The MSMT has assisted with the chronicling of the British coachbuilding industry, having previously supported histories of Freestone & Webb and Rippon Bros. We are pleased to announce the launch of the latest book Carbodies - A British Motor Industry Survivor, a well-illlustrated book which traces the history of the company from the period just post the First World War to 2018. Bill Munro has expanded his previous 1998 history to include the complete history of the company away from the Taxis that became their staple diet in later years.
Carbodies started out in 1921 as a typical coachbuilder, bodying a range of typical range of chassis such as Bentley, MG and Alvis. A feature of this period was the use of standard designs, adjusted to suit the dimensions of the chassis from various manufacturers. There followed a period where the company allied with major manufacturers for a substantial part of its output, starting in 1924 with MG and Alvis. When the vintage era ended, the production became more diverse with the major customers being Alvis (still), Rover and, from 1931, Rootes and Invicta, whilst Rolls-Royce and others also featured. From 1933, as fixed-head saloons began to outnumber the simpler tourer bodies, the emphasis moved to producers of volume such as Rootes and Standard, allied to a small output for Railton. In all cases Carbodies were always cautious about granting credit, which enabled them to avoid taking a loss when Alvis was reconstructed in the 1920s and was wise when dealing with marques like Railton which were woefully under-capitalised and liable to cashflow crises. It may have seemed counter-intuitive because the Rootes Group had owned Thrupp & Maberley since 1926, but they were left to produce the most popular models in bulk, with Carbodies concentrated on lower, but still substantial for an independent, production runs. By 1937, Carbodies had invested in the first of its large hydraulic presses.
Often, Carbodies would quote and win contracts for reasonable volume production of bodies originally designed and/or constructed by other coachbuilding companies. A reputation had been gained for keen pricing but at the cost of a poor image amongst the local workforce to the extent that many viewed as a choice of last resort employment. That said, many employees, once acclimatised to the “Carbodies way” stayed for many years.
During the Second World War, like so many other small and medium-sized companies, Carbodies turned itself to manufacturing a cornucopia of items to assist the war effort, from products near to their usual fare such as special bodies for vehicles through to aircraft parts for bombers. Many more hydraulic presses and other ,machine tools were acquired from the USA as part of Lend Lease programme and used to fulfil these orders for the war effort.
Immediately postwar, Carbodies utilised these large presses to make parts for drophead coupes for cars such as the Hillman Minx and Alvis TA14. The availability of the presses set Carbodies apart from most of their traditional coachbuilding rivals, enabling low volume production in numbers above their hand-built rivals. Later the construction method was revised so that rather than construct lower body panels identical to the factory offerings, a complete saloon body would be modified to produce a drophead coupe or convertible.
A second new direction began in 1948 with the contract to body the Austin FX3 Taxi, one of the few designs licensed to work in London. This was followed up in 1958 with its successor, the FX4, the shape thought of as THE London Cab.
Further drophead coupe versions of saloon cars such as the Austin A70 Hereford, Austin A40 Somerset and Ford Consul and Zephyr. The Fords illustrated the challenge in the postwar period facing all the remaining coachbuilders in that there was a rapidly reducing range of chassis available as all major manufacturers adopted unitary construction.
In 1954, Carbodies was bought by the BSA company and became the in-house coachbuilder for Daimler and the soon to be extinct Lanchester cars. These cars retained separate chassis but standard models carried the Carbodies output at a much more reasonable price than the output of other traditional coachbuilders.
By 1961, Carbodies had re-eastablished links with Rootes and made estate conversions of Humber Hawks, Suoer Snipes and Singer Vogue saloons. Two years later they did the same for the Triumph 2000.
In 1971 the FX4 became a wholly Carbodies produced item from chassis pressings to assembly. The collapse of BSA in 1973 led to the acquisition of Carbodies by Manganese Bronze Holdings. By 1982 the intellectual rights to the FX4 had been acquired from British Leyland and typical other work included convertible versions of the Ford Cortina MkV.
By 1997 the name Carbodies had been replaced by London Taxis International. The collapse of Manganese Bronze Holdings, caused by defective steering boxes halting deliveries of new cabs took place in 2012 and the company was bought by Geely of China. Electric cabs are now the staple products but like BMW Minis, their design nods to their predecessors, the FX4.
Bill Munro has been writing motoring books since 1998 when his first version of the Carbodies saga appeared. As a former London taxi driver he was an authority on all taxis but also wrote on subjects such as the Ferguson Four-Wheel drive developments. Unfortunately Bill passed away when this revise and much-expanded version of the Carbodies book was nearing completion. Fortunately his widow, Karen has been able to produce this book which is a fitting tribute to him.
