PEEL 

ENGINEERING   COMPANY

The Shipyard,

 Peel, Isle of Man

It is well documented that Peel Engineering produced Micro cars, but prior to these they made bodyshells for Ford Eight, Ten and similar chassis. If you can help with info and pictures, please email me.

Peel made at least three shells that were suitable for the Ford Eight and Ten chassis. The earliest advert we know of is from October 1953. This makes The Peel one of the first fibreglass bodies to be sold in the United Kingdom.

This is photo of the Type 1b bodyshell was taken on the bridge at the top of Peel Harbour that leads to Peel Engineering

(Photo courtesy of Malcolm Buckler)

Then in the November 1953 edition of The Autocar  there was an article showing two views of the Type 1a which was a similar shell, but the front wings were streamlined and didn't have provision for the headlights.  The headlights on the Type 1a were normally placed either side of the front air intake.

Three views of a Mk1a shell with different frontal treatment.

This line drawing from an early Peel brochure shows that a hardtop was also available

These early shells were also advertised as being available from the Campbell Sports Car Company of Ontario who were designated the sole agents for Canada and North America and they were stated as being suitable for Buckler multi tube space frames as well as chassis of a similar wheelbase. I'm not sure when these early bodyshells stopped, but by February 1956 a more refined Ford based sports car shell was being marketed by Peel.

Their best known Ford based bodyshell was the P.1000 and was quite a good looking shell in my opinion

This factory shot was used in Peels adverts for the P.1000

The shell was supplied with integral bulkheads, moulded in dashboard, door pillars etc with fastening reinforcements all bonded in. The air intake was left uncut so that the builder could incorporate a grill of his own choice or design. The factory car is sporting what looks like a Morris MM grill, while the poor quality photo below is showing something similar to a Jaguar XK120 grill.

Shells were available in Green, Red, Blue, Black, Light grey and Ivory and the cost of the standard body was £75. A 2-4 seat version could be ordered for an extra £5 and a hardtop was also available for £20. Delivery to the mainland would cost £3.10 shillings and my sales leaflet from March 1958 states a 4-5 week delivery time from receipt of the order and a £10 deposit.

The P.50 was introduced in 1963, so whether the P.1000 was still available I don't know, although the last advert was October 1959.

Only two Peel 1000's are known, and it is thought that there are no survivors of the Types 1a &1b, so if you have one please get in touch.

Thanks to both Malcolm Buckler and Malcolm McKay for the information they have provided for this page.