At the end of 2007 we were kindly invited up to the British Motor Heritage centre in Witney scheduled for the end of January. As luck would have it, this nicely coincided with the latest build of Mini Bodyshells.

Having donned our safety glasses our tour began. Anyone at this point that had visions of an automated production line, with robots and machines doing most of the work was going to be disappointed. On entering the production facility, we were immediately struck by how many jigs and tools are there in order to produce the Mini panels, and subsequently the shells. The first product being put together was a Late Mini wing, as shown in the picture below.

Three component pieces are located precisely and clamped onto a jig, so that the pieces can be welded together. From there we moved on where the mini front ends are put together. The front end comprises of all panel work that is welded on from the windscreen scuttle forwards. As before, component parts are held onto a jig, and components are then welded into place. Similarly the floor, rear seats, boot floor and rear valance are also welded together as its own subsection of the shell, also shown in the below pictures. With the subsections complete, these are then mounted together and then welded in place. At each stage these parts are moved by hand, mounted on a jig to hold them in the correct place, and welded. Once the bare shell is completed, the shell is moved into its final assembly stage, where the bolt on part’s are added.

Once door’s, boot and bonnet are added the shell is then checked for minor imperfections, any found are then corrected. Once completed, shells are stored until enough are ready to send to get their primer coat. It is impressive to think that Mini shells can be made by a skilled workforce of 14 people, producing 4 shells per week, using all the original equipment and jigs from the original Longbridge production line. One Mini shell takes 5 days to produce from start to finish, from picking the 542 core components to the final finish. With a build schedule of 30 Mini shells, this effectively ties up the production facility for a full month. And this is just with one marque! MGB, MGBGT, Sprite and Midget builds are also done in the facility. Production of shells is put in between producing of stock panel work for each marque to supply to the various Heritage specialists.

With our visit came a greater understanding of the process involved in building shells, and much more appreciation for the hard work that goes to keeping these classic marques on the road. Related Part Numbers:
BMP343
AAA36002
AAA360210
CZH594