3300John:
the possibility of making jigs to press out cab parts are out of the question, i’d say a press to make a one piece roof for
what jennings would have needed would have cost millions just for the roof section, have you seen the size of the
press needed.MP would have had many presses going all the time. the press alone would weigh 70 to 80 tons before
each section would go through maybe 5 presses before say a door section was made. the presses dont cut the shape
and do all the bends in one operation. well they wasn’t in the late 60,s i don’t know about now where thinner metal is used.
maybe i was lucky to go round half a dozen car plants to see how body presses worked.we would do visits from the college.
i went to Vauxhall Ellesmere port first in late 1966 ive been to Vauxhall Luton.Fords at Hailwood. Cowley twice
and Rolls Royce Crewe twice
Of course they would not have presses (these would have been at Motor Panels) but, if they were assembling cabs, they would have had jigs and fixtures to hold the bits in place for spotwelding. They would have built a few batches of cabs to prove the process, before starting production. However, knowing ERF, any half decent prototype/pre-production assemblies would have found their way onto customer vehicles. 