Kit bodies line kitty at
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JUST north of Manchester, in the village of Shaw, Buckstones Motor Bodies have been producing commercial vehicle bodywork for 30 rears. Their range includes tiodels for rigid vehicles up to 30ft long and trailers, too, up to 40ft, up until recently, but due to shortage of production space, these have been dropped until their new factory is built next year. Expansion has already taken place with the purchase of Hill and Smith, of Oldham Ltd, who handle the dropside and platform bodies section of production, leaving the factory at Shaw free to concentrate on box type bodies.
Customers usually provide their own chassis to be bodied because the company are not bank stockists. But good relations with local vehicle agents allow a ready supply of many types of chassis cab at short notice. Production is running at about 25 units a week at a cost to the costumer of between £800 and £15,000 depending on the size specification.
The basic box body of riveted and bolted construction uses aluminium throughout with optional wood or chequerboard flooring but grp doors are fitted on all vehicles.
In 1974, the company entered the reefer market, providing units to ATP standards for rental companies such as Avis, BRS, Ryder and Brook Van Hire, Manchester, who wanted to answer a demand from their own customers who prefer to rent while the inflation lasts.
Buckstones differ from other body manufacturers in the design and method of construction.
Managing director Mike Dougdale, looking for ways to provide more outlets for the product, hit on the idea of kit bodies. To make this fit in with existing roduction, however, required considerable planning and partial redesigning of the basic structures. After lengthy discussions and surveys of existinglcusto m e rre q u i re ments, the conception of the new '50' series was formulated with the assistance of his design drawing office staff.
Good looks
Aim of the '50' series was to combine simplicity of construction with strength and good looks. The cantrail sections and side pillars remain basically the same as those used on previous models, but corner posts and the bottom side have been improved to provide extra strength and versatility to suit the complete range of vehicle sizes. High impact strength is built into the new webbed structures as well as being designed to give a pleasingly aesthetic appearance. The bottom side can also offer location for various types of rub rail sections which, again, have been built to withstand greater force on impact.
All special extruded sections including the side pillars, corner pillars, cantrails and panels are pre-punched under semi-automatic conditions covering over 23,000 permutations