source: http://www.motorera.com/history/hist09.htm
I am spending some time under the van because I'm installing a towbar.
It got me thinking of the rarely seen part of cars and vans that's holing it together, the chassis. There I found an educative article on the subject.
"Unlike the first engine and chassis builders, who had no precedents to
follow, the first auto body engineers represented an old established craft. It
mattered little to them whether vehicles were to be propelled by a gasoline
engine, electric power, or steam. Their task was the same as in the days of
chariots: to construct a conveyance that would carry people.
The body builders contended that if carriages were good enough for horses,
they were good enough for engines. They were even given carriage names
-- phaeton, brougham, tonneau, landaulet, and wagonette.
Don't get the idea that early body engineers were a stodgy conservative
bunch. When it came to trying new structural concepts and materials, they
were as radical as the engine and chassis guys -- so much so, in fact, that
practically every body structural technique in use today had been tried by
1920, even gluing bodies together. (...)"
read more
Hi I have a 1976 Sherpa Diesel and would like to swap the drive train for something more modern from a later Pilot. Will it fit / be an easy swap? Any advice gratefully received.
ReplyDeleteI can't tell but I think it probably won't Richard. For info, my latest info is that the later Pilot vans have a lot of Rover SD1 parts in them if that gives you a clue...
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