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MG TD TF 1500 - Abingdon factory 1950 Film clips


Some of you have seen this archive film clip of the TD being made in the 1950's

It shows just how grim factory conditions were in the 1950's and how roughly the cars were handled and how crude the assembly process was.

Glamorous it was not

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/mg-factory-abingdon

Also check this video - claimed to be c1948 - but of course since the car featured is a TD it cannot be 1948

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/safety-fast
R Coyte

On the second video it shows that the early TD's had the open notched crank hole radiator shell along with solid wheels. Then later it shows 5500 RPM and approximately 85 MPH.
Is there a reasonable firm date or serial number for the shell change?
Sandy
DARNOC31

Pausing the movie and reading the images at around 04:13 in the movie show that the car is consistently doing just about 15 mph per 1000 rpm. Probably within accepted error, or it's not a car straight off of the assembly line. Larger tires? 4.875 rear end? Bud
Bud Krueger

Never saw these.

MUST HAVE
Chris Couper

In the close up of the dash the Rexine seems to have a pebbled texture..........
J K Barter

These videos are great. I've seen them before and it truly helped me understand how these MG's were built. This is not your Henry Ford assembly line for sure.... Ford used a moving mechanical conveyor belt to move cars along for the workers to assemble parts... MG Factory used the workers to move the cars along the assembly line and to also assemble the parts...

Suggest to view video stills for a more clear picture than pausing the video. The only distraction is the picture size and text in the picture. You can see pictures of the main wire harness with the yellow tracer and the cad plated emergency brake loosely hanging ready for install before the tub is lowered. It looks to me all the parts were painted first then assembled and later touch up brush with black paint the exposed bolts. Would be cool if shot of a stencil could be seen. I wonder when the fuel line was installed? Before or after the tub is lowered. I can't seem to see it these video stills.

Check out the Paris Motor Show 1952 near the end of the clip. A nice TD being checked out by a potential lady buyer with WW tires...

Frank Cronin

Never get tired of looking at these. Freezing the right part we can see the dynamo pulley in (I presume) engine red. The black wheels on the transporter will possibly be for Australian exports where the new cars had to have local tyres, so slave wheels would have been fitted.

Matthew.
M Magilton

Well Frank, I looked and looked but couldn't see a lady with WW tyres!
Don TF 4887
DJ Walker

My bad.... terrible sentence composition .....

:40 into this clip.

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/the-paris-motor-show
Frank Cronin

I never get tired of hearing "These little wizards on wheels"!
David Sheward

Hi Gang;

I am puzzled. If one will look at the second video, around the 2:35 minute mark, you will see the windshield wipers moving. The wiper speed appears much faster than the ones on my car, in fact they seem to be almost usable. Is this just an illusion or am I missing something? I know that it rains where you live but here in Florida it RAINS and I use Rain-X for the rain and the wipers for show and tell due to their poor effectiveness.

Dick 52MGTD 20102
Safety Fast
Richard McCutcheon

That's about the right speed. Is your wiper motor filled with old stiff grease?
Chris Couper

Dick,
The weakest part on the wiper motor is the shunt winding on the armature. If the motor is stalled because of old or insufficient grease, this causes the shunt winding to burn up. When that winding is no longer in the circuit, the motor will run much slower. Many of the wipers I have seen have this winding burned and broken. Rewinding the armature with a proper shunt winding in addition to the main winding is the only real solution.
This is in addition to the proper lubrication, of course.
Lew Palmer

And not a torque wrench in sight! Just by 'feel'.
Dave Braun

I also saw the wiper Lew, any instructions on how to rewind the motor?

I also was interested in that the first video shows TD's with black (or dark as the movie is black and white) rima. In the second video, the car has white (or silver?) rims. The oil marks on the floor in the second are exactly the same as in the first video. So I am assuming these two movies are about the same time. The cars on the transport that he goes by (cars from the first video?) have black rims.

I also note the car has chrome headlights. So that should resolve that issue.
Bruce Cunha

This thread was discussed between 02/09/2013 and 09/09/2013

MG TD TF 1500 index

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