Commercially I'm aware of repeaters made of "research line" transmitter and receiver "strips" which were a chassis scheme that was used in base stations and mobiles of the day, 1950's. I also recall they were "wide" deviation, 15kHz instead of 5kHz. The earliest commercial unit I've ever serviced was an upright cabinet VHF based on research line strips circa 1960's, it was either built or converted to narrow deviation when I saw it. It would be interesting to learn when Motorola offered a factory configured repeater vs something built from parts in the field.
Mark K5LXP
Albuquerque, NM