have had the most amazing reply from fella who is behind the commer site linked above - very, very interesting stuff......
To answer your question, the PA (the PB came later in 65, and had very minor changes - mainly the handbrake went from operating on the rear wheels (very effective!) to operating on the front wheels (not so effective) - I guess cost savings came into it) was designed by the Pressed Steel Company at Cowley, under the watchful eye of the Senior Production Manager at Rootes - Neil Bantham, and Development Engineer Ken Cain.
There were 16 body styles produced by the factory under the
watchful eye of Stan Buss, Body Production Manager.
In typical Rootes Group fashion, it was a parts bin special with the
engine being originally the 1494cc ohv Minx motor (designed by Eric
Coy and his team, who were also responsible for the Hawk and Super
Snipe motors for car and Commer light and heavy truck/bus use and the
TS3 two-stroke motor), the gearbox was out of the Commer Express, the
back axle and prop shaft was Humber Hawk. The front cross member comes from the Sunbeam Alpine with Hawk Wishbones. The door pushbuttons were from the Commer Cob, the rear lights from the Minx, as were the hubcaps, Steering wheel from the Express, etc, etc ,etc A real dip into all the parts that were left lying around!
The first prototype WTN13 was built in 1959 at the Luton works and was tested in Mexico (where they did a lot of truck testing), Spain and Kenya. This lead to a number of design changes during the development changes.
One thing which didn't show up until later was the overheating caused
by the insufficient air intake for the radiator on the first models. A temporary fix was put out in the Service Data updates which were 'semi-secret' to Rootes dealers - I have this somewhere in the collection.After two years, this problem was crudely fixed by the hole in the front with some simple mesh behind the 3 horizontal bars in the series 2 of 1962-64. I must confess I never experienced any over heating in my 1961 which was subjected to a fair amount of abuse being only 19 and bulletproof at the time!
The van was certainly way ahead of the opposition when it first came
out, being quite stylish with its hidden wipers, and had the run of
the field until the Transit came along. It was also the first 3/4 ton
English van to be offered with a diesel engine, though those who had
to work on these models will confirm how little room there was around
the Perkins 4/99. I always ended up with scratches on my wrists when
working on my Commers so it must have been much worse on the diesel,
although they probably took the time to take out the seats and the
engine access panels, a job I only did if I had the time and it was
really necessary!
It was popular with many early bands including the Beatles and Gerry
and the Pacemakers, amongst many others who all probably moved over to the Transit when it came along. The Transit may have been faster up and down the A1 and other English motorways between gigs, but it
probably ended up in the garage more often! I always found the Commer
very simple and easy to work on, compared to the Austin J2/J4 and
Bedford CF.
The production of the van was kept on longer than intended -
transforming into the facelifted Dodge Spacevan, the production of
which was supposed to end in 1981, However it was kept going due to a
huge GPO contact, with whom it was very popular. The last example was
produced at the end of the shift at 3:30pm on 17 February 1983. Not a
bad effort, all things considered. We still have quite a few still on
the road in NZ and they are becoming quite a collectors item, and
proving popular with a new generation of young people. Many in NZ had
interesting engine upgrades including one which had a large V8 in it!
Why I didn't take a picture of this transplant I'll never know, but it certainly would have been a handful with all that weight on the front end. The smaller 149 / 161 c.i. Australian Holden motors (like a small Chev motor) were very popular.
Hope this is of interest
I have a few photos and have written of some of experiences with my
two Commers for another forum, which you are welcome to a copy of, it
if is of interest.
I also have a few new O.S parts and can provide copies of manuals if
this is any help to anyone.
Cheers
Kindest regards,
Howard Pettigrew
Bessie - four star commerdation
