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34-536: Jakab Industries was an Australian coachbuilder in Tamworth, New South Wales . Jakab Industries built its first bus body in July 1973, a Ford R226 . It mainly made bodies for buses for the defence forces, but also built some for commercial operators, before withdrawing from the market in late 1995. It also built bodies for ambulances and postal vans. In the 1990s it also overhauled Mercedes-Benz and Scania buses for

68-571: A booming company, leading to probably the entire output going to them and eventual close financial and corporate links between the two. Mulliners was taken over by Calthorpe Motor Company in 1917. After Calthorpe failed in 1924, the managing director of Mulliners, Louis Antweiler, who was also on the Calthorpe managing board, arranged to buy the coachbuilding company which he renamed Mulliners Limited. He obtained contracts with Clyno and Austin for whom he made many Weymann style fabric bodies for

102-501: A chassis. The same body design might then be adjusted to suit different brands of chassis. Examples include Salmons & Sons ' Tickford bodies with a patent device to raise or lower a convertible's roof, first used on their 19th-century carriages, or Wingham convertible bodies by Martin Walter . Separate coachbuilt bodies became obsolete when vehicle manufacturers found they could no longer meet their customers' demands by relying on

136-760: A coarser kind. From the beginning of the automobile industry manufacturers offered complete cars assembled in their own factories commonly using entire bodies made by specialist people using different skills. Soon after the start of the twentieth century mass production coachbuilders developed such as Mulliners or Pressed Steel in Great Britain, Fisher Body , Budd , Briggs in the U. S., or Ambi-Budd in Germany. Many other big businesses remain involved. Many coachbuilt chassis would come with all lights, standard instruments and their panel, engine cover, mudguards and running boards and spare wheel(s) There remained

170-443: A market for bodies to fit low production, short-run and luxury cars. Custom or bespoke bodies were made and fitted to another manufacturer's rolling chassis by the craftsmen who had previously built bodies for horse-drawn carriages. Bespoke bodies are made of hand-shaped sheet metal, often aluminum alloy. Pressed or hand-shaped the metal panels were fastened to a wooden frame of particularly light but strong types of wood. Later many of

204-649: A rolling chassis provided by an independent manufacturer. A 'conversion' is built inside an existing vehicle body. Many renowned automotive coachbuilders are based in Italy and France . In the Italian language , a coachbuilding company is called a carrozzeria , while in the French language it is called a carrosserie . A British trade association the Worshipful Company of Coachmakers and Coach Harness Makers

238-411: A shell or even reduced to an air intake, was or held the visual element identifying the chassis' brand. To let car manufacturers maintain some level of control over the final product their warranties could be voided if coachbuilders fitted unapproved bodies. As well as bespoke bodies the same coachbuilders also made short runs of more-or-less identical bodies to the order of dealers or the manufacturer of

272-504: A simple separate chassis (on which a custom or bespoke body could be built) mounted on leaf springs on beam axles . Unibody or monocoque combined chassis and body structures became standardised during the middle years of the 20th century to provide the rigidity required by improved suspension systems without incurring the heavy weight, and consequent fuel penalty of a truly rigid separate chassis. The improved more supple suspension systems gave vehicles better road-holding and much improved

306-496: Is a person or company who manufactures bodies for passenger-carrying vehicles. Coachwork is the body of an automobile , bus , horse-drawn carriage , or railway carriage . The word "coach" was derived from the Hungarian town of Kocs . A vehicle body constructed by a coachbuilder may be called a "coachbuilt body" ( British English ) or "custom body" ( American English ). Prior to the popularization of unibody construction in

340-500: Is of paramount importance. The advent of unibody construction, where the car body is unified with and structurally integral to the chassis, made custom coachbuilding uneconomic. Many coachbuilders closed down, were bought by manufacturers, or changed their core business to other activities: Mulliners (Birmingham) A Northampton coach building family founded this business in Leamington Spa for

374-452: The Austin 7 . When the fashion for fabric bodies declined, the business with Austin went but was replaced by orders from Hillman , Humber , Standard and Lanchester . In 1929, the company went public. The main business was now with Daimler and Lanchester, making the bodies for the cheaper range of cars with, confusingly, Arthur Mulliner of Northampton making the up-market models. Alvis

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408-658: The Bugatti Type 57 , Cadillac V-16 , Packard Twelve , Ferrari 250 , Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8 , Hispano-Suiza J12 , and all Rolls-Royces produced before World War II. Delahaye had no in-house coachworks, so all its chassis were bodied by independents, who created their designs on the Type 135. For the Delahaye , most were bodied by Chapron , Labourdette, Franay , Saoutchik , Figoni et Falaschi , or Pennock . The practice continued after World War II waning dramatically in

