25 years older than they actually are so this bunch must be in their early teens.

I mentioned earlier that the image appears in a book about the American motor industry. I have found a review of the book on this Danish website: https://viaretro.dk/2015/02/boghjoernet-...mbly-line/



Google translates the caption as: "The British wanted tea breaks and small cars. It did not suit Ford, so therefore Austin Seven had good sales."