Archive Scanning News

at the beach

at the beach

Gold forum user
CAT Member
Messages
940
I’ve just returned from a week traveling to England to do some scanning at the Rootes Archive in Banbury. Bill Rogers was over there volunteering about a month ago.

When I got to the Archive I had the pleasure to meet the newest volunteer, Sara Johnstone, who fortuitously for us is a professional archivist. She has scheduled her Friday afternoons to help at the Archive.

Prior to this trip, about 7-thousand engineering drawings had been scanned out of the 160-thousand Aperture Cards in the microfiche collection. That number is now about 11-thousand scanned. Trustees Matt Ollman and Graham Vickery stopped in at times to help with this past week’s scanning effort.
 
Buck,

Thanks to all those doing this tedious but extremely important work for the marque. Having these drawings will answer many questions about the cars and also allow the accurate reproduction of parts into the future.
 
Yes, Jim, it can be tedious but Michael is right - it is also quite important.

As soon as I finished scanning all the new files, they were immediately backed up and that back-up was then taken off site. Those digitized drawings will be with us even if, God forbid, the Archive were to burn down tomorrow. Every scan means another drawing has now been digitally preserved.

At the Archive I was able to examine a very interesting and important item. It was a simple Imp water pump. It was recently reproduced to exact factory specs using Archive drawings. Thirty years ago Doug Jennings sold rebuilt versions for $300. Now an Imp owner can purchase a new reproduction for less than $120. (By the way, the Imp owners club is far ahead of all other Rootes marques in cataloging the collection of their drawings.)

Leaf springs are now being made by the UK Alpine Club from the original Archive drawings. Owners have found they fit better than previous reproductions. This UK Alpine club understands understands "correct" and is not afraid to reproduce when quality can be improved rather than buy lesser quality pieces from existing vendors. Others already are following.

However before Alpine and Tiger owners can go too far, we first have to copy all the drawings and follow by going through each to learn what we have available.
 
Thanks

Bucks thanks from a long time fan of Tigers and a fairly new owner. But a real thank you for the generations of future Tiger fans and owners because of yours and others archives will be there to keep these great cars going.

Cheers
 
Buck - thanks for your hard work. It would be nice in the future to be able to buy any part for a Tiger due to your hard efforts, imagine a set of MkII trim for $250. :)
 
As someone who does 3d computer modelling I can tell you these drawings combined with the advancement in 3d printing and reduction in cost will lead to the ability to economically do small runs, l

Something like the mkii sill trims would be ideal for either metal printing, or... Print a mold to make some cast parts... Might not be economical to make a stamp .

Sane goes for a part like the textured slotted version of the grill badge surround.
 
(I'm so jet lagged right now that I've trouble figuring out what day it is.)
That being said, I believe I did see the drawing for the MKII trim.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top