1963 Corvette assembly line

[Ralph Spears]

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[67since67]

I'd have thought that top sitting off to the left would have been on the body previous to final assembly??

[Ralph Spears]

Also why are the wheel covers on the car They were in the car to be installed at the dealer/

[Ralph Spears]

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[Keith Seymore]

I'd have thought that top sitting off to the left would have been on the body previous to final assembly??

Also why are the wheel covers on the car They were in the car to be installed at the dealer/

And - down the rabbit hole I go -

;)

I'm just spit balling, perhaps like everybody else, but I can think of a couple things:

For the top:

Maybe it's unrelated and just extra stock sitting there. You can see a bunch of cardboard boxes that look like they were just left there because there was a vacant spot to put material.

Or - maybe it's not a normal part of the process but they missed just the one and it is sitting there awaiting the correct vehicle.

In the truck plant the axles came in 5 lug, 6 lug, or 8 lug hubs. We used to have a whole library of "wrong" tire/wheel assemblies sitting at the install area in case we had a wrong axle. The corresponding "wrong" wheel would get installed so that the line could keep running and it would get fixed out back in heavy repair.

Something like that;

Or - maybe that was the process. Everybody wants their part to be the very last one put on. It is a constant battle to push workload upstream in the process.

For the hubcaps - my guess - staged publicity photo. If the work area is relatively clean and there aren't a bunch of people around, that says to me "staged photo".

K

[Keith Seymore]

In my (albeit brief) research I found some good write ups by John Z, which included some corresponding photos.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums/c1-and-c2-corvettes/4660162-assembly-line-pictures.html (post #11)

A couple of these indicate the convertible tops were installed earlier in the process.

K

[67SS4spd]

So what happened if the body was cracked during assembly?

[60sStuff]

More Splits.

I love viewing these old vintage Black & Whites of the assembly line.

[60sStuff]

This SWC looks to be an F.I. car.

[Keith Seymore]

So what happened if the body was cracked during assembly?

It would get repaired.

I'm not being trite or sarcastic, but - why do you ask? Were you thinking they would scrap the whole body and start over?

It would have to be pretty bad before they would do that.

I realize comparing sheet metal to fiberglass is apples to watermelons, but my Chevelle was hit in the factory (Oshawa) and repaired with bondo. The first time we stripped the front clip down for paint we found it forward of the wheel opening on the RH fender.

K

[cheveslakr]

That foreground coupe was most likely fitted with hubcaps for the photo op and then removed for shipping. The body jig is so cool! Just did a 4 corner replacement on my '66 coupe and getting the lineup accurate with glue only, no fasteners, is a humungous challenge, but it's done. Coulda used that jig!!!!!

[L72copocamaro]

Great pics!

[Keith Seymore]

In my (albeit brief) research I found some good write ups by John Z, which included some corresponding photos.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums/c1-and-c2-corvettes/4660162-assembly-line-pictures.html (post #11)

A couple of these indicate the convertible tops were installed earlier in the process.

K

This slide from John Z indicates hard tops were installed back on the trim line (before body drop).

K

[Ralph Spears]

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