Building a baby Austin7 MK1 Mini - BMC, Longbridge PART 1/2

[alexsuchapimp]

this is back when Britain was strong

[MrClassicDoctorWho]

The rust preventing line made me laugh!

[ExeterCityMan]

I think my old Mini must have missed the rust preventing rotor dip !!!!!!!

[arobekie]

That was a excelent film Mr cholmondley warner,Thank you grayson.

[britishboy7]

The sad thing about the mini was when ford baught one and took it apart they couldn't find how british layland as BMC would later be called where making their money. They wernt they where making a loss with each one sold.

[MrMarmaduke1]

I dont think it was Bmws fault They were going to kill it off earlier but we were making loads for the japanese market. They said it was because they were buying them, coz they could not have cars over three years old in japan, and making them look like Italian job cars.

[MrMarmaduke1]

I worked there in1990 we used some of that stuff to do a special run of metro bodies

the track had been retooled to make the r6 seriesThe ones we were making we were told was for a car hire firm tha wanted the old type Those spot wleding guns didnt come any bigger.

[irishmikelley]

too bad the "rust preventing dip" didnt do a better job

[grahamkeithtodd]

the early minis used to leak like sieves...but for the time it was a brilliant design to say the least....

[JELH]

Now I know why they, BMC, were making a loss on each Mini they sold.

[MrJJVic]

I really don't agree with these comments saying the new Mini has killed the old one. I own a 2008 Mini that i bought from brand new. Next year i am selling it and some of the money i will be using to buy a classic 60's Mini.

BMW are keeping the Mini name alive and creating new interest in the old Mini. All i am saying is don't be too hasty to slag off the new Mini it keeps the old name alive. If i hadn't owned a new one i may never have got interested in the old one!

[ianupton]

i designed the gearbox assembly for the mini. they were going to go with a 3 speed semi automatic box but i said that would cost a lot and so they said what do you think, and i said probably better with a transverse box with 4 selections + reverse. the rest is history.

[gentil79]

so what Sir Alec Issigonis did? signed the project on your behalf?

[spifflication]

Brilliant.  Thank you for posting.

[ColinAZ8]

Enjoyed the video of this well loved car. I thought it hilarious when they started painting and said "...human element invades the automation of the production line in a big way".  WHAT automation? This was an antiquated manual assembly line with very little automation. Well, maybe it was considered automation in it's time.

[Leafster1973]

Its was in the very early 60s!

[gorsian1979]

THis Vidio in 1959

[thomasking55]

So did the rust preventer work...?

[taffy1967]

Yes for a few years. But considering how little a Mini cost and how little profit BMC/BL made from selling them. You could pay to have your Mini rustproofed every year or so and still be quids in.

[NZWolf2]

A mate of mine used to work at Longbridge, on the Mini's. He said they were right Bas*ards to work on.

[unigateman]

they still are, I ve had one 20 yrs

[GoldSeeker1012]

I can confirm that, i used to work at rover longbridge and there the worst f**king car you can ever work on no room for anything! the factory was a shithole aswell, i only worked there 10 yrs ago and it's mostly unchanged from this video on youtube!

[taffy1967]

Mostly unchanged? It's all been demolished now and it couldn't have been that bad a car to work on since most of the production line workers had been building them from day one and didn't want to work on anything else.

[GoldSeeker1012]

yes your correct it has been demolished now but when i worked their in the 90's the factory was literally the same as it was on this video that's how dated and horrible was to work their believe me i know! and the only reason why a lot of the work force stayed on the mini production line is because the vast majority of them were well into their late 50's early 60's and that's the only production line they had ever worked on so they didn't know any better poor sods!

[taffy1967]

What a daft reply. So now it's all gone that's better then, what with so many of those workers being unemployed? And I'm sure it couldn't have been that horrible as many would have left or ended up seeking psychiatric help. Anyway I actually visited Longbridge and the Mini production line on the 15/6/98 and all I saw were groups of happy looking blokes of differing ages jovially getting on with putting the Minis together. There were no long faces or bad attitudes, so was that a good day then?