442-491: The London Borough of Havering as a setting for part of his outstanding collections of English furniture and English pottery. H H Mulliner's carriage building business, now part of Cammell Laird, built a few bodies for Daimler before it was decided the future lay in making relatively large production runs for motor companies that did not have their own facilities. An early contract was gained from Calthorpe , then

476-635: The State Transit Authority . Following the collapse of Clifford Corporation in 1998, Volvo arranged for Jakab to take over the Ansair plant in Tamworth and complete the work of providing Orana-style bodies for 60 State Transit Authority Volvo B10BLE buses. The subsidiary company set up to do the work was named Phoenix Bus. Jakab Industries was placed in administration in 2002. Coachbuilder A coachbuilder or body-maker

510-468: The 1950s and 1960s. Rolls-Royce debuted its first unibody model, their Silver Shadow , in 1965. Independent coachbuilders survived for a time after the mid-20th century, making bodies for the chassis produced by low-production companies such as Rolls-Royce , Ferrari , and Bentley . Producing body dies is extremely expensive (a single door die can run to US$ 40,000), which is usually only considered practical when large numbers are involved—though that

544-564: The 1960s, there were many independent coachbuilders who built bodies on chassis provided by a manufacturer, often for luxury or sports cars. Many manufacturers such as Ferrari outsourced all bodywork to coachbuilders such as Pininfarina and Scaglietti . Coachbuilders also made custom bodies for individual customers. The coachbuilder craftsmen who might once have built bespoke or custom bodies continue to build bodies for short runs of specialized commercial vehicles such as luxury motor coaches or recreational vehicles or motor-home bodied upon

578-820: The OWB successor, the OB chassis. Vauxhall dealers also ordered bodies direct to Mulliners and the body was built until 1950, of which many were exported, some to oil companies in the Middle East and South America . In the 1950s they secured large contracts for utilitarian bus bodies for the three armed services and government agencies (on the Bedford OB and later Bedford SB and Bedford SBG chassis) and also some for some municipal bus operators, such as Douglas, IOM who, in 1957, had bodies built on Guy Otter chassis, at least one surviving into preservation. One of its last efforts

612-583: The coach and carriage making part of his business to motor vehicle bodies and was then employing 200. Used as well as new carriages were sold from the Mulliner showrooms in Broad Street, Birmingham , and H H Mulliner was the first to offer insurance of his carriages against accidents. Meanwhile continuing with scientific instruments he began producing in Birmingham with F. Wigley, tools for making

646-424: The curved woodwork alone called for considerable skill. Making the iron axles, springs and other metal used was the work of the “coach-smith,” one of the most highly paid classes of London workmen. The coating of the interior of the coach with leather and painting, trimming, and decorating the exterior called for specialist tradesmen with a high degree of skill. Building carts and wagons required similar skills, but of

680-575: The family's Northampton business . Henry's third son, Herbert Hall Mulliner (1861-1924), in the light of the decline in quality of the Spa's visitors moved in 1885 to Birmingham . Following his father's death in November 1887 and consequent rearrangement of family ownership he made his home in Rugby and took up other interests including in 1895 the manufacture of scientific instruments. In 1897 he converted

714-555: The hope of improving their order book for large naval guns. He was asked to tender his resignation from Cammell Laird's board and it was accepted. However he received a settlement of £100,000 which was in addition to the payment of £142,566 for the shares on the merger of the businesses in 1903. Among H H Mulliner's benefactions were gifts to the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1913 and the purchase in 1920 and "complete modernisation at considerable expense" of Rainham Hall built 1729 in

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748-444: The list of customers. Standard-Triumph had, by then, a shortage of body-building capacity and this led them to buy the company in 1958, by which time Mulliners were building 700 car bodies each week. On 7 December 1960, a shock announcement by Standard-Triumph International, which was about to be sold to prosperous trucks and buses manufacturer Leyland Motors Limited , revealed that the factory would close. "Mulliners Limited, one of

782-525: The more complicated parts of ordnance and they formed companies: Mulliner Wigley Company Limited formed 1895 and Wigley-Mulliner Engineering Company Limited formed 1897. In April 1899 he married. The demands of the South African War led to major developments and the scene of operation was moved to Coventry to a site of some sixty acres. All the companies were amalgamated with Charles Cammell & Co Limited. In 1903 these companies merged into

