British Leyland

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That's why Fiats and Lancias particularly were notorious for being rot-boxes (and that came from an Italian pensioner I know who worked for many years at the Taranto steelworks in Southern Italy).

There was also the fact that these rust-prone cars were ( I believe )produced in the new factories established in the deep South of the country as an attempt to relieve the enduring poor economy of that region. This was celebrated by the new Alfa - the Alfasud* - incorporating the "South " in its name. Cars built by people with no experience/tradition in the industry, where the company was often in conflict with powerful and confrontational unions ( any bells ringing ? ) may have had as much influence as poor steel.

* I only drove an Alfasud once for about 30miles across country on twisty Norfolk lanes and it was a lot of fun, but it also had the the wheel-arches rusting out to the extent that water was getting into the foot-wells. Since it was a company-car, it would not have been more than two or three years old
 
sheet steel will naturally rust, especially when it is left out in the rain and sprayed with gritty, salty water.

There's probably been some improvement in design and paint, but the giant breakthrough came with British Steel's development of Zintec. It does need to be painted, especially scratches, or the coating will eventually erode.

You still see some vehicles made of plain steel, and they rust terribly. Sprinter vans, for example.
 
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Sounds like Phoenix...

I have to confess I love BL stuff and adored my Metros, Maestro and Montegos.

They all did well over 100K before being traded and nothing major went wrong mechanically - just WAT items.

The bodywork gave way eventually, though.
 
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In the 70's and the early 80's Fiat and Lancia had a deal with the Soviet Union to buy shiploads of scrap metal from them. Italian steelworks then processed the scrap into body panels. That's why Fiats and Lancias particularly were notorious for being rot-boxes (and that came from an Italian pensioner I know who worked for many years at the Taranto steelworks in Southern Italy).

It's true. Fiat sold the Russians the plans and tooling for the 124 (which then became the Lada Riva). The Russians had no money and part of the payment was a supply of Russian steel. It was absolutely rubbish quality though, being largely recycled and containing a lot of impurities. Very often, the impurities would set up little microscopic galvanic cells within the sheet steel itself so as soon as the paint was breached, even microscopically, and oxygen got anywhere near it, corrosion set it at a very accelerated rate. Everyone knew the steel was poor quality, but they had a glut of the stuff. The Italian government had a large stake in pretty much the whole of the Italian car industry at the time and forced it to use the steel - which is why it affected all marques pretty evenly. They were all as bad as each other! That came from a Fiat UK insider, now retired.
 
sheet steel will naturally rust, especially when it is left out in the rain and sprayed with gritty, salty water.

There's probably been some improvement in design and paint, but the giant breakthrough came with British Steel's development of Zintec. It does need to be painted, especially scratches, or the coating will eventually erode.

You still see some vehicles made of plain steel, and they rust terribly. Sprinter vans, for example.

I think one of the biggest breakthroughs was the development of weld-through mastics and seam sealers. Spot welded fabrications were always notoriously difficult to protect in the areas between the seams before these were introduced.
 
A lot of cars until twenty years ago....not just Leylands and Fords....but Fiats, Lancias etc. used panels produced from melted down scrap.

The open hearth furnace could use 90% scrap, but the Bessemer converter could only use around 10% scrap so Shotton steel works produced very high quality steel, using scrap metal, until the open hearth furnaces were closed down, they continued coating steel made in south Wales but the steel was a lower quality do to process used. Yes Shotton works was melted down scrap but it was better not worse than the steel from south Wales, but agreements with Europe limited how much steel we could produce, we were producing more than our quota and shutting down production at Shotton would allow south Wales to work flat out which in turn reduced the running costs per unit steel produced.

In the main it was political rather than good management down to chances of government in power being re-elected, same as the Beeching cuts, he never said close down the railway lines, he said if you close down these lines the railways will pay, but there are other factors, but other factors were only considered were there was a marginal seat.

As to British Leyland the old Morris Minor was a really good car when designed, but that engine was kept for far too long, the engine and running gear used in Austin Gypsy was far better than the one used in the Landrover but when the firms merged Gypsy was dropped, as was the champ. The Landrover body was good as light and so kept it more stable, but the way it was made to be changed easy to soft top etc. Resulted in doors never sealed when closed, they were cold draughty machines.

The range rover was a big move forward to permanent 4 wheel drive, and the 110 was a range rover with land rover body, but then it seemed to stop, be it Mini, Marina or any of the others after, they were the same cars with face lifts, no new technology, when they did produce a new engine it was not tested enough before it was released.

When JCB found CAT had bought Perkins and they as a result started to make their own engine the really put it through testing before it was released including putting it into a car and getting land speed record, but JCB is family run. The Leyland group was lacking direction for years. There buses were good, but rest was a shambles. And buses were old, the Leyland Olympian did carry 106 passengers I seem to remember riding on them in Hong Kong. But 1981 these were made, they were not really up dated.
 
Mind you the Innocenti factory in Italy produced a better quality Mini than Longbridge could.
But they did turn it into this monstrosity!!!
Though I can forgive them for the S2 Lambretta and selling the design to Servetta in Spain who made it look even better.
1280px-Innocenti_90_-_120_-_Mini_derivative_A-series_engine.jpg

motorbike303163.jpg
 
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