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How the Rover
2000 is made
A look at the
Solihull assembly plant
Having
eulogised elsewhere in this issue about the present-day 2-litre P6 Rover, I
thought I had better go up to the Solihull factory to see how these extremely
popular cars are put together. This I did, towards the end of April, in the
editorial 2000 TC.
When, in 1963,
the Rover Company decided to put the advanced 2000 into production a special new
factory costing over ₤10-million was built for the purpose at Lode Lane,
Solihull, just outside Birmingham. Here the Rover 2000 is assembled on virtually
a single continuous line, in a vast hall, to which mechanical components are
brought from other Rover factories in the area. This impressive factory is
devoted solely to the assembly of the 2-litre cars, the 3-litre P5 Rovers being
built across the road on a circular assembly line. To reduce fire hazards the
new paint shop serving the 2000 assembly hall has been separated from it,
although it is really a continuation of this building. So painted body parts are
carried on an overhead conveyor-line through an enclosed bridge to the main
assembly plant.
Looking first
at the paint shop, it is here that the body panels are passed through the two
electro-static
spray-booths, in which paint particles leave gravity-fed centrifugal bells and
are magnetically adhered onto the earthed panels under the influence of a
120.000-volt electrical system. This method is very economical, because about 98
% of the paint arrives where it is wanted instead of some 60 % spattering all
over the paint booth, and no hand-spraying is involved, except for door
apertures etc. on the base unit. Also a very even surface is ensured. Before the
final coats of paint go on, primer is smoothed down by the wet-and-dry
hand-flatting process and rubbed with chalk blocks to reveal any rough patches,
which are then dealt with. The base units of the car are dipped in paint vasts,
then dried in the usual ovens. After the dip, two surface and two final coats of
paint are applied.
In the assembly
hall the base unit moves upside down along the single assembly line at
floor-level while the suspension units and brakes etc are fitted to it. It is
then turned right way up and proceeds along the line for additional components
to be fitted. The parts required are brought up to the sides of the assembly
line in bins. The engines, each of which has been run for five hours on coal gas
at the Acocks Green factory, arrive in Rover´s own lorries at Solihull. Pirelli
Cinturato tyres predominate, but some cars go out on Dunlop SPs. After the
mechanical components have been fitted to the base unit it moves up from
floor-level for more easy attachment of the seats and trim etc.
Prior to this,
each base unit has had all the necessary holes (62 of them) for door and panel
attachment etc. drilled in it by transfer machinery which does all this drilling
as one operation, entirely independently of human intervention. This impressive
operation is carried out by a couple of Viltool multi-drillers, made in
Wolverhampton.
It is
interesting that before the body panels and doors are attached, each Rover 2000
is started up on petrol and driven to one of three short lines where the wheels
are checked for alignment, the lamps are adjusted and the engine and
transmission run-up on rollers.
Only when the
car has been passed as mechanically 100 % does it resume the single assembly
line, for the body panels to be fitted. All these body parts arrive on overhead
gantries in “prams” or big wire-mesh baskets, each “pram” containing all the
parts for completing one body. These “prams” are loaded by hand in the paint
shop, for dispatch to the appropriate vehicle awaiting final assembly in the
assembly hall. As it is essential that the paint containers are absolutely clean
before a different colour paint is sprayed from them, panels are sprayed one
colour one week and a different colour the following week, parts being stacked
up as required. Incidentally six different colours are available in this country
and a more vivid range of finishes is provided for Rovers exported to the USA
and elsewhere. All these variants, including LHD and RHD cars etc. are provided
for on the single assembly line.
Various test
rigs are at work in the engineering and quality control shops, destruction
testing carious components such as road wheels, and Rover have a MIRA crash
programme to test body strength in accidents.
Rover make
their own seats, carpeting etc.
with
upholstery in Connolly hide, these parts being made and kept in the main stores
at Cardiff to provide more room for the assembly processes at Birmingham so that
lorries are continually passing up and down M50 with parts for cars on the
Solihull assembly line.
