Some conversions were worked at the Crayford plant in Westerham, UK, but many—particularly the W114 / W115 series wagons—were also built for them by, or in cooperation with, FLM Panelcraft at Fulham.
According to the Crayford Registers in Crayview* magazine, the W116 Crayford Estate was first built in 1974 at the Crayford plant in Westerham.
[*Crayview: quarterly organ of the Crayford Convertible Car Club; Issue #74, (northern) Spring 2005].
However, not all were built by Crayford or in the UK. The detail of the rear end (especially cargo-area trim) varied slightly among the different builders—and possibly even amongst examples from the same works, given the hand-built nature of the projects.
Some were built under licence to Crayford by:
-
Harpers of Detroit, USA. -
Hooper of California, USA.
-
Cooper and Cooper of Johannesburg, South Africa (who built many of
the W114 series wagon conversions) might have built some W116 Crayford
estates under licence (this is conjecture until proof positive arises). -
Dawes, Jones and Hawkins of Melbourne, Australia. This story is still
unfolding, but thanks to Chris Martin’s persistent research, the following
is known.
An apprentice remembers …
A former employee, who remembered building one or maybe two Mercedes-Crayford wagons, was apprenticed to a restoration company in Melbourne in 1976. This company—Dawes and North Coachbuilders—was born from the ill-fated Illinga project, of which two cars were finished and shown at the Melbourne Motor Show in the mid ’70s. Some of the workers in the Illinga business, Tom Dawes and Laurie North, formed the company and employed many of the original guys; the company shared the Davies Craig Thermatic Fan factory in Port Melbourne and then moved into bigger premises in Keysborough.
The company then morphed into Dawes and Jones. At some time it became Dawes, Jones and Hawkins (our informant admits his memories of this time are a bit vague). Neville Hawkins was, at the time, a wealthy entrepreneur and also a car enthusiast who had one of the W116 wagons (it may have been blue). He imported one, maybe two, kits from England and they built one—a silver car—and may have done the second car, too.
Hawkins departed, and the company struggled on until the owner of the factory, who by this time was owed many months in back rent, pulled the pin and locked the place up.
Dawes and a fellow worker, Adrian Chapman, moved the business to Morrabbin, Victoria, and continued there for a time.
Company founder explains …
An email from David McMullan (Crayford founder) in Spain explains:
“I once sent my foreman Alan Dawkins to Australia to teach a body shop there how to convert the wagon S class,” which I am guessing is the aforementioned business in Melbourne.
As David McMullan still keeps in touch with Alan Dawkins when visiting the UK, he may be able to jog Alan’s memory to see if he can confirm the above story.
