Back to my Rootes.

[mattblack]

Went to an antique fair at Ryton yesterday, and took the oppertunity to take some pics at the site of the old Rootes/Chrysler/Peugeot plant.

 

 

Nothing left now...

[garethj]

I went around the Ryton plant in about 1991 when I think they were making Peugeot 309s, I was in Coventry poly at the time doing Automotive Engineering so they organised the trip. There was plenty of evidence of Rootes stuff; things painted on the brickwork, old signs. The assembly line itself was very modern and seemed to have been crammed in around all the existing pillars in the factory.

 

I went back there in about 2001 when they were making (I think) the 206? The car was completely meh, but the assembly equipment was knockout. They weld the bodyshell together, then use hydraulic rams like a bodyshop repair to pull the whole thing straight to within 0.1mm. Yes, they get a welded fabricated assembly to a tolerance as good as a machined part.

 

The whole thing was designed ruthlessly for assembly, there were hardly any production operators around but the whole dashboard was put in through the door. The next time you're struggling to get at the heater matrix, just pull the whole dash out and do it outside. Even the handbrake cables were adjusted by robot.

[chaseracer]

Went to an antique fair at Ryton yesterday, and took the oppertunity to take some pics at the site of the old Rootes/Chrysler/Peugeot plant... Nothing left now...

 

Good to see the redevelopment is well under way...

 

http://www.motortrader.com/general-news ... velopment/

http://www.eds-ltd.co.uk/casestudy/10/p ... -coventry/

[Guest]

I went back there in about 2001 when they were making (I think) the 206? The car was completely meh, but the assembly equipment was knockout. They weld the bodyshell together, then use hydraulic rams like a bodyshop repair to pull the whole thing straight to within 0.1mm. Yes, they get a welded fabricated assembly to a tolerance as good as a machined part.

Unusual for them to have such high tolerances when the 206 always seems to have notably lousy panel fit - must be down to how they put the panels on rather than the bodyshell itself.

[garethj]

I went back there in about 2001 when they were making (I think) the 206? The car was completely meh, but the assembly equipment was knockout. They weld the bodyshell together, then use hydraulic rams like a bodyshop repair to pull the whole thing straight to within 0.1mm. Yes, they get a welded fabricated assembly to a tolerance as good as a machined part.

Unusual for them to have such high tolerances when the 206 always seems to have notably lousy panel fit - must be down to how they put the panels on rather than the bodyshell itself.

Dunno, it was the shell with wings on that was pulled straight, I suppose if the doors or bonnet were a bit parallelogram the panel fit would still be poor, but at least the car would track straight down the road.

[Guest]

Did it have a bonnet on? The gaps between the bonnet and wing seem to be the worst.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

As an aside, a breakers near me (Deatons, Stavely near Chesterfield) have got a rusty bronze '73 Sceptre in.

 

Ryton is now a Prologis site, which like every other Prologis site in the UK is a barren wasteland of rubble. Peugeot should have been persuaded to keep Ryton. It was a productive plant (unlike Jaguar Brown Lane) that made a lot of cars, a huge number of which were sold in the UK.

[garethj]

Did it have a bonnet on? The gaps between the bonnet and wing seem to be the worst.

Pretty sure it didn't, it was just the frame they were making sure was straight. However, full marks for the anal interest in panel gaps