Back in the day when BMC / Leyland cars were being assembled, was it common place for bare metal panels to be written on?

I recently had some panels paint stripped by Sodablast. This is a unique method of paint removal because it does absolutely NOTHING to the metal surface (ie: it is not abrasive). When the paint was removed there were 2 panels that clearly had writing on them. It appears that the panels were written on in a bare metal state.

I am curious to know why this would have been done, and what the markings might mean?


The inside of the drivers door has this on it. It clearly looks like the number 6.



On the passenger side, where the door hinges bolt to the A panel, is the word BUFF, clearly written onto the bare metal shell, most likely when it was progressing down the production line in Zetland, Sydney.



Whatever was used to write these numbers / words seems to have etched the bare metal, leaving this evidence to be discovered 35 years later.

If I sanded by hand, used paint stripper or used some form of grit blasting, this would never have been seen again.

Anyone with some inside knowledge know what this means?

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Website: www.justanothermini.com

Very interesting, cant wait to find out some answers.....?

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http://www.youtube.com/user/Hanras

These guys may be able to help

http://www.technispec.com/bmc/people/reunion.htm

Interesting website

http://www.technispec.com/bmc/index2.htm

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One should never skimp on the zip ties.

yea.....but remember, some of those guys are 80 odd years old now.

My trimmer is exBMC and he reckons some of those old blokes can't even remember their names, let alone what they did to cars on the assembly line!

I have been invited to the Heritage Group annual get together this year.

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Website: www.justanothermini.com

I had a christmas holiday job from school with BMC at Zetland in 1963/64 on the assmebly line.

The scribbles were done by quality control and commented on a number of different things. Mostly it just gave a performance report on a particular section as the cars were almost never revisited.

Gotta say that many of the BMC staff were demetia inflicted staff of eighty even back then.

I'll ask Mr Foy

Steve

hey anton do you mind me asking how much it was to get the soda blast treatment on your mini?

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real men race downhill - keiichi tsuchiya

Cheers Mike. I had a feeling it was something like that.

I assume "BUFF" might have refered to a blemish in the metal that was noted on the line. Someone probably then buffed it out / off further down the line?



I think Sodablast will charge somewhere between $500 - $700 to do a Mini, but I can't be sure. It's best to call them direct and ask the question.

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Website: www.justanothermini.com

I had a quote to strip the exterior where they come over and blast it at your place. $400 per 1 hour and they reckon they can do a mini's exterior in less than an hour.

That story checks out with a guy here at work, who used to work in the body and panels area of BMC/ Leyland. The parts would be randomly pulled off a line and sent down the other end of the factory for checking. To stop a build up of parts they would usually find their way back to the assembly line to go in a car.

The writing unfortunately will not point you in the direction of buried treasure, or better yet, original NOS GT parts. It'd merely whatever necessary scribble was needed to identify where it came from or where it will go.

Interesting find though.

We paint stripped the radiator support-panel of the XW Falcon that would later become my mum's car - The body of the car itself was not a GS, nor a GT, but in the same fashion of Anton's car, had 'GT' clearly written on the panelwork.

The things you see when restoring a car... Along with 46 seperate kill switches in the loom, all installed by different owners

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Cheap, Fast, Reliable. Choose two.

I remember reading a story on the last Chrysler built in Australia, as it made its way down the production line a worker with a welder wrote "last barstard [sic]" in the boot of the car.

I've tried to Google this but no luck. I did stumble across this though..

http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collect ... ni&images=

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One should never skimp on the zip ties.

Was that Donna Elliot's car ?????

Don't think so, hers was a `69 I think, it now belongs to a mate- a member on here. The colour is aubergine. As it was originally, and is still stated on its paint code sticker.

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.