Car body design summary
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This brought about the development of the closed cars or saloons as we know them today.
#Car body design summary driver#
Owing to the ever-increasing demand for private transport, competition increased between rival firms, and in consequence their body engineers began to incorporate features which added to the comfort of the driver and passengers.
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During the 1930s most of the large companies who manufactured motor vehicles adopted the use of metal for the complete construction of the body shell and motor cars began to be produced in even greater quantities. The real beginning of the all-steel body shell came in 1927, when presses became capable of producing a greater number of panels and in more complex shapes, this was the dawn of the mass production era. In about 1923 the first attempts were made to build all-steel bodies, but these were not satisfactory as the design principles used were similar to those which had been adopted for the timber-framed body. The frame and inner construction was still for the most part made of wood. Initially the sheets were not formed into complex shapes or contours, and the first bodies were very square and angular with few curves. Up to that time steel had been shaped by hand, but it was known that metal in large sheets could be shaped using simple die tools in presses and machine presses were introduced to the steel industry to form steel sheets into body panels. This form of construction allowed flexibility in the framing and made a very light and quiet body frame, but the outer covering had a very short life.Īs the demand for vehicles increased it became necessary to find a quicker method of production. The panelling was of fabric, first canvas, then a layer of wadding calico and finally a covering of leather cloth. Each joint in the shell and between the shell and the floor was made by a pair of steel plates, one on each side of the joint and bolted through both pieces of timber, leaving a slight gap between the two pieces. About 1921 the Weymann construction was introduced, in which the floor structure carried all the weight of the seating and the body shell, which was of very light construction, was attached to the floor unit. Some bodies were built with closed cabs and the tops were held in place by strips of wood bent to form a solid frame. The tops, on cars which had them, were of rubberized canvas or other fabrics. The panels were either cedar or Honduras mahogany about 9.5mm thick, glued, pinned or screwed to the framework.
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The frames were generally made from heavy ash, and the joints were reinforced by wrought iron brackets which were individually fitted. The first motor car bodies and chassis frames, made between 18, were similar in design to horse-drawn carriages and like the carriages were made almost entirely of wood.