816-734: The more important structural features of the bespoke or custom body such as A, B and C pillars were cast alloy components. Some bodies such as those entirely alloy bodies fitted to some Pierce-Arrow cars contained little or no wood, and were mounted on a conventional steel chassis. The car manufacturer would offer for sale a chassis frame , drivetrain (consisting of an engine, gearbox, differential, axles, and wheels), brakes, suspension, steering system, lighting system, spare wheel(s), front and rear mudguards (vulnerable and so made of pressed steel for strength and easy repair) and (later) bumpers, scuttle (firewall) and dashboard . The very easily damaged honeycomb radiator , later enclosed and protected by

850-412: The newly blended armaments and shipbuilding business, Cammell Laird , of Birkenhead and H H Mulliner joined their main board. The ordnance operation became Coventry Ordnance Works and was separated out and jointly owned by Cammell Laird, Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company of Glasgow and John Brown & Company of Clydebank with Mulliner as managing director, Wigley was responsible for

884-1246: The prosperous custom attracted to the newly fashionable spa town early in the 19th century. Direct ownership and control by Mulliner family interests was lost in 1903 when it was sold to Charles Cammell, which then merged into Cammell Laird . H H Mulliner ceased to be a main-board director of Cammell Laird in 1909. Mulliners Limited continued under various ownerships until the end of 1960, when Standard-Triumph International closed it down. Henry Mulliner (1827-1887) of Leamington Spa , second son of Francis Mulliner (1789-1841) of Leamington Spa and Northampton , had six sons and six daughters. Henry published his book Carriage Builder's Tour in America in Leamington in 1883. Henry's Leamington Spa coach building business in Bedford Street and The Parade later had its carriage works in Packington Square and showroom in Chapel Street. Henry's second son Arthur Felton Mulliner (1859-1946) on Henry's death took over

918-441: The ride experienced by passengers. Larger car dealers or distributors would commonly preorder stock chassis and the bodies they thought most likely to sell and order them for sale off their showroom floor. All luxury vehicles during the automobile's Golden Era before World War II were available as chassis only. For example, when Duesenberg introduced their Model J, it was offered as chassis only, for $ 8,500. Other examples include

952-489: The technical side. A special article detailed the background of the origins of H H Mulliner's involvement in the ordnance works in a supplement to The Times 9 June 1909. The main workshop at the Coventry Ordnance works was claimed by The Times in 1909 to cover a greater area under its single (110 feet to the apex) roof than any other factory in the country. The travelling cranes were of 110 tons capacity. It

986-515: The trade dealt with the timber, iron, leather, brass and other materials used in their construction. And there were many minor specialists with each of these categories. The “body-makers” produced the body or vehicle itself, while the “carriage-makers” made the stronger timbers beneath and around the body. The timbers used included ash, beech, elm, oak, mahogany, cedar, pine, birch and larch. The tools and processes used were similar to those used in cabinet-making, plus other specific to coach-making. Making

1020-541: Was added to the list of customers. During World War II they made bodies for military vehicles and troop carrying gliders. Military contracts for aircraft and vehicles were given to the company with the advent of World War II . These included the supply of single-deck austerity bus bodies for Bedford OWB chassis. Duple Coachbuilders designed and built a few bus bodies after the war, but were up to capacity in building their Duple Vista coach body, so they sub-contracted their bus body building to Mulliner in 1947, built on

1054-411: Was also notable for the arrangement that machines were brought to the work instead of the work to the machines and several machines could work on the same piece at the same time. The cost of the oil alone to fill the well to harden the largest guns approached £5,000. In 1908-1909 there was a very public "Mulliner scandal" because H H Mulliner was shown to have embellished reports of German rearmament in

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1088-401: Was an adventurous coach body appearing on a modified Guy Warrior chassis , registered 647BKL, displayed at the 1958 Commercial Motor Show and now preserved. Later that year, when Standard-Triumph purchased the company, it sold the bus-building division to Marshall’s of Cambridge . After the war, body-building for cars resumed with Aston Martin , Armstrong Siddeley and Triumph joining

1122-536: Was incorporated in 1630. Some British coachmaking firms operating in the 20th century were established even earlier. Rippon was active in the time of Queen Elizabeth I , Barker founded in 1710 by an officer in Queen Anne 's Guards. Brewster , the oldest in the U.S., was formed in 1810. Coach-building had reached a high degree of specialization in Britain by the middle of the 19th century. Separate branches of

1156-535: Was the path taken by Rolls-Royce and Bentley after 1945 for their own in-house production. Because dies for pressing metal panels are so costly, from the mid 20th century, many vehicles, most notably the Chevrolet Corvette , were clothed with large panels of fiberglass -reinforced resin, which only require inexpensive molds. Glass has since been replaced by more sophisticated materials, if necessary hand-formed. Generally, these replace metal only where weight

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