Visit to a Bus Body Building Facility

[v1kram]

Had a chance to visit one of the bus body building unit in Karur, Tamil Nadu. Was there to check the work done on my friend's bus.Noticed some of old BMTC buses which were not delivered due to some issues.

[fx45]

i dont understand the 2nd last and 3rd last pics

are those old chasis going for scrap and their bodies being put on new chasis?

[sanjugun]

In some of the pictures side profile 0f the shells have been shown i do not see any diagonal stiffners where strech panel (i dont think strech this)will fit (below the window).I doubt the safety of these buses in case of overturning.
i also note that rear and front are not in one piece.

[BaCkSeAtDrIVeR]

Looks a bit like a repair yard. With some body building activity.

Look at the registered vehicles, with "TVSCOACH" monogram - the first bus, for example.

It seems that they no longer use wood for body building? If so, it is a very good move. I thought only TVS/Irizar used to do it.

Even 10 years, back, they used to put on MS angles ( 1 - 1 1/2 inch ) on to the chassis, screw on wood on to them, and then hammer on the aluminium body sheets on to the wood.

@fx45 - looks more like the body is going to be scrapped and new built on the chassis. (at least, that is practise. Bus bodies tend to get rickety rackety after 5 to 8 years, which is a turn off for passengers on "long routes" (more than 40 KM one way). So owners usually rebuild the bodies when the bodies become a pain to maintain. But look at the FRP / PVC drivers seat on the first chassis? FRP drivers seats are not used on vehicles plying on routes - mostly because it will set the drivers' bottoms on fire!!!! I am not very sure it is an old vehicle.

It is possible that workshops retain the bodies as it for some time, to look for operators on still shorter / intra city routes who may want to buy such bodies.

However, given that chassis overhangs and wheel bases do not exactly match, such "transplant" is not very easy.

[nickatnite]

The bus designs of these independent contractors are actually more pleasing to the eye than the troll like cars being dished out by the major automakers here.

[tsk13]

Looking at this, it seems Coach builders in the North lay more emphasis on aesthetics, as I've noticed Sutlej, Amar, JCBL, HMM, Azad etc. producing some really fantastic bodies. Just a personal opinion taking into account this thread.

I've seen that buses from West Bengal are a lot curvy, one can spot them in Delhi during Urs (Pilgrimage to Ajmer Sharif, stopover at the Dargah of Khwaja Nizamuddin Aulia, New Delhi) season.

[v1kram]

Originally Posted by fx45

i dont understand the 2nd last and 3rd last pics

are those old chasis going for scrap and their bodies being put on new chasis?

Actually those buses were built for BMTC (private operator), the party didn't turn up since there was some financial issues, later couple of body was removed from the chassis and sold for other parties. Chassis is lying there getting rusted for the past couple of years.

Originally Posted by sanjugun

In some of the pictures side profile 0f the shells have been shown i do not see any diagonal stiffners where strech panel (i dont think strech this)will fit (below the window).I doubt the safety of these buses in case of overturning.
i also note that rear and front are not in one piece.

The rear panel has two pieces joined together and the front panel is a single piece.

Originally Posted by BaCkSeAtDrIVeR

Looks a bit like a repair yard. With some body building activity.

Look at the registered vehicles, with "TVSCOACH" monogram - the first bus, for example.

It seems that they no longer use wood for body building? If so, it is a very good move. I thought only TVS/Irizar used to do it.

Even 10 years, back, they used to put on MS angles ( 1 - 1 1/2 inch ) on to the chassis, screw on wood on to them, and then hammer on the aluminium body sheets on to the wood.

@fx45 - looks more like the body is going to be scrapped and new built on the chassis. (at least, that is practise. Bus bodies tend to get rickety rackety after 5 to 8 years, which is a turn off for passengers on "long routes" (more than 40 KM one way). So owners usually rebuild the bodies when the bodies become a pain to maintain. But look at the FRP / PVC drivers seat on the first chassis? FRP drivers seats are not used on vehicles plying on routes - mostly because it will set the drivers' bottoms on fire!!!! I am not very sure it is an old vehicle.