[GoldSeeker1012]

The day you went around for your tour must of been a good day! because from what i can remember is most of the workers i worked with hated it there plus you being a mini enthusiast you probably walked around with rose tinted spectacles it must have been a Aladdin's cave to you but if you had to work there 8 hrs a day 5 days a week it' was a different story!

[taffy1967]

So I imagine everyone who worked there were very happy when they were made unemployed then? What world do you live in, because most jobs in this country are pretty horrible and most are monotonous whether you like it or not. If you didn't like working there then that's your own view and I've worked in plenty of rubbish places, but I'm sure there were plenty who were only too happy and glad to have job security for so long whilst working at Longbridge. But I guess it's all irrelevant now.

[taffy1967]

Anyway, take a look at some of the Mini video's on my account. Especially the Top Gear spin off show 'The Cars The Star' and 'The Mini Is 30'. Were the workers all lying and putting a brave face on for the cameras? It all seems very much at odds with what you're trying to say.

[GoldSeeker1012]

You can't generalise the feeling of a 6000 strong workforce on the comments of a handful of Austin rover workers. Taffy 1967 let me put it to you this way, why do you think the production workers at rover were paid so handsomely? the answer is simple, working on the production line is such a boring, mundane soul destroying job that the only reason anyone stayed there was because the money was good no other reason, i was told this by fellow employee's countless times!

[taffy1967]

But this country has countless boring, mundane and soul destroying jobs and if you can honestly say that you wake up in the morning with a happy feeling about going to work, then you're one of the few. Most factory jobs are no different and working in most average call centres is enough to give you mental health problems. Either way I'd say most of those Rover workers would have preferred to have hung on to their jobs, instead of being shafted by BMW and ripped off by those who then took over.

[taffy1967]

Your profile page suggests you are just 29 years of age? So you would have been around 19 or 20 years of age when the real/classic/proper Mini ended production on 4/10/2000? You were still just a kid who obviously knew nothing and I've worked in factories and call centres that looked 100 times worst than the car production lines at Longbridge. But there you go, us Brits have nothing much to be proud of now and so all we do is criticize the good things we achieved in the past.

[Gingersid56]

Lovely piece of old footage!

[Leafster1973]

and it still proves to be a super little car 50 years on. We went shopping today, 4 people in the mini, and still managed to get all the weekly Tesco shopping in the boot, less is more! We cover a 100miles a week, 50MPG, and they are so easy and cheap to service it all makes perfect sense!

[taffy1967]

Yes there will never be another car that will achieve all that the little Mini achieved. Us Brits should be proud, but unfortunately we're a miserable bunch of gits who can't accept the fact that all that was great is in the past and we've now got little to shout about.

[taffy1967]

Yes their amazing little cars and there will never be another fantastic little car like it ever again.

[Guardtheheart]

Did the gear box use engine oil?? My guess is that did not, but if any really does know, please let me know.

Thanks!

[Leafster1973]

Not some much use it, but lose it from the driveshaft and gear selector oil seals!

[mfiddynz]

Yes, Motor, Gearbox & Diff all slosh around in the same oil. A fault in one sent metal thru the other components.

[DjokaStokic]

gear box shared the oil with engine :)

[00Donkey00]

@Guardtheheart

Yes the original mini uses engine oil for the gearbox.

[jenokecske]

Awesome video. Thanks for uploading it.

[bhamboy05]

I worked at Longbridge from 1994 - 97 in The Old West Works spot welding on the Mini, and the production line and tools had hardly changed since 1959.

[Leafster1973]

Nice to hear from you, and sad to see the Old West works is no more.

[bhamboy05]

Thanks, yes it is very sad. Even the New West has now gone. I was only 17 when I started. My first job was operating 6 spot welding guns, 3 on either side of the track. The Old West Works was a real time warp, I often wandered around on my breaks and there were areas with machines that hadnt been used for decades. The smell and the sounds were unique to the West Works.

