Coachbuilt T-Types: The Tickford, the Airline and the Arnolt-MG

Not every T-Type was an open two-seater. A few hundred wore coachbuilt bodies: the elegant Tickford drophead coupé by Salmons & Sons, a handful of Art Deco Airline coupés, and — a decade later — the Italian-bodied Arnolt-MG. All are rare, all are desirable, and all are frequently misunderstood.

Why coachbuilt T-Types exist

In the 1930s a British buyer with the means could purchase a rolling chassis from most manufacturers and have it bodied to taste by an independent coachbuilder. It was also normal for a manufacturer to offer catalogued coachbuilt alternatives to its own factory bodywork, built under contract by an outside firm. MG was no exception.

The appeal was straightforward: comfort and weather protection. Buyers who wanted MG's chassis and engine without the spartan reality of an open sports two-seater could specify roll-up windows, a proper hood and a finished interior. It is worth noting that the standard T-Type body was itself coachbuilt in construction — steel panels tacked over a hand-shaped ash frame — so these more expensive alternatives were not a different technology, only a different and more elaborate execution.

For how the standard T-Type body is put together, and why that matters when a car has been resting for decades, see the pillar article on T-Series bodywork.

The Tickford drophead coupé

The Tickford is the coachbuilt T-Type most owners will actually encounter, and the one with the clearest paper trail.

The coachbuilder

Salmons & Sons was a coachbuilding business of Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, founded in the 1820s by Joseph Salmons at Tickford on the east side of the town — the source of the brand name. The firm was building coachwork for motor cars as early as 1898.

In 1925 Salmons introduced its "All Weather" body, whose folding hood was raised and lowered by inserting a handle into the rear quarter panel and winding — a patented mechanism that became the firm's signature. Through the 1930s the company built catalogued Tickford drophead bodies for BSA, Daimler, Hillman, Lanchester, MG, Rover, Standard, Triumph, Vauxhall and Wolseley. By the late 1930s Salmons employed around 450 people producing roughly thirty bodies a week, with London showrooms at 6–9 Upper St Martin's Lane.

In 1943, following its purchase by Ian Boswell, the company took its trademark as its name and became Tickford Limited. Newport Pagnell would later become the home of Aston Martin.

How a Tickford T-Type was built

The chassis, scuttle and wings were completed at Abingdon. The car was then driven down to Salmons at Newport Pagnell, where craftsmen fitted the Tickford body, interior and hood before the finished car was returned to MG for despatch.

What you got for the money

The Tickford was a genuine step up from the open two-seater. Standard equipment included:

• A three-position drophead hood — fully up, fully down, or set in an intermediate "coupé de ville" position.
• Wind-up windows in the doors.
• A fixed windscreen rather than the folding item of the open car.
• A full leather interior with separate bucket seats.
• Direction indicators.
• A Bluemel's Brooklands banjo steering wheel.

Contemporary opinion likened the result to a scaled-down three-position Derby Bentley. It cost £275 against £222 for the standard two-seater.

Dates and numbers

TA Tickford production began around March 1938, with the model shown publicly in August 1938, and continued until around August 1939. Sources differ on how many were built: figures of approximately 250, 260 and 300 all appear in print. State the range as roughly 250–300 TA Tickfords and treat any single "definitive" number with caution. An estimated 35 or so are believed to be in the United States.

For the TB the published record disagrees more sharply still. Figures of 30, 57 and 60 all appear in the literature, with Clausager's 60 the most commonly cited. Of those built, perhaps thirty are known to survive today.

The archive states these ranges openly rather than picking one number silently. If future work in the club registers settles the question, the article will be updated.

A register exists

The Tickford Register holds records from the Salmons body shop, including the dates individual chassis were delivered for bodying and completed. Any owner of a claimed coachbuilt car should consult it: it is the definitive check on whether a Tickford body belongs to the chassis it now sits on. Body-and-chassis separations are not unknown over eighty-plus years.

The Airline coupé

The Airline is the coachbuilt MG most often misunderstood in T-Type circles, so the T-Type connection has to be stated carefully.

The design

The Airline coupé was designed and marketed by H.W. Allingham of London, a designer with roughly a decade's experience in the industry before setting up on his own. Rather than run a coachworks himself, Allingham sub-contracted construction — principally to Carbodies of Coventry, a firm founded in 1919 by Robert Jones, and one for which MG had been the largest customer between 1925 and 1930. A small number of bodies were built by Whittingham & Mitchel.

