I never knew that - Morris Traveller

Yup - it's a load bearing frame. Which is why they didn't offer an alternative without wood - like other makers did.

Didn't realise the roof was ally, though.

Yup. In the 70's when a mate and I were buying our first houses, I was dealing with dry rot in the house while he had it in the car.

a silly bit of trivia but 60/70s Dennis fire engines were built the same way on top of a ladder chassis

It was the traditional way of building a car body once. But an internal frame with the panels on the outside. Certainly lasted after WW2 with some

- and not surprised it lasted longer with limited production vehicles like a fire engine.

So Edna Everage's comment about "There's a half-timbered car!" really is true.

The Moggy 1000 van was the same. The front was held in place by the bolt on rear.

Yes, I saw it on a program about cars some years back. It seemed like an archaic approach but, I think, Morgan got a mention as still using wood in their cars for structural parts.

I believe a Traveller could fail its MOT if certain parts of the wood weren't sound.

While you see Morris Minors fairly often, I've not seen a Traveller in years.