Crayford Engineering
Crayford Engineering was a British coachbuilder specializing in the conversion of production vehicles into station wagons and convertibles.
Company history
The company was founded in 1962 by David McMullan and Jeffrey Smith. The first project of the small workshop in Westerham / Kent in Great Britain was a convertible conversion of the Mini for 100 pounds, of which they made around 800. A characteristic of these conversions is that no painting work was generally required. This kept costs low. Later the price rose to 150 pounds, but the side windows were now fully retractable.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the outsourced business division Crayford Auto Developments Ltd appeared, which specialized in converting limousines to convertibles and station wagons ( called Estate in England ). The better-known products that Crayford offered included other convertible versions of the Mini , the BMC 1100/1300 , the VW Scirocco I (under the name Crayford Tempest ), the Audi 100 , the Opel Commodore and Opel Rekord (Opal), the Opel Manta (Centaur), the Mercedes-Benz 280 CE (W 123 series), the BMW 1602 and of course various models from Ford, such as Ford Capri (Caprice, built by Karl Deutsch GmbH in Cologne for Crayford), Ford Cortina Mk1-5, Ford Corsair , Ford Fiesta (Fly).
Some unknown custom-made products were also realized at Crayford, such as the Mercedes-Benz 350 SEL Landaulet (W 116 series), Mercedes-Benz 600 Landaulet (W 100 series) or Mercedes-Benz 450 SLC Estate (Condor, C 107 series) and others some more.
In addition, Crayford made station wagon conversions based on the Triumph TR7 and various Mercedes models such as the Mercedes S-Class W 116 series , which served as the donor vehicle for the Ford Granada station wagon, or the Mercedes-Benz Stroke 8 , the Audi 100 , the Rover P6 and the conversion of the Leyland Princess with a large tailgate.
In the mid-1980s, Crayford gave up all remodeling activities. The company continues to exist and is dedicated to the construction of ATVs ( All Terrain Vehicles ), boats and special vehicles for special purposes ( rescue services , fire brigade and the like).
gallery
Mercedes-Benz station wagon from Crayford
One of nine Audi 100-based convertibles
Crayford Morris 1300 Cabriolet
literature
- Harald H. Linz, Halwart Schrader : The International Automobile Encyclopedia . United Soft Media Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-8032-9876-8 .
