"Use the Best Material for the Job"
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HAVE read with considerable interest your leading I article in the January 19 issue of The Commercial Motor, "Alloy Reminder," and as a practical commercial motor body designer I should like to add a few thoughts on this subject.
The problems facing a commercial vehicle body designer are complex in most cases, to say the least, weight, shape and price being but a few items to contend with— and all this often for a " one-off " job.
This, in my opinion, means that a really good bodybuilder cannot rely on one basic raw material alone for his, productions. Since the war, aluminium alloys have been put over in a big way to bodybuilders and operators alike and this, coming at a time when more conventional materials were both difficult to obtain and of poor quality, gave everything else an aged, old-fashioned look. I well remember some eight years ago when I was first setting out to carry on the good name my father had striven for 40 years to build up (I was then, a mere 23) being at a meeting addressed by a well-known bodybuilder who was turning over completely to alloy bodywork. ." Take my advice, son, and turn to alloy, or else in 10 years' time you will be out," he said.
I went home rather depressed and worried and the next day consulted my father on this subject. His advice has since proved invaluable. "No one material alone will ever satisfy every requirement in this complex industry; use the material you think best suited to the job in its correct place, often mixing alloy, steel, glass-fibre and timber together in one job to get the best possible effect from each, and you can then call yourself a real bodybuilder," he said.
This I have striven to do and ironically enough I have since trebled the size of my business which is quite the reverse to my older adviser. Please do not think I am "anti-alloy," quite the contrary, in fact, since I use many tons of aluminium and aluminium alloy every year, but I still appreciate that steel and timber have many applications and will continue to have for many years ahead.
Timber, the right timber, treated with preservative and properly jointed and glued with the modern resin glues is still unbeatable for shaped work and van sides and roof framework.
Steel has many applications owing to its strength, versatility and easy fabricating qualities and is, in my opinion, the ideal underframe material. I may be wrong, time alone will tell, but one very significant sign during the past year is that both the leading exponents of alloyonly bodywork have bought themselves back a stake ia conventional bodywork. Could it be that they appreciate that a good bodybuilder needs a broader outlook?
Saffron Walden, Essex. T. E. OSBORNE.