[Keith Seymore]

I believe those are from Fremont (which is interesting, since most photos are from the home plant in Pontiac Michigