Body & Ash Frame

Hand-built, the British way

On the twin-tube ladder chassis sits a framework of steel tubing supplemented by tongue-and-groove ash framing, and over that are draped hand-formed aluminium panels. Nothing here is pressed out by the thousand: the panels are worked by hand and the timber is cut and fitted to the car in front of the man doing the fitting.

The doors and the frame of the Perspex-windowed rear hatch are made entirely of ash. It is a light, labour-intensive way to build a car — and it shapes both the Aceca's charm and its care. It also explains why no two cars are dimensionally identical, and why a shut line that looks slightly individual is not automatically evidence of damage.

The hatchback and the fibreglass

The Aceca was, after the 1953 Aston Martin DB2/4, only the second production car to feature a rear hatchback — a lift-up tailgate with a Perspex window over a genuine luggage area. For a small British sports coupé of the mid-1950s that was a genuinely forward-looking piece of packaging, and it is a large part of why the car works as a touring machine rather than a weekend toy.

To insulate and quieten the cabin, AC moulded the bulkheads and footwells in fibreglass, an unusual touch for the era and one that says a good deal about the intended character of the car. One small detail for the very early cars: the original aluminium front brake backplates were soon changed to steel.

Where it rots — two enemies

An aluminium-over-ash-and-steel body has two distinct decay problems, and both matter. They are separate faults with separate cures, and it is quite possible for a car to be badly afflicted by one while looking respectable for the other.

• The ash frame rots. Wood plus trapped damp equals rot — especially in the door frames, the hatch frame and the low points where water sits. Rotten framing is structural: look for sagging doors, poor shut lines and soft, spongy timber.
• Electrolytic (galvanic) corrosion. Where the aluminium panels meet the steel frame and fasteners, moisture sets up a galvanic reaction that corrodes the aluminium from behind — bubbling paint, white powder and pinholing along panel edges and seams. Correct insulation between the dissimilar metals is what keeps it at bay.

Living with it

Keep the car dry and ventilated — a damp garage is the enemy of both the ash and the alloy. Check the ash (doors, hatch and lower frame) for softness, and watch panel edges and seams for the tell-tale bubbling of electrolytic corrosion. Both are far cheaper to catch early than to discover during a repaint.

Repairs — letting in new sections of ash frame, and wheeling replacement aluminium panels — are skilled coachwork rather than DIY panel-bashing, so budget for a specialist. Done well, the hand-built body is a large part of what makes an Aceca special.

For the longer treatment of corrosion and body care, see the body and corrosion guide. Body condition is also bound up with how the car feels on the road, so it is worth reading alongside the steering and suspension article and the brakes article.