Assembly manuals

I suspect I already know the answer to this, as I've never seen one mentioned. However, it's worth asking:

When I used to play with old Camaros, I could buy a reprint of the factory Assembly Manual, which is the book that the factory used when assembling the cars. It showed wire routing, badge locations, assembly order & techniques, etc. It was intended to show the line guys how to put the cars together. I've seen them for other GM vehicles as well.

Does anything comparable exist for British Cars (of any sort)? How did the designers and engineers communicate to the factory how things were to be done?

Cheers!

I don't know what all is available, but I was totally green on MGBs when I rebuilt my car. I did it all with a Bently manual, along with the pictures ant tech tips in Moss and VB catalogs. I have a Porter restore book, but most of it looked kind of dumb to me. Kind of like the guy just did a cronicle of his first rebuild. I don't know how in the world he kept from busting the windshield while getting it in the frame.

Rob, some days I wonder if the factory had an assembly manual.

I have original factory & parts manuals for my MG1100, my ZA Magnette, & my Farina Magnette so they do exist...closest thing I've gotten to a factory manual for a B is Bentley's

Nah, Tony, this is the assembly manual... slightly different... aimed more at teaching the monkeys on the line exactly how it' supposed to be put together in the first place, where the factory manual is aimed more at dealers and service departments.

Baxter,
Exactly! I've posted an example of a page from the '78 Camaro assembly manual on my site:
http://www.mgcarz.com/sheet_metal.jpg

I'm guessing nothing like this exists for Bs, else there would not be so much speculation about how things were or were not done. Still, there had to be some method for engineering to communicate with the line as to how to put things together, even if it was word-of-mouth or maybe a half-day briefing with the line managers. I just wonder if any printed material exists...

My company usually calls these "assembly process sheets". Sure would like to see something like these for the MGB and MGA! My guess is they probably did not have this type of detailed sheet.

I don't know about that,but they certainly didn't accept any input from assembly workers. While doing mine I saw 2 or 3 places where only a very slight change would have made that part go in much faster and would have beeen easier to work on later too.

Like if the front of the heater didn't have that lip sticking down in there? Why bother putting spring clips on it if you can't get it open anyway? Wouldnt' it be nice....

How about that L shaped opening under the pedal box? If that tab was cut off to make it squair hole you could assemble the whole pedal quadrant and drop it in instead of just the brake pedal then installing the clutch pedal from the bottom. The gas tank could have been hung with two straps instead of 14, (or whatever), bolts. Raising the motor mount pedistals 1/2 inch, thinning the mounts, and leaving out the shims would have helped a lot on cars with the round mounts. All that monkey motion with the transmission mount is just a lot of foolishniess. One good cental mount like all Detroit Iron and other cars would have worked fine

John, I'm sure the pipe smoking engineer in the tweed jacket at BL had a good reason for all of the junk we must de-engineer :-). I read something the other day on why that stay rod was added to the transmission mount mess. It had to do with meeting the 5 MPH "crash" tests in the mid seventies. It said that the B could pass the test (with Sabrina's) but the engine shifted and the fan would hit the radiator.

What a dumb specifiction to have to meet, later cars had the fans in front of the radiator anyway. I guess we've gotten so used to stupid regulations we don't even realize they are regulations any more. Living in a grass shack on an island where you could get anything you wanted for free would be great wouldn't it. Maybe not. In a few years you'd be back to the same old crap and wishing for a grass shack on an..............

John, early Bs had the tank held with two straps. They rusted and dropped the tank on the road. You win some, you lose some...
I agree on your other points, I think, some of 'em I've never thought about.
Here's one... why not make the front panel removable, like Tony has... I bet that would've lopped 5 or 10 minutes off the construction time of every B.

John...early B's had a square hole for the pedals...when I modified Jerri's '70 GT to accept the later boosted brakes, I had to enlarge it to fit those later pedals..here's a photo of her firewall area marked for cutting:

But, when I modified my '79 for non-boosted brakes, the factory hole was perfect for her '70 pedals to drop right in...go figure!