The look

Ash frame, sheet-steel skin, and a genuinely striking Art Deco shape:

• A sliding sunroof pierced by a trio of "cathedral" skylights.
• A wind-out windscreen.
• The spare wheel faired into a swept, tapering tail beneath a metal cover.
• Full flowing wings with the rears flicking up at their ends.
• A moulding along the flanks to carry two-tone paint.

The low, purposeful profile came from dropping the body over the outside of the chassis rails rather than sitting it between them. Because cars were built to individual order, details differ from example to example. It has been called the prettiest MG ever made.

The numbers — and the T-Type caveat

Around 51 Airline coupés in total were built on MG chassis between 1934 and 1936. Of that total, roughly 28 were on the PA, 14 were on the PB, and others were on the six-cylinder N-type. The Airline was, in other words, overwhelmingly a P-type and N-type body. Only a few examples were built on the later T-Type chassis, and the exact number is not reliably documented. This article deliberately does not quote a T-Type Airline production figure.

A worldwide list of known MG Airline coupés is maintained by enthusiasts. Survivors of any type are very few.

The Arnolt-MG (1953–1955)

The Arnolt-MG belongs to a different era and a different impulse from the pre-war coachbuilts — it is the only Italian-bodied T-Type.

The story

At the Turin Motor Show in 1952, the Chicago businessman S.H. "Wacky" Arnolt saw two prototypes built on MG TD chassis by Bertone — one open, one a coupé — styled by Giovanni Michelotti. Arnolt, with characteristic confidence, ordered a hundred of each. Bertone's business was struggling in the post-war economy, and by most accounts the order saved the company.

Arnolt shipped the two prototypes to America and showed them at the Elkhart Lake road races in 1953; the first production cars appeared at the New York Auto Show the same year.

The car

Arnolt marketed the model as "the family car with sports car styling and performance". Standard fitment included a leather interior, a telescoping steering column, wind-up windows, map pockets in the doors, and luggage space behind the seats. A radio, heater and wire wheels were available options.

Bertone built the doors, bonnet and boot lid in aluminium and the remainder of the body in steel; the coupé weighed only around 40 lb more than a standard TD. The body was welded, not bolted, to the frame. Most cars used the 54 bhp TD engine; a few late examples took the TF's 1.5-litre unit.

A footnote of interest for anyone who follows British sports cars: Michelotti would go on to style, among much else, the Triumph Stag — so the same hand that shaped this MG shaped one of Triumph's best-known cars.

Summary comparison

Buying, identifying and valuing a coachbuilt T-Type

Practical guidance for anyone looking at, or already owning, a coachbuilt car:

• Verify that the body belongs to the chassis. For Tickfords, consult the Tickford Register and cross-check the factory production records. See the guide to chassis and engine number identification.
• Expect ash-frame work. A coachbuilt body has more timber, more complex joinery and more trim than a standard T-Type, so restoration is correspondingly more expensive and more specialised. Read the pillar article on T-Series bodywork before committing to a project car.
• Trim and hood are the expensive parts. The three-position Tickford hood mechanism, and the leather trim that goes with it, are not simple items to recreate correctly.
• Rarity commands a premium — but condition and originality matter as much as on any T-Type. See the Values & Price Guide for what the standard cars are trading for; note that no reliable published values series exists specifically for coachbuilt cars, so specialist valuation is essential.
• Beware conversions. Given the values involved, satisfy yourself that a coachbuilt car is what it claims to be, not a standard car re-bodied later.

If you own a coachbuilt T-Type, the archive would be glad of photographs and chassis details — please add your car to the Registry.

Sources

• MG Car Club T Register, *T Type Factory Production Records*.
• Anders Ditlev Clausager, standard marque histories — TB Tickford figures.
• The Tickford Register and the surviving Salmons & Sons body shop records.
• Published marque and coachbuilding histories for Salmons & Sons of Newport Pagnell, Carbodies of Coventry and Carrozzeria Bertone.

Consulted July 2026. Production figures for coachbuilt cars vary between published sources; this article states ranges rather than false precision. If you have primary evidence that would tighten a figure, please write in via the About page.

_Last reviewed: July 2026._