25 min fisher body assy..abodys and i saw some first gen camaro stuff

[marxjunk]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYgxgGlN8CM
more of an engineering film..but some cool stuff

[bluel78]

Thanks for sharing Mark. Those Monte's frames look shiny but the air cleaners look shinier than the outside of the body. Great reference material as well as a history lesson.
Dustin

[Keith Seymore]

Pretty much how we do it today, except the points are picked electronically and the data goes directly to disk (rather than via a paper tape, then converted to magnetic tape). The data can be used to make parts or tools directly. We very rarely make a technical drawing unless it is in support of the design of a fixture, or if a supplier needs/requests it.

I liked the little blurb on front and rear airbags; GM gave my dad a '74 Impala with experimental airbags to drive for a short period of time. I remember him commenting that he wasn't sure if he should be flattered (because they trusted him driving a company car) or offended that they thought he was more likely to crash it! (lol)

K

[Keith Seymore]

The plant shown is Flint Assembly, my alma mater. I saw a different reference that mentioned this was in support of the 1972 model year.

At that time the body side was Fisher Body and the chassis and final assembly took place in the other half of the plant under the auspices of Chevrolet Motor Division - all under the same roof. There was a block wall dividing the two jurisdictions with a large opening for the vehicle bodies to pass through.

The next year when the plant was retooled for pickup truck production it became wholly a Chevrolet plant. For as long as I worked there (from 1979 through 1986 as a resident, and then through the mid 2000's as a visitor) that wall, and the opening in the wall, was still there, allowing fork truck traffic and materiel to pass through from one side to the other.

I haven't been up there in a few years but I would imagine it is still like that.

K

[Keith Seymore]

The other "future technology" they showed was dipping the scale plastic car body into a fluid filled tank.

By the time I started in Flint the ELPO tanks were installed and in use on both assembly lines.

That marks the only time I ever fell asleep at work (lol)

As a GMI student we rotated through the different areas of the plant, to get exposure and experience in all facets of the operation.

During my rotation through the paint shop I had to partner up with the guy that maintained the dip tanks, checking to make sure that the chemical composition remained in balance, etc. Admittedly, it was kind of boring, and the paint shop is very warm, and it was sort of a sedentary assignment....and the paint ....shop.......was............very ..................warm..........and ............zzzzzzzzzzzzz

When I woke up the guys were hovering very closely over me and I assume I was about to get pranked in some way. I'm not sure what they were up to but I was very careful to keep moving after that.

By the way, we still use the ELPO dip tank process. In fact, when H2's were built in Mishawaka they were tumbled end-over-end in order to ensure full coverage and to get all of the air bubbles out.


K

[Keith Seymore]

Seeing the snippet on the water trough reminds me of another story:

I designed the engine air induction system for the GMT800 series trucks, to be introduced in the 1999 model year.

Water ingestion testing is, by definition, a destructive test. The problem with the GMT800 was that not only was the truck new but the engines were a new design, too. That meant there weren't many around and you sure as heck didn't want to damage one.

We debated for a couple months about how (and if) we were going to test our design. We ran a couple of competitive vehicles through our test and they passed, so we knew we had to do it. Finally we hit upon an idea: we found an "old" prototype GMT800 radiator support and fender in the trash, so we added those to a carryover GMT400 pickup, and then installed our new induction system to emulate the new front corner. We remote mounted the engine air cleaner in the existing truck and then plumbed our new system to a shop vac (and generator) in the pickup bed. That allowed us to (a) drive the truck in the water trough, (b) not damage a current production engine (c) flow air through our new system in a somewhat representative environment and (d) collect and measure any water that was drawn in. Pretty clever, I think.

I still remember the first time we hit the 1000 ft trough at 25 mph with 12" of water: water was spraying over the top of truck and flowing big time into the cab through the heater box. I imagine this is what it was like on the Titanic, and I was crouched standing on the passenger seat and screaming like a little girl. But - our basic idea worked and we were able to continue the development process.

I was still pretty nervous, though, the first few times we had rain once we started driving the trucks on the road.

K

[ZLP955]

Thanks for the comments Keith, great to hear such memories from someone who had those experiences!