It is possible that workshops retain the bodies as it for some time, to look for operators on still shorter / intra city routes who may want to buy such bodies.

However, given that chassis overhangs and wheel bases do not exactly match, such "transplant" is not very easy.

It's TVR Coach builders and my friend's vehicle was there since it was damaged in an accident, they are one of the oldest customers for TVR and continue to build their bus body for the past 15 years.

There are wooden panels screwed to the angles, picture 7 shows the body built on a old chassis and picture 11 is a body for mini bus.

Originally Posted by nickatnite

The bus designs of these independent contractors are actually more pleasing to the eye than the troll like cars being dished out by the major automakers here.

True, there is no much importance given to safety features, most of the MTC buses are built by them (approx 300 buses built for TNSTC including some lengthier coaches). Also they build buses for APSRTC.

Originally Posted by tsk13

Looking at this, it seems Coach builders in the North lay more emphasis on aesthetics, as I've noticed Sutlej, Amar, JCBL, HMM, Azad etc. producing some really fantastic bodies. Just a personal opinion taking into account this thread.

I've seen that buses from West Bengal are a lot curvy, one can spot them in Delhi during Urs (Pilgrimage to Ajmer Sharif, stopover at the Dargah of Khwaja Nizamuddin Aulia, New Delhi) season.

These coach builders based in karur are mainly for South Indian operators and mainly bodies are made for city buses and short distance routes. PEE TEE coach based in karur are the main exporter of quality buses. Airbuses and other luxury brands are mostly built by Prakash, Veera, IRIZAR TVS etc.

[pacman2881]

Originally Posted by sanjugun

In some of the pictures side profile 0f the shells have been shown i do not see any diagonal stiffners where strech panel (i dont think strech this)will fit (below the window).I doubt the safety of these buses in case of overturning.
i also note that rear and front are not in one piece.

That reminds me of one question that pops out everytime I see a workshop with stripped down buses- Do we have any safety standards enforced on these bus body builders? Are these designs completely unregulated? These buses are the only means of transport apart from trains for a majority in our country and I cannot imagine such a industry unregulated!

[Mpower]

Vikram

Is the full body in fiber or is it just the front part??

If you have pics of fiberglass lay up , pls share

[nitrous]

Only the front part, Mpower.
Full fibre bus body ain't really practical in the conditions and customers wouldn't prefer it.

[v1kram]

Originally Posted by Mpower

Vikram

Is the full body in fiber or is it just the front part??

If you have pics of fiberglass lay up , pls share

Both front and rear panels are of fibre or combination, on customer's request it can be changed, mostly people prefer fibre since it's rust free, but in case of any minor accident fibre body has disadvantage. I just have one picture of the rear, couldn't manage more since it was raining.

[Ramsagar]

That was a nice visit. Want more pics.
what is the Ashok Leyland doing. Did it come for a body work? That's great.

[v1kram]

Originally Posted by Ramsagar

That was a nice visit. Want more pics.
what is the Ashok Leyland doing. Did it come for a body work? That's great.

Thanks, couldn't take more pictures due to bad weather. Ashley new chassis was there for body work. The number of new chassis coming for body work during this time of the year will be less.

[manjith_pm]

Bus building has always fascinated me.I've heard that High end builders like prakash,veera source their interiors from korea for customized buses.A fibre glass bus was made in th 90's for a film shoot of a tamil movie.the bus was a rage.Looks like india will have there own
RV's. btw does anyone know how much it would cost to build an RV?

[nairrk]

I know, Karur has got many body building(mainly bus) factories.
I have seen few of them, when was driving through Karur few years back.
Nice pictures but most of them are looks like they have come for repair work than new body building?