Patent GB-508365-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to vehicles
IPC: B62D23/00
Filed: 1937-11-25
Abstract: 508,365. Vehicle bodies. SMITH, S. Nov. 25, 1937, No. 32450. [Class 108 (i)] A sheet metal bodv shell for an automobile vehicle has a body part made up of sides 10, top 11, front 13 and back 12, a body sill of inwardly facing channel form extending beneath the door opening or openings 30, a reinforcement plate or plates 28, 29 extending along and closing the open side of the body sill or sills to form a box girder along the door thresholds and a separately formed base 14 constituting the floor of the body and completing the shell, the base 14 having integral flanges 27 disposed transversely of the main plane of the base and lap jointed to correspondingly disposed portions 41 of the sides of the body part substantially in the plane of the reinforcement members. The base may be formed of a front portion 16 and a rear portion 17 divided along the line of the rear wheel centres and welded at 18 and shaped along this line to form a tunnel 23 accommodating the differential and rear axle, a second longitudinal tunnel 22 closed by a strip 24 secured by bolts 25 being provided for the propeller shaft 19. The base is stiffened by pressed-out obliquely disposed corrugations 26. As shown in Fig. 4, the reinforcement strips 28, 29 are of angled form and welded to the sides and base and the edges are waved at 31 to avoid a rigid junction line between them and the base. A channel 32 along the centre of the rear base part 17 closed by a welded &c. strip 33 forms a continuation of the tunnel 22. The nose 34 of the body has secured thereto a cradle 35 constituting the anchorage for the front wheel suspension means. The rear wheels are accommodated in recesses 42 pressed from the body sides, which recesses also house the laminated springs 43 carried by pins 45 extending across the space formed by the vertical wall of the recess 42 and laminated plates fixed within the recess. The reinforcing strips 28, 29 may extend the whole length of the body sides or stop short at the wheel recesses 42, being then continued along the rear of the body by strips 46, 47. Vertical hollow door pillars 48 of channel, section are pressed in the sides and may be reinforced by welded-on strips completing a box section. Additional reinforcement strips 61 are provided in the nose of the body which is further stiffened by a sloping toe board 62 with flanged edges welded to the base, sides and top of the front portion of the body shell ; the toe board may have an opening to give access to the engine closed by a removable door 63 and forms a support for a resilient bearing 64 for the rear end of the engine whilst the forward end of the engine may be supported resiliently upon rubber pads fixed between metal plates anchored to the engine casing and cradle respectively. By removing the bolts connecting the plates to the cradle and the bolts securing the housing for the resilient bearing 64, the engine can be removed from the front of the body, a releasable joint being formed in the propeller shaft preferably behind the front universal joint to permit this. Fig. 9 shows a modification of the arrangement of the body and base junction reinforcing plates 28, 29, the plate 28 being carried down and secured between the flange 27 on the base 14 and the flange 41 on the body side. In a further modification, Fig. 10, wherein the base is disposed at the level of the door opening, one reinforcement plate 57 is welded to the base 14 and the other reinforcement plate 56 has its edges welded'between plate 57 and body flanges 41 and between base flanges 27 and door opening flanges 55. Specifications 411,881, 412,195, 412,203 and 501,640 are referred to.