AP Metalcraft

AP Aircraft AP Metalcraft
legal form	Limited Company
founding	1938
Seat	Coventry , UK
Branch	Body shop

AP Metalcraft was a British automobile body manufacturer that manufactured standardized superstructures for Lea-Francis and Alvis in the first decade after World War II .

Company history

The company was founded in 1938 as a metalworking company under the name AP Aircraft . The abbreviation AP referred to Austin and Perks, the surnames of the company's founders. The company was based in Coventry . He used the premises of the body manufacturer Cross & Ellis , which had been liquidated shortly before due to insolvency .

During the Second World War, AP Aircraft manufactured sheet metal cladding for aircraft. After the end of the war, the company renamed AP Metalcraft and turned to the manufacture of automobile bodies. Initially, Lea-Francis commissioned it to produce 200 “ Woodie ” -style station wagons for the 14 series . In 1950 AP also worked for Alvis. AP produced all 100 bodies of the Alvis TB 14 roadster and all 31 bodies of the successor TB 21 on behalf of the factory. Both were open, sporty versions of the four-door models TA 14 and TA 21 . The design did not come from AP itself; the shape of the roadster was rather based on a one-off that the Belgian body manufacturer J. F. Bidée had shown in Brussels.

After the Alvis order expired, AP ceased body production.

gallery

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  Lea-Francis 14 with "Woodie" construction from AP

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  Alvis TB 14

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  Alvis TB 21 Sports Roadster with AP body (1952)

literature

• Gillian Bardsley: Vintage Style: Story of Cross and Ellis, Coachbuilders. Brewin Books, 1993, ISBN 1-85858-011-0 .
• Nick Walker: A – Z of British Coachbuilders 1919–1960 . Herridge & Sons, Shebbear 2007, ISBN 978-0-9549981-6-5 .

Web links

Commons : AP Metalcraft coachwork  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ John Fox: Alvis Cars 1946-1967: The Post-War Years , Amberley Publishing Limited, 2016, ISBN 9781445656311 , p. 38.