Awstin or Ostin

Horace Batchelor on Radio Luxembourg. If he was that good at football pools,why wasn't he winning a big prize every week?

That's the one ! Thank you for the refresh.
DaveD

It's Ostin, Mater and Pater taught you wrong loike.

The posh can't saw R so it was Wovers

You bunch of silly hyggers.

N.

I wonder how the Texans call their Austin?

Mike

Michael,

Thanks for the link to austinmemories. I've often wondered what Longbridge was like, thanks to that excellent website I now know from start to finish!

Peter

You might even remember "Oil give it Foive", with a good memory.

Pete

Janice!

When we lived near Oxford many years ago (large BL factory), we all called them 'Rustins'

On that note, I always thought at the time that the Wover 2000 bonnets were made of aluminium, but I can clearly remember seeing hundreds of them stacked on end in the Pressed Steel Fisher yard, and every one was a beautiful delicate shade of reddish orange. At first we thought it was paint or some sort of treatment, but close up, it was a nice smooth coat of surface rust.

I would be surprised that Austin's export drive had been so apparently successful as to reach Texas.....
DaveD

I worked with a bloke from Nottingham, and he was always going to the caastle for a baath, whereas I went to the carsle for a barth.

Although the Rover 2000 body was made in Cowley it was shipped out of the plant without skin panels or bolt on parts like bonnet, boot and doors. The Rolls Royce body shell built at Cowley did have aluminium bolt on panels. In the early 70s body shells were sometimes stored outside but were sprayed with protective oil and only for a short period. Panels stored outside in the manner you describe were probably scrap, they certainly were in the condition mentioned. Rust was not kind to any cars until the introduction of zinc coated materials suitable for the fine finish required for skin panels, standard galvanising is not suitable for this task. Cars these days will easily reach 20 years old without significant corrosion damage, cars are probably scrapped these days for emission failures more than rust.

Mike

.

**LINK**

https://www.tourtexas.com/texas-maps/interactive-map-austin

MichaelG.

Electronic issues and indecipherable fault codes are common too.

Although not a native I have lived in Brum for nearly 40 years - now only a few minutes away from Longbridge, and you can split the ages of people who worked there into those who worked 'up the Austin' those younger who worked 'up Longbridge' and the youngest who worked 'up the Rover' (although even that was nearly15 years ago ....)

The Rover Car Co in Solihull was always referred to as 'Rovers' - note the s and more recently as 'Land Rover' before becoming part of JLR.

A friend who held many very senior posts in the motor industry was once a shift supervisor at the Chester Road works of Fisher and Ludlow (which became part of Pressed Steel Fisher, but the works itself is now a Jaguar body plant) Ron claims that in the late 1950s the first prototype Mini was given to him 'in white' ie bare metal and told to get it fettled up ready for dispatch to Longbridge in the morning. After it was completed he sent a note to his boss saying that if this is what motor manufacturing was coming to, he was in the wrong profession!

Anyone interested in the history should try and get hold of the books 'Making Cars at Longbridge' by Bardsley & Corke and 'Making Cars at Cowley' by Bardsley and Laing.

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 01/10/2020 19:58:36

Thank you MichaelG, I was aware of Austin.TX through following the exploits of a car restorers/reformers outfit at Johnson City, Austin.TX. My comment was a wordplay and probably unkind dig at Austin/UK's export drive.
DaveD

As a Rover 2000 owner I can confirm that they do have aluminium boot lids and bonnets and, in fact, all the body panels are bolt-on.

Richard

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Sorry for taking your words literally, Dave

MichaelG.

Oil give it foive! Does nobody remember Janice from 'Juke Box Jury'?