1967 Camaro assembly line

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Ralph Spears

Why are the full size cars mixed in with the Camaro's

I think you mean "why are there Camaros mixed in with the full size cars?"



That's how it was done (and how it is done).

Multiple products going down the same line, because one product line alone could not float all of that overhead cost, or to level the production workload between plants.

Fremont was similar in their product mix.

When I started at Hamtramck we had Cadillac CTS, Buick Lucerne and Chevy Volt going down the same line.

K

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by PeteLeathersac

‘

Gotta love the last shot w/ first drive, somehow you can hear the tires screeching over background noises?

~ Pete

.

Yes - you can.

K

[Ralph Spears]

I grew up near the Framingham Mass GM plant in the mid sixties through the seventies they built the mid size cars there chevelle skylark cutlass Lemans but no convertibles they were built in Baltimore MD

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Ralph Spears

I grew up near the Framingham Mass GM plant in the mid sixties through the seventies they built the mid size cars there chevelle skylark cutlass Lemans but no convertibles they were built in Baltimore MD

That's a good point, too: sometimes there are production "monuments" in the plant that would not permit certain combinations to be built there.

In the full size truck world, Flint Assembly could build all combinations (ie, 2wd, 4wd, 10,20,30 series, regular cab and crew cab) but did not have the width to build dual rear wheeled vehicles. Those went to Janesville.

When the dealer orders came into Central Office they were meted out to the final assembly location somewhat based on geography, but also based on which plants could handle which option content.

K

[Keith Seymore]

A couple observations here:

1 - see the cars that seem to be going "the wrong way"?

Typically at the end of the final line there is what was called "short line repair". This would be a moving repair line for taking car of small issues that could be handled while the car is still moving (ie, back up lamps don't work, or quick and dirty fitment issues, A/C recharge, etc). For bigger issues the car would be moved to a static stall (aka "Heavy repair") for things like engine R&R, or axle swaps, or frame swaps.

There was typically a similar setup for paint repair: a short moving line for quick and easy stuff, and then a separate are for more major repair up to and including repainting the whole vehicle.

2 - see the flooring. It's those d@mn wood blocks. They were nasty.

They were hardwood, like 4x4 chunks set on end, and coated with something like creosote.

I'm not sure what the motivation for using them was; perhaps because they could be removed easily for assembly line rerouting at model change, or for repairs, or to provide some "cushion" if material (or a vehicle) got dropped.

But they were hard to walk or stand on all day, uneven, slippery, got the sealer all over everything, and made the area dark.

I used to take my shoes off and set them in the truck bed before getting in and wear clean shoes into the house. When I got to work the next day I'd remove my clean shoes, put on my steel toed Redwings and head back in.

K

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

I used to take my shoes off and set them in the truck bed before getting in and wear clean shoes into the house. When I got to work the next day I'd remove my clean shoes, put on my shop shoes and head back in.

K

This is a little off topic but I am reminded the stacks at Flint Assembly used to spit these little pellets of goo, that would float in the air and coat the homes across the street and the vehicles in the parking lot.

After a couple incidences of having GM clean the surface of my vehicle I finally bought a cheap car cover.

So after I grabbed my shop shoes from the bed of the truck, I would cover the truck up and THEN head back in.

K

[Keith Seymore]

A couple comments about front end sheet metal install -

There were two ways to do this: "piecemeal", that is, one fender at a time, or "buck build", where the fenders and rad support (and sometimes hood) were assembled as a unit off line and brought to the main line already put together.

The two ways would come and go, depending on what was en vogue at the time or who was in charge and what their favorite was.

When I started at Flint Assembly in 1979 it had two separate lines: Line 1 was full size pickups, at 60 jobs per hour, and Line 2 was Blazer/Suburban, at 36 jobs per hour.

Line 1 fenders were installed piecemeal (an area I actually supervised as my first "real job") and Line 2 front ends were buck built.

Same product, same building, two different techniques under the same roof.

K

[Keith Seymore]

You can see the build sheet hanging here, telling the operator(s) which parts to put on.

People like to talk about "finding THE build sheet" (which is remarkable, no doubt) but there wasn't just ONE build sheet: there would have been several.

Any area where parts were built up remotely and then conveyed to the main line would have had it's own build sheet: front end sheet metal, motor line, chassis line, seat room, axle line, etc.

The build sheets were supposed to be gathered up and thrown away along with all the other debris in the vehicle (extra screws, paper cups, love notes, numbers lists for your bookie, inspection tickets) but sometimes they got built right into the vehicle (in the seats, or behind the headliner, or under the carpet, or in the doors, or on top of the fuel tank) and it was easier to just leave them where they lay, sometimes embedded in goo or with a screw shot through them.

It must be a pretty good system; 60 years later we still build vehicles with a piece of paper hanging off the front end.

Speaking of inspection tickets - they had an additional informal function beyond just tracking repairs and completion. The tickets could indicate, based on where they were placed, what repairs were required. That is, rolled up and placed inside the coils near the master cylinder could indicate that the brakes failed the pressure test and needed a repair or to be re-bled. Smashed in the door opening might mean one thing, under the windshield wiper something else, and coiled and placed in the door handle yet a third thing.

Pity the poor young engineering student who pulls the ticket to look at it and then puts it back in the wrong spot.

K

[Keith Seymore]

Here's the build sequence number on this one: Number "62".

The full build sequence number would be much longer, like six digits, but the last two or three digits would be written in a form of shorthand. I would expect any other component built up remotely (front end sheet metal, rear axle, seats) to have a "62" scribbled on it somewhere.

This was intended to keep everything in sequence. It goes pretty easy as long as nothing gets disrupted, but get out of sequence and all hell breaks loose. You start seeing wrong color fenders (or bodies that don't match the frame) and you have to assess what went wrong and what has to be done to fix it, typically while the line continues to move.

At Flint, we had 1/2 ton 2wd (5 lug axles), 1/2 4wd (6 lug axles) and 3/4 and 1 ton axles (8 lugs). We used to keep a library of "wrong" tire/wheel assemblies at the tire install job so that if you had a wrong axle come down you could install the corresponding "wrong" tire/wheel assembly in order to keep the line moving. The vehicle would complete the process and then head out back to heavy repair to have the correct axle (and tire/wheels) installed.

Back to the sequence number - my red truck was apparently "number 87".

K

[Keith Seymore]

You guys remember “pocket protectors”?

I don’t think I have any of mine, but I do have this one of dad’s on display.

Part of our daily arsenal, including these VIN cards we carried everywhere (for some reason; I guess in case we had to de-code a nasty VIN while we were in the bathroom or something) and a folded piece of paper with our notes for the day. Our nerd uniform would not be complete without it.

Also – the shirts for the foremen were provided by GM. Available in the lovely pastels of the time (coral, blue, green, yellow) and, of course, white, they were emblazoned with the person’s name and the Chevrolet bowtie.

I used to wear dad’s to school. I thought I was so cool.

K