Silent Saloon.

[Malcolm Parker]

Jon's summary is correct.

It would have been nice to make the build as accurate as possible, but we haven't been able to arrange access to the Freehollow car and the expense account won't stretch to a trip to Switzerland!

This leaves us with a pair of doors and the firewall as the only original parts to work with.  Using these and extensive and detailed scaling from period photos, plus the published pictures of the Freehollow restoration, I reckon that we're pretty close to the original design, but with the best will in the world it isn't going to be a 100% perfect replica. 

In view of this and in consultation with the owner we've decided to take the opportunity to make a considerably more robust look-alike body, if at the expense of an increase in weight.  However, the flimsiness of the original GE construction is the very reason that so few survive and even if accurate drawings were available, I'm not certain that I'd have wanted to build an "unimproved" replica.

When you make the floorpan for a replica GE Silent Saloon, will you attach it to the body as originally, ie mountings at the lower sides of the scuttle and a third mounting under the spare wheel, or will the floorpan be an integral part of the body?
Whilst the original design was ingenious, it clearly was not very successful as many of these cars developed problems early on when the rear mounting failed, causing the body to drop onto the wheel arches.   It seems that within a few years, GE dropped the idea of a plywood floorpan in favour of a much more robust steel structure as used in the Wembley Saloon ( a detail yet to be confirmed).
When I built my Pytchley Saloon evocation, I made a very rigid floorpan out of 10mm plywood with 1" x 1" ash between the panels, glued and screwed together.  The floorpan had much more rigidity than a steel Chummy type floorpan as used on most vintage Austin 7's.   I took the view that if the floorpan is very rigid and the chassis is fitted with high camber, supple springs, body flexing should not be a problem.   To date the Pytchley has not displayed any evidence of body distortion.  I don't wish to tempt fate, it will probably fall to pieces at the entrance to Moreton in Marsh Fire Service College next July!  Bit like the Dawlish/Barrington Lea Francis in 'Monte Carlo or Bust'.