26-10-2012, 09:05 AM
You won't be dissappointed!
It was 1996 when we went, so things could have moved on a bit, but somehow, I doubt it. They're under no pressure to cut costs or cut corners and can sell everything they make. We'd planned to walk up Malvern Hills, but were rained off, so visited the factory instead. It was all very informal - the receptionist gave us a photocopy of the factory plan and said 'just go through that door into the factory - everyone's on their tea-break at the moment, but they'll soon be back, so meanwhile, just have a wander around', which we did. She said 'don't be afraid to ask anyone anything, they'll be happy to stop and have a chat' as indeed they were.
It was fascinating to see guys cutting a sheet of flat steel, then tapping away at it by hand until it became a wing, a headlamp shell, a bonnet or whatever. I recall the chap who made the leather seats and door panels. He showed us the hide and said 'look, you can see where the cow rubbed up against a tree or some barbed wire and has scored the hide, so I'll have to cut round that bit'.
There aren't any 'models' of Morgan cars as such - every car is purpose made to each client's requirements - do you want black, red or white piping to the seats, do you want a glove box, radio? etc. What colour do you want? (No standard colour chart - if you fancy BMW metalic Bronze, or Mercedes Midnight Blue or whatever, that's your choice). Every car going through the factory has the customer's requirements listed, and you can visit the factory to see your car being made. (Most customers when we went were German).
The quality control was amazing. I saw cars with little chalked rings on the bodywork here and there and asked what that was about. The QC guy said 'they're blemishes which need correction'. Try as I might, I couldn't detect any blemishes, but he could.
I'm not a fan of Morgan cars - I'm just fascinated, indeed enthralled - by the level of skill and seeing raw materials come together as a car. Also, the quirky ethos which would drive any hard-nosed business consultant to distraction, as it did the late Sir John Harvey Jones, all those years ago. (Morgan are still here, he isn't!).
If the guys who make the ash frames are at work, the frames pile up in a corner. If they're on holiday and the frames have all been used, the cars stand idle as 'work in progress' (or rather not in progress!), till the guys come back and make some more.
The other thing is that if a customer has a prang in a Morgan, the guys who repair it are the very ones who built it!
Only in England
It was 1996 when we went, so things could have moved on a bit, but somehow, I doubt it. They're under no pressure to cut costs or cut corners and can sell everything they make. We'd planned to walk up Malvern Hills, but were rained off, so visited the factory instead. It was all very informal - the receptionist gave us a photocopy of the factory plan and said 'just go through that door into the factory - everyone's on their tea-break at the moment, but they'll soon be back, so meanwhile, just have a wander around', which we did. She said 'don't be afraid to ask anyone anything, they'll be happy to stop and have a chat' as indeed they were.
It was fascinating to see guys cutting a sheet of flat steel, then tapping away at it by hand until it became a wing, a headlamp shell, a bonnet or whatever. I recall the chap who made the leather seats and door panels. He showed us the hide and said 'look, you can see where the cow rubbed up against a tree or some barbed wire and has scored the hide, so I'll have to cut round that bit'.
There aren't any 'models' of Morgan cars as such - every car is purpose made to each client's requirements - do you want black, red or white piping to the seats, do you want a glove box, radio? etc. What colour do you want? (No standard colour chart - if you fancy BMW metalic Bronze, or Mercedes Midnight Blue or whatever, that's your choice). Every car going through the factory has the customer's requirements listed, and you can visit the factory to see your car being made. (Most customers when we went were German).
The quality control was amazing. I saw cars with little chalked rings on the bodywork here and there and asked what that was about. The QC guy said 'they're blemishes which need correction'. Try as I might, I couldn't detect any blemishes, but he could.
I'm not a fan of Morgan cars - I'm just fascinated, indeed enthralled - by the level of skill and seeing raw materials come together as a car. Also, the quirky ethos which would drive any hard-nosed business consultant to distraction, as it did the late Sir John Harvey Jones, all those years ago. (Morgan are still here, he isn't!).
If the guys who make the ash frames are at work, the frames pile up in a corner. If they're on holiday and the frames have all been used, the cars stand idle as 'work in progress' (or rather not in progress!), till the guys come back and make some more.
The other thing is that if a customer has a prang in a Morgan, the guys who repair it are the very ones who built it!
Only in England
Regards, David.
BVWS Member.
G-QRP Club Member 1339.
'I'm in my own little world, but I'm happy, and they know me here'
BVWS Member.
G-QRP Club Member 1339.
'I'm in my own little world, but I'm happy, and they know me here'
I thought that the higher the number, the higher the mean temperature was. The higher the mean temperature, the higher the mean heat input. We know that this iron uses a magnet at the remote end of the bit to operate a switch that switches the supply to the heating element on and off (magnet's Curie point). So a higher numbered bit has a greater on / off duty cycle than a lower numbered bit, resulting in the mean heat level to the bit varying accordingly: it won't be constant throughout the bit number range. Since all the bits in the range have the same mass and specific heat, the mean heat input - and thus the resultant temperature - will vary according to the bit number.
