The Body: Face of Your Vehicle

Introduction to Automobile Body

Body is nothing but the 'face structure' of the automobile. Body is only aspect to provide ergonomics feature in any automobile. Automobile body have front, side and back view for showing its styles. It consist of doors, windows, side panels, fenders, front & rear bumpers, grille, pillar etc. A body sometimes referred to as "coachwork".

The body is that part where passengers have occupies their seats or the luggage and other placed cargo to be carried.

Body is built on the chassis to complete the vehicle. Chassis & body makes the complete automobile vehicle. For small & light car, body & chassis are made as a single unit but in large vehicles both are made as a single unit.

Generally body surface is made from metal or fibre. The body is usually made from a large number of steel pressings which are welded together. The body is bolted to the chassis at numerous points. The rubber or felt-strips being interposed to damp-down (reduce) the vibrations and noise.

Main purpose of the body is to provide safety, comfort, protection & pleasant environment for all the passengers & also the good look.

Most of vehicles Body should fulfil the following requirements:

The body should be light.

It should have minimum number of components.

It should provide sufficient space for passengers and luggage.

It should withstand vibrations while in motion.

It should offer minimum resistance to air.

It should be cheap and easy in manufacturing.

It should be attractive in shape and color.

It should have uniformly distributed load.

It should have long fatigue life.

It should provide good vision and ventilation.

Classification of Automobile Body:

Automobile bodies are classified on the basis of namely; according to major groups, chassis design, class of vehicle, requirement or application based.

The Automobile bodies are divided in two major groups namely:

Passenger Body

Commercial body.

According to Chassis design the body can divided into:

Conventional Type

Integral Type

Semi- Integral Type

According to class of vehicle:

Light vehicle Bodies – cars, jeeps

Heavy vehicle Bodies – Busses, Lorries

Medium vehicle Bodies – Vans, Matadors

According to requirement / as per application of the vehicle:

Car body

Straight truck or Punjab truck body

Truck with half body

Platform type truck body

Tractor body

Tractor with articulated trailer

Tanker body

Bus body or coach work

Dumper truck body

Delivery van body

Station wagon body

Pick up van body

Jeep body

Long wheel base truck body etc.

Transport or commercial vehicle body - Fleet transport vehicle, Transport vehicle, Ambulances vehicle, Transport of Army personal, Ammunition, different types of tanker vehicles etc.

If it is a private vehicle, the vehicle is used for luxury personal travelling, private cargo transport etc., namely car, Minivan, Omni bus, Matador etc.

If it is commercial vehicle the vehicle is used for transportation of goods some other vehicles, freezer boxes etc.

If it is tanker, it is used to transport milk, water, edible oils, petroleum products, gases, acids etc. The tanker bodies are designed according to the relevant requirement.

Fig 1.54: Different automobile bodies

If it is a private vehicle, the vehicle is used for luxury personal travelling, private cargo transport etc., namely car, Minivan, Omni bus, Matador etc.

If it is commercial vehicle the vehicle is used for transportation of goods some other vehicles, freezer boxes etc.

If it is tanker, it is used to transport milk, water, edible oils, petroleum products, gases, acids etc. The tanker bodies are designed according to the relevant requirement.

If it is an army vehicles, the vehicle are separately designed namely Arm truck, heavy long wheel base cargo trucks, long platform trucks etc. These are exclusively used to carry the army personal, arms and ammunition's etc.

Some automobiles manufacturing companies are using long wheel base trucks with closed body structure for transporting of the vehicle produced in their factories to different market outlets.

The private vehicles used in different fields namely Buses of different types, Air Conditioned Buses, Station Wagons etc., Usually Road Transport organization of a state is a fleet organized jointly by the state Government an exclusive body which is to operate buses for travelling of passenger to various places within the state as well as Inter-State travelling also the Road transport corporation organization is having differently designed buses namely ordinary body buses, Deluxe buses , semi luxury buses, Air conditioned buses and also buses with sleeper coach etc.

Types of car body:

(i) Closed cars:

(a)Saloon— has two or four doors, a single compartment with two rows of seats, one at the front and the other at the rear. There is a separate luggage space at the rear or at the front.

(b) Hatchback — a saloon with a door at the back is called hatchback.

(c) Coupe — in this type there is only one row of seats for two persons.

Only two doors are provided. An ordinary 'saloon' with roof -line at decreased height is also called coupe sometimes. The term G.T. (grand touring) added to `coupe' means a car of performance which is better than the average.

(d) Limousine — driving compartment is separated from the rear compartment by a sliding glass division.

(ii) Open cars:

(a) Sports – has two doors or less, is provided with a collapsible hood, a fold -flat windscreen and removable side -screens.

(b) Convertible – the roof in this is of soft folding type and windows of special wind-up design. With these provisions the car may be either open or enclosed.

(iii) Special styles:

(a) Estate Car – a saloon car with the passenger roof extended right up to the rear end. Rear door is use for loading with rear seats usually collapsible.

Fig 1.55: Different Car bodies