Pressed steel had to have had a separate line for the Tiger as it would have caused massive disruption and confusion to build cars bodies of different specifications on the same line.
Tiger bodies were built missing parts that would have been on Alpines. This would have entailed the production of subassemblies of differing design. For instance, rear body sections for the MK1/MK1a didn't have the spare tire mount installed or the battery box either. Jensen didn't remove them, they didn't have to. Pressed steel also installed the additional exhaust brackets. Up front the top hats were not installed, nor was the Alpine tunnel or bulkhead.
Additional deleted parts for the Mk1A included the starter handle tube and a revised support from the back of the grille opening to the back edge of the valance.
This reason for this is twofold. It eliminated waste, and it eliminated a lot of costly remedial paint work. If Jensen would have had to remove all of the redundant Alpine sheetmetal it would required a LOT of paintwork, removing the old Alpine top hats would have required repainting the inner wheelarches completely.
The MK2 Tiger offers even more definitive proof of a separate assembly line in that the rear shelf was completely different from the Alpine as this pressing was now from the Hillman Husky. No battery box hole. If Jensen had been expected to make this modification they would have probably had to repaint the entire rear of the car.
These cars were delivered to Jensen fully painted and partially trimmed (interiors). Rootes was on a tight budget and wanted there to be as little damage to these shells as possible during the process of finishing them to full Tiger bodies.
A good rule of thumb for knowing who did what to these shells, is to look at the welds. If it's spot welded it's Pressed Steel, if it's brazed or mig welded (or flame cut), it's Jensen.