The aforesaid
“prams” are attached to the cars and move with them along the continually-moving
assembly line, operatives taking out the parts as they are required. After this
each car is washed in one of two washers and then goes on one of two lines
through the wind-and-rain test, the car being rocked on rollers and having jets
of water blown over it at the equivalent of 30 mph while an observer sits inside
noting whether any moisture intrudes.
The cars, as
finished vehicles, leave the assembly hall for testing on Rovers own 2 ¼-mile
test track. This test track, adjacent to which there is also a jungle-course for
giving Land Rovers an ordeal, is invaluable, not only for trying out secret
prototype vehicles which are also taken to MIRA for more specialised running,
but because every car made at Solihull can be driven there without the need for
insurance, trade plates and other complications.
When I inquired
how far each Rover 2000 was driven in this manner I was told that time is of no
account. The cars are brought back for rectification of any faults, in a bay
that includes pits for examining the underparts of the vehicle, and tested again
until the drivers are quite satisfied with them. This normally takes from three
to 30 miles but can, as with Rolls Royce, occupy a day, a week or a month, if
this is necessary.
After this the
completed cars are dried
and travel along the waxing lines where they are wax polished and those for
export are protected with anti-corrosive.
Even now the
testing isn´t finished. A team of four or five girl drivers takes the
newly-polished cars for a final check run on the test track. If all is well, the
cars are finally sent along a line for further washing and to have their
tool-kits, carpets and wheel trims etc. fitted. These finishing processes are
undertaken in the leg of the main hall which is L-shaped. A car park for 2000
vehicles beside the factory accommodates cars and Land Rovers until they are
needed for dispatch to places the world over.
When the Rover
2000 was conceived the capacity for making it was 550 cars a week. Last August a
night shift was introduced and today some 800 if this model are being built
every week. Of these, about 60 % ate TCs and 10 % automatic-transmission 2000s.
Incidentally the TC model not only has twin carburettors but a different oil
cooler, more sound-damping and different exhaust manifolding from the 2000 SC
and, rather surprisingly, weights 34 lb. more than the 2000 Automatic, although
this is perhaps a compliment to the comparatively low weight of the
Rover-modified Borg-Warner type 35 gearbox.
While I was at
“The Rover” I had a chat with the Technical Director, Peter Wilks. He feels that
the Leyland take-over should enable Rover to increase output without in any way
reducing the quality of their cars. He does not envisage a resumption of
competition work in the immediate future, although it was useful for getting rid
of the “grannie” image of the famous P4 models when the 2000 was being promoted.
He is very much in favour of the de Dion back axle as introduced for the 2000 as
a means of keeping the back wheels upright and reducing unsprung weight;
light-alloy sections have been tried for this component but it is likely to
continue in its existing form, with inboard disc brakes and the ingenious split
tube to accommodate shafts, a joint composed of bronze sliding bushes lubricated
with oil being contained within the de Dion tube itself. This layout was
introduced for the Formula Two Rover Special built by Peter Wilks and Spencer
King some 16 years ago (reference to which will not, I hope, make Mr. Wilks feel
unduly senile!) and which was used for the Rover T3 gas-turbine coupé of 1953.
The Rover
Company might be thought to be having a difficult time at the moment, on three
separate counts – the recent take-over, the American safety-requirements and the
need to develop new models. Sir Donald Stokes is, I gather, making the first
quite painless, the last are, I can murmur through sealed lips, well in hand,
while so far as the American market is concerned, it has been found possible to
get two brake boosters and the pump for a refrigerated air-conditioner under the
compact bonnet of the 2000. Rover already has a crash-safe base unit and crash
tests at MIRA showed that US requirements could be met by making minor frontal
changes, while a system similar to Chrysler´s has been developed to combat air
pollution from the exhaust. Rovers have never been in greater demand, the
Company is sun by keen and experienced practical engineers, so the future of a
make which its roots in Solihull looks completely secure.
UK 1967
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