Does anyone have details on the changeover from pop riveted to spot welded?

I have seen a couple of untouched 1966 and 1967 cars with the angle brace pop riveted. The first car with the angle brace was 1344 so I assume this is when the pop rivets started.

Car 1741 has the rivets


Car 3400 has the rivets.


The car in the 1968 brochure also has rivets.

Makes me wonder now when i got my 67 the guy removed brace i spot welded mine back in thinking rhat was correct

Mine is 2228 and it's riveted.

Mine is 2513 and is spot welded.

Edit: it also has what appears to be a couple of rivet sized holes partly covered by the spot welds but only 1 top and 1 bottom that I can see? It is the original panel.
Cheers
Rod

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1967 New British Racing Green Mk1 Cooper S, 1967 Lake Green 1275 MG Midget, 1969 Jet Red / Crystal White Mk2 Cooper S, 1972 Gambier Turquoise Clubman GT (ex police), 1972 Camino Gold Clubman GT, 2009 JCW Challenge Edition, Megane RS265, Clio RS220.

4026 is riveted. But it was a race car and had a hard life.

For what it's worth, this is what the BMC engineering documentation says about the Australian Cooper S grille panel assembly and the brace.

The Australian version of the front panel assembly (part #HYA3984) was released into production on 26/4/66 with pop-rivets specified to attach the brace (part #HYB1269). Presumably the UK pressed front panel was used prior to that date.

On 27/3/68 an amendment to delete the pop-rivets and add spot welds was released into production. A bit later on 15/7/68 the specification for the brace itself was amended to delete the four holes previously used for the pop-rivets.

Below is the full drawing, but I've also shown an exploded view of the drawing legend showing the various changes (change 3 is the one we are talking about here), and a view of the bottom attachment of the brace where you can see the number 3 in a circle next to the comments.

A circled number is used throughout engineering drawings to help locate the change referenced in the legend. You can also see the location of changes 4, 5, 7 and 9 in this view.

Let the debate begin on what actually happened in practice.

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ex-NSW Police 1970 MK II Cooper S
VMCI #43

4612 was definitely spot welded.

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John Sneddon
0408 431 807
1963 Morris Cooper
1965 Morris 850
1968 Morris Cooper S

Car 3765 pop riveted.

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1965 MK1 English Morris Cooper S (Downton)
1967 MK1 Morris Cooper S
1972 Clubman GT (6/72 Cadiz)
1968 MG Midget

We need gtogreen1969 to put some car numbers against the dates referenced in the drawings.

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ex-NSW Police 1970 MK II Cooper S
VMCI #43

4801 spot welded


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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68 Morris Cooper S Mk1 (*ex 78 1275 LS 4th last built, 70 Morris 1500 OHC & 70 MiniMatic)

3139 is pop riveted , late 1967 car

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1965 Morris 850
1966 Morris Mini Minor
1967 Morris Cooper 'S'
1977 Leyland LS

Thankyou very much for all the replies. This is not as simple as I thought it would be. I have studied hundreds of photos and still don't have an exact changeover point.

What I can say is most of the cars that have been through a full restoration or had their angle brace or front panel replaced are now spot welded.

The majority of unrestored cars prior to Apr 68 have pop rivets and the majority of unrestored cars after Apr 68 are spot welded.

Looking at Doug's factory documents I would not be surprised if the changeover was around the same time as the wiper change in Apr 68 at car 4028.

Great information in this thread and such a good question gtogreen1969.

4825 is spot welded

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68 build Mk1 Cooper S
72 Clubman GT project. Total restoration required

It may be around the same time as the revised wiper arrangement but I wouldn't specifically link the two changes. My understanding is that running changes were made once the item had been through the approval process, documented in drawings and released into production. They didn't group unrelated changes together so they could be released in a 'package', as happens in computer software development, for example.

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ex-NSW Police 1970 MK II Cooper S
VMCI #43