Fisher & Ludlow ?

[Polarsilver]

Asking my year 1966 Moke Heritage Cert; shows "Paint & Trim by Fisher & Ludlow" can i assume Fisher & Ludlow also made the Moke bodyshell & then Longbridge Factory finished off the Moke in final assembly ?
What other BMC work was carried out at Fisher & Ludlow Birmingham ?

[Catmint]

Hornet's and elf's had the same, and I think some other models went through as well - got the impression they took on an element of assembly to ease the factory work load.

I would be very interested to know where they fitted into the production cycle in this respect, rather than just banging out panels.

They do still exist in Canada making stainless sinks !

[641071S]

Asking my year 1966 Moke Heritage Cert; shows "Paint & Trim by Fisher & Ludlow" can i assume Fisher & Ludlow also made the Moke bodyshell & then Longbridge Factory finished off the Moke in final assembly ?
What other BMC work was carried out at Fisher & Ludlow Birmingham ?

I did touch on this subject briefly the other day but to expand, in 1954, Fisher & Ludlow had become part of the newly formed BMC. In the late 50s early 60s Fisher & Ludlow provided body panels and shells for among others, A35 Van, Standard Vanguard, Nash Metropolitan, very early Minis. They then moved to Paint and Trim for many BMC related vehicles such as Elf, Hornet, Moke, Morris Minor, Wolseley, Minis (in particular 997 Coopers). When BMC acquired the Pressed Steel Company who were at one time Fisher & Ludlow's biggest U.K. rival in 1965. The two entities were merged as well to form Pressed Steel Fisher. By the time British Leyland was formed in 1968, the Fisher & Ludlow name was all but phased out. Castle Bromwich still supplied panels, paint and trim for most of the British Leyland vehicles in the 70s and stayed in use through the 80s when Jaguar began supplementing its Coventry works with production at Castle Bromwich in 1980, and today continues to build the majority of its cars there.
An anomaly of cars produced/finished at Fisher & Ludlow through the years is that many of them did not have Body Numbers allocated to them by BMC and did not have a Body Number stamped plate on the flitch/slam panel (though it would appear that just as many did have BMC Body Numbers, dependent on the date and stage of build when sent to Fisher and Ludlow). Instead BMC entered their FE number in the vehicle’s build record sheets in place of the Body Number. It would appear that BMC signed off the build record for the earlier cars with no Build Number once the vehicle was passed on to Fisher and Ludlow for Paint and Trim. In these instances Heritage show the FE Number on Heritage Certificates instead of a Build Number. Fisher & Ludlow themselves riveted a stamped (not embossed!) Fisholow body number plate to the offside inner wing (as below) for the cars without a BMC Body Number.
Does your Moke have one of these plates?
By the way, for those looking to replace or add a Fisholow plate to their car, I have never seen a re-made plate that has the correct print pattern. Originals had an offset “Fisher” all repros seem to be printed in straight lines.In 1954, Fisher & Ludlow had become part of the newly formed BMC. In the late 50s early 60s Fisher & Ludlow provided body panels and shells for among others, A35 Van, Standard Vanguard, Nash Metropolitan, very early Minis. They then moved to Paint and Trim for many BMC related vehicles such as Elf, Hornet, Moke, Morris Minor, Wolseley, Minis (in particular 997 Coopers)When BMC acquired the Pressed Steel Company--at one time Fisher & Ludlow's biggest U.K. rival--in 1965, the two entities were merged as well to form Pressed Steel Fisher. By the time British Leyland was formed in 1968, the Fisher & Ludlow name was all but phased out. Castle Bromwich still supplied panels, paint and trim for most of the British Leyland vehicles in the 70s and stayed in use through the 80s when Jaguar began supplementing its Coventry works with production at Castle Bromwich in 1980, and today continues to build the majority of its cars there.
An anomaly of cars produced/finished at Fisher & Ludlow through the years is that many of them did not have Body Numbers allocated to them and no Body Number plate on the flitch panels or slam panels (particularly Minis) . Instead BMC entered their FE number in the vehicles build record in place of the Body Number. In these instances Fisher & Ludlow riveted a stamped (not embossed!) Fisholow body number plate to the offside inner wing (as below).
Does your Moke have one of these plates?
By the way, for those looking to replace or add a Fisholow plate to their car, I have never seen a re-made plate that has the correct print pattern. Originals had a different inset to the “Fisher” all repros seem to be printed with the lines having equal insets.

[Oneball]

Normally did they send panels to Longbridge to be assembled or was the whole shell done at Castle Brom?

[Peter Laidler]

The Pressed Steel plant at GreenBridge, Swindon is still referred to as Fishers - or Fishlow - by the oldies who live around there. Some of my Uni group did a kind of production engineering phase there..... A sort of 'work experience....'

[641071S]

Having originally come from the Castle Bromwich area and had relatives working at both Fishers and at Longbridge, I was told that from the start of Mini production in 1959 some 4000 complete body shells were being produced at Fishers each week which were then sent to Longbridge for them to be built up.
I believe, but cannot swear to it, that body panels were also produced at Fishers that were sent to Cowley to be assembled until the Pressed Steels factory was built at Cowley.
To add to 641071s comments, in the early 60s, some Minis were supplied completed with paint and trim to keep up with Longbridge/Cowley production requirements.

[Polarsilver]

my Moke the only reference to Fisher & Ludlow is within its Heritage Certificate.
i worked at Pressed Steel Fisher in Cowley for a while so i assume they did much the same type of BMC/ Leyland work as Fisher & Ludlow..during my time at PSF ( early 70,s) they were making Body & Paint for Maxi+Marina+ MGB paint & trim.. PSF @ Cowley also did Rolls Bodys+ R&D Bodys for the next new Rover SD1 etc + Press Tooling & Panel Stamping.. apart from the body production lines it was a proper skilled engineering set up.
they also built & trim the later Sunbeam Rapier @ PSF before they were shipped to Ryton