[tvfilmglamdirector]

Great archive, well kept!

[fordlandau]

the A class engine was old by the

1960s...gear box and sump in one..meant the engine wore out the gear box prematurely..but there was a magnet on the sump plug to attract bits of rogue metal ..thats real British know how!!..great clip .thank you!!

[taffy1967]

My 1990 Mini has done over 99,612 miles and is still going strong.

[Thanhkim]

the mini is a great car, best invention ever, unfortunately it wasn't the safest, thats when BMW came in with their safer version, ok its not a true mini but more a fashion icon, still best car ever, both.

[taffy1967]

No the BMW is just a replacement Metro. The real thing is the best car ever, the BMW is just another hatchback and it's far too big to be called a Mini.

[trevorandrews273]

I had a Mini 1000 and a Mini van and now occasionally drive a BMW Cooper 'S'. The old Minis were nothing like the new. The old ones you could seriously and safely 'throw around'. Not so sure about the new Cooper as it's my girlfriends and I dare not throw it about.

Minis were the biz....that's what I wanted to say anyway...

Trevor

[OzzInter]

The MINI has been a huge influence on all car makers.

All major manfacturers now build a small front wheel drive sedan with an "east-west" mounted engine!

The early model MINI with the 850cc is now a collectors item too.

[jackdanveggie]

Brilliant car, I remember as a kid 2 adults and 4 kids & all the lugage going from birmingham to rhyl on holiday and the bonnet just popped up on the motorway and i shat myself...i was only 11,...but truely an iconic car ,deserved to be car of the millenium

[vidpop]

Pity BMC didn,t price it properly. Austin Morris may have still been making cars today. Ford took a mini to pieces and told BMC that it was costed wrongly.BMC ignored their advice.

[taffy1967]

Ford (like Fiat) were kicking themselves for not creating the Mini themselves and being told it wasn't profitable must have pleased them no end. But it wasn't the massive loss maker everyone assumes it was, because in latter years it was described as being a good little earner and do you really think British Leyland who took control in 1968 would continue making a car that lost money? They axed the Cooper so they didn't have to pay John Cooper any royalty payments.

[andysllt]

a design icon full stop

[thesameoldscene]

the mk1 mini was ideally created to provide "cheap economical transport to the masses" It was sort of like the model T of it's day.

The mini was and still is a truly great car, as it could be modified with a more powerful engine (although this is not to my taste), can hold four people and their luggage, stored in the boot of the car and under tha back seats. The doorbins also provided enough space for a few bits and pieces as well.

The new BMW mini is just a knock off version of the original

[cadengunslinger]

Cool video. I have a classic Mini and I love it. :)

[metyman63]

The BMW Mini is too big and heavy to be called a Mini. The BMC mini in 1959 was a completely new fresh idea, nothing else like it on the road at that time, so whats new about the BMW Mini nothing, same layout as anyother car, boring.

[mickeymoose76]

the new mini is just a cynical marketting exercise to attract the trendy young money makers (you know the type!) and nothing at all to do with providing effective, family transport that costs mext to nothing to run and buy...

[gentil79]

Sorry, but you are completely in the wrong. it was the basic transportation for many families, and like the Fiat 600, the Beetle and the Citroen 2cv, it was the most basic car you could buy.

[mickeymoose76]

Were you replying to my post? if so did you not read the beginning of it when I said "The NEW Mini" ?

[Robkizzy]

Blow me away !! I have a 61 Austin seven. Thank you... for showing me how my baby was born

[andysllt]

being x mg rover 1995 2005 and having worked on the mini it saddens me nothing is left of our once proud car industry.

i was a welder as you see here when they are welding was the same when the mini finished in 2000.

[james00james]

shame abour bmw coming over here and killing the mini

[carbonfibre36]

Many thanks for posting this. Great to see old footage of when we had a British car industry.