Commer Open Day at The Rootes Archive Centre

Very interesting day at the centre, an aweful lot of information packed into a relatively small space and we were made very welcome by the knowledeable volunteers that run the archive. We managed to find a drawing cabinet full of drawings from the early sixties showing layouts and construction details of the very early FC series vans, felt a bit like a spy snapping away at the drawings:) One spooky thing, there were a few of the drawings we looked at dated 6/11/1961 - 55 years to the day since they were issued.
This is the place to contact if you need any information on design and parts numbers for sure, there are drawings for every conceivable item buried somewhere in there from the 1920's through to the 1980's and it is supported entirely by donations from enthusiasts like us. So please support this facility and help preserve this little piece of history.
Great to meet up with a few folk too including two of our newbies namely Doug and H_CommerMan.
 
Yes, a very interesting day. They do have a huge amount of information there (that's an understatement!). Seems to me it's a bit like the contents of my barn. 99% of it will never be used, but the problem is knowing which is the useful 1%. Thanks to Matt and the crew for welcoming us all, and for the catering.

And I did have a chance to have a good ogle at a big brother Commer Karrier or two.:)
 
...........and you Doug. Good luck with he resto!

Sally (not too interested in tech. drawings of carburettors!) was thumbing through some of the account books and found a leger entry for salary paid to "Issigonis". I've just checked the history of Sir Alec, and he did indeed work for Humber from 1934 to 1936, so this would appear to be a record of a slary paid to the most famous designer of them all. I think JP took a photo of the entry.

This would mean that amongst the drawings of suspension components for the years 1934 to 1936 might well be some drawings initialled by AACI. As even then he was heavily involved in designing novel suspension concepts, it would be interesting to try to dig out some of those drawings.

Oh, and here's one of those big boys' toys I was on about earlier.

IMG_20161106_111523[1].jpg

Now that's what I call a classic truck:)
 
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