Hello All
I worked at Zetland in Experimental for 4 years and Product Engineering for 4 years, I did major and minor projects I organized the 2nd army Moke build on C,R. 8698 also ADRs and the heater mods to the Moke in 76 at Enfield. Some other achievement's were the hand building of the P76 floor. We used to hire the service station at Charlieville to test the cars. The cars were driven on the rough roads and I did the underframe inspections ,the cars had no structural problems. Anyhow I am in the Hunter Morris Club and I also go to the BMC Leyland Reunion each year If there are any ex employees on this site please let me know as you would be welcome to attend the reunion .We need the numbers.
Allen

Good idea Allen.

Hi Allen, my father, now deceased, was an industrial tool designer and did lot of work with BMC in the 1960s to ‘70s. I remember he did some tooling for the Morris Major Elites, 1100s, Tasmans (I think). While he didn’t work on P76, he must have still been doing something with BLMC around then as he used to talk about the P76s coming off the assembly line without any rear shocks! A friend of mine also lived next door to John Rose who I think was fairly high up in BMC again probably in the in the late 60s and 70s.

Clip , I liked to watch the toolies make and machine the dies, also the way the press tools were finished was amazing. It was not until 1934 that a full turret was pressed by Chrysler, now we can press any shape using 0.6 mm HSLA steel.
Allen

Dad had lots of stories, like the time an apprentice was pressing out some panels but no one told him he had to remove each one after pressing. No one realised what he was doing until they heard the press explode!
Dad was (according to him) the person that suggested they use Teflon to coat the panels when drawing them as they were having problems drawing the panels for the MM Elite. After that worked they called him the Teflon kid.

Teflon ,good idea there were a lot of intelligent people working there. In 75 I was asked to help with the side intrusion tests carried out at Leyland Liverpool Sydney. While I was working there in 75 there was a big hail storm in Sydney. The cars at Liverpool that were not undercover received hail damage , approx 30 cars most of them were minor damage .Anyhow I got the job to repair them ,easy work but boring to do ,in those days you used heat to fix the hail. Today you use glue ,puller or levers etc. Paintless dent repairs which is OK. The car we used to pick up parts was the P76 station wagon. Sorry about all the stories.
Allen

Looks like I am the only ex employee on this site that was employed at Zetland Sydney. I Guess most of them have passed away. At one time there were 5300 employees. I had access to every section and I have information that is valuable to me. You had to be there to appreciate how well run the plant was.
Allen 8 years at Zetland

Don't be sorry. Tell us more.
And I hope you are writing down some of your experiences.

Are you speaking of Charleville, in Qld?

Charleville Qld,thats where we tested the P76s. With the prototypes we fitted Holden bodies onto the P76 underframe also using the P76 suspension .At that time everything was secret, as the other manufactures would steal our thunder eg wipers that when turned off you did not see them, Same strut suspension for the 6 and the eight,rear trailing arm rear suspension LARGE boot which a 44gallon would fit .I enjoyed testing these vehicles, driving on the dirt they seem to handle better than my CS. The cars had no problems except for the 6 as the exhaust was a bit close to the floor which we fixed before production started. In those days there were no computers to help with design. We also tested production cars.
Allen

Excellent stories, Thank you very much!
Do you, by chance, have any late Clubman Van (1976) stories from either Zetland or even Enfield?
Best regards,
Mark

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AKA "theminimark" or just plain "mark"
76 Leyland van with Rearside windows

Hello Mark, Thanks for the nice comments ,I did have a yellow Clubman Van ,no side windows I used it for transporting 1 off components which I made eg steel mandrels for Epping Rubber ,Sheet metal components for the first heart monitor 1n 1976,I also did many more projects which I made from engineers drawings. I also did door modifications to the Leyland Boxer truck's to meet ADRs anti burst specs. This was done at Revesby Sydney. Zetland was closed in 1974 .Then the mini was built at Enfield Sydney .Ron Moss was the boss ,he would call me when there was a need as they did not have many staff with product knowledge. I was a free lancer with never ending work. I also obtained the first mini clubman built .Currently I am helping oldies with their car body restorations. I still make panels and for the Hunter Morris club my labor is free. I have also helped with the the restoration of Caddies Packies Chevvies etc great cars currently I am looking for a a Duesenberg. Allen

After I left school in 1970 I worked at Zetland for 6 months in the shipping dept in the new building. I had to go to the airport each day to pick up docs from the customs agent.
One day I picked up slides from the Italian designer who designed the P76.
On our way to the canteen we wld pass experimental and seen a new Holden sedan having the floor cut out to take the P76 floor.
It had the front flares widened to accept the wider track of the P76. Spent many a time in CAB1 and CAB 2.
Got to know the guys in VRMC well.

My father was a Hardware Engineer and went on a number of the Charleville trips. I have home movies that include…
P76 Prototype and the Holden bodied P76’s.
1100’s with 1500 running gear.
Preproduction Kimberly and Tasman
And an Austin Ant 4wd

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68 Morris Cooper S Mk1 (*ex 78 1275 LS 4th last built, 70 Morris 1500 OHC & 70 MiniMatic)

Phil's father worked on the layout table near me he was a brilliant engineer with natural flare. The days before CAD. Not many engineers with a natural flare left Chip Foose is one check his redesign of the E type jaguar on U tube. Also Don Boye, Phils father was a gentleman.
Allen