FORD SERVICE IN LONDON.
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A Short Description of the Huge Service Depot at Hammersmith.
ONEOF THE largest Ford service defeits in the world, and certainly the largest in Britain, is that run by International Motors Ltd. at Brook Green-, Hammersmith, W.
This huge depot was built during the war by the Ford Co., but, as they subsequently decided that their policy would be to sell wholesale to their agents, they disposed of the building to the company in whose possession it now remains. It is a fine building, constructed entirely of reinforced concrete in the most modern style. It has a frontage of 220 ft. and a aepth of 120 ft., and covers just over half an acre, its three floors thus giving over
acre total floor space. It is conveniently situated close to the Great Western Railway and has'a large loading and unloading dock, with a branch line se that trucks can be brought right up to the dock.
The company undertake a very large number of repairs and overhauls. At present, a complete overhaul takes seven days, but ii. is hoped shortly to reduce this time to between three and four days when the top shop is freed from its preserit work of -overhauling returned Army Fords.
The company are, of course, agents in a large way, apart from giving service, their territory comprising a circle of 30 miles diameter with the Guildhall as centre, and they keep in their capacious stores an enormous quantity of Ford spare parts, of all descriptions, and suitable for all the Ford models. The ground floor is given over to chassis repairs and overhauls, a special section dealing with radiators, which, after repair, are tested under water by the use of compressed air. Very little machinery is required to deal with the repair or overhaul of a Ford chassis, but what there is is good. One of the machines is for boring cylinders, whilst the others are chiefly lathes and drilling machines.
A separate shop is now under construction for dealing with the Ford electrical equipment, and here the company will !lo all electrical repairs, including lead burn. ing. This work is already in hand, but on a small scale only. Each generator is run by an electric motor and tested for output, and the coils are tested on special machine which consists of a standard Ford flywheel dynamo running at 150 r.p.m. and provided with a pointer which rotates with the flywheel shaft and sparks from its end to an earth connected metal circle, round the interior cf which it runs. A rernagnetizer, somewhat similar to those used for hightension magneto magnets, is employed
for the low-tension generator magnets.
As is well known, the main crankshaft bearings on the Ford chassis are formed by running white metal directly into suitably shaped receptacles in the crankcase casting; this makes a very quick job. After remetalling, the engines are run in for, from two to five minutes, by art electric motor. In order to perform two 'useful' tasks at once, the crankshaft to 'be run in is often coupled to a complete engine which requires running in under its own power ; when this is done the electric motor is merely used for starting the finished engine, which then runs itself in and, at the same time, runs in the crankshaft main bearings on the partially-finished engine to which it is coupled.
On the second floor we found a considerable number of returned Army cars, which have been bought by the company, umlergeing renovation. When the work is finished, th-is floor will be devoted to the overhaul of cars for customers.
A speciality is made of that branch of service dealing with the inspection of vehicles for customers.
The repair orders are made out in. triplicate; one copy goes to the shop, one to the office of the foreman's clerks, and one to the general office for the costing clerks. The works foreman draws out, on a requisition, any spares and material required on each repair order, and that requisition goes from the stores to the work's clerks; who enter the details on their copy of the order. From them it goes to the cost clerks, who de the same and also enter the prices. The requisitions finally go to the stock-card clerks.
Cash payments are the passwords which enable the company to do the work at comparatiyely low rates, as costly accounting charges are done away with to a great extent and the company is not troubled with bad debts, which are bound to occur when ,business is conducted on a credit basis.
The Service Department also -deals with all claims made under the guarantee.
Neat eteel bins and sheet-steel-covered counters are employed in the stores, where a huge stock' of parts is always kept..