Minor Traveller in production

Post by **Leo** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 11:11 am

Another of the British Leyland Photos that came with my recently aquired 1969 Traveller

Was the traveller produced at Cowley?

Leo

Post by **Leo** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 11:15 am

And another photo showing assembly of Traveller Body

Leo

Post by **alex_holden** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 11:24 am

Wow, very cool pictures. Keep them coming! It looks like there was a lot of skilled manual labour involved in the assembly.

Post by **dave1949** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 11:58 am

And another photo showing assembly of Traveller Body

Which shows the door handle vertical? was that the way they should be, have been told it was whoever fitted them at the time of assembly?

Post by **Orkney** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 12:36 pm

Ah but you dont know if it's locked / shut on the handle

Fantastic photos by the way !!!

Post by **dave1949** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 2:20 pm

Ah but you dont know if it's locked

British Leyland would def lock the door for security????

Post by **jonathon** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 3:35 pm

Aye, but the bloke in black is smoking, fag in left hand, good o'l health and safety

Post by **Kevin** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 5:30 pm

Which shows the door handle vertical? was that the way they should be,

I was always told that in the locked position it should be down as in the photo and horizontal when open as its the natural position to hold then handle when opening and closing the door, if it was the opposite the open position would be vertical with the handle up which is not a natural position to hold it when opening the door.
Great photo's by the way.

Post by **chrisw** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 9:49 pm

Seem to remember reading somewhere that some Travellers were made at Abingdon for a while - presumably the MG works? - and were preferred by the BMC dealers as being a better job? Can anyone confirm?

Post by **Leo** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 10:11 pm

Chris

Yes, my understanding is that Travellers were assembled at the Abingdon MG Works to compensate for the seasonal American export market demand for Sports Cars.
I used to go to the Annual MG Gathering in Abingdon and there were always Morris Travellers there.
I think it is fair to say that Abingdon assembled vehicles in general were thought to be of a better quality than those assembled at Cowley or Longbridge
The question we must ask is how do you tell where a particular Traveller was assembled, Abingdon, Cowley or Longbridge ?

Leo (South Oxfordshire)

Post by **Kevin** » Sun Dec 23, 2007 9:45 am

The question we must ask is how do you tell where a particular Traveller was assembled, Abingdon, Cowley or Longbridge ?

If there is such a thing only production records from the plant itself would reveal the answer to that but, its certainly an intriguing question.

Post by **paulhumphries** » Sun Dec 23, 2007 10:13 am

I love pictures like these.

An uncle used to work at Longbridge and I've heard numerous stories about poor quality in early 70's so wonder how Red Robbo's followers would have bodged up Minors of he's been active in 60's ?
One story was on the Mini production line the workers were either side of the car.
It wasn't uncommon for vehicles to be made with different items, like brakes, on either side !
The attitude was it's be sorted out by someone else further down the line.

Paul Humphries

Post by **Pyoor_Kate** » Sun Dec 23, 2007 10:43 am

I was chatting to a chap from the VVOC (he brought me a new engine, the star); and his friend worked at a dealership doing the pre delivery inspections. This friend sent back a HA / Beagle van near the end of their production run because it'd landed up with a brake disk on one side and a drum on t'other at the front.

Apparently it wasn't uncommon for their last vans to be fitted with completely random sets of parts, because it was cheaper to get the vans off the line in whatever state than to stop the line to fix a problem (like the unavailability of one particular part).

Post by **badfelafel** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 1:48 pm

Love those photos - thanks for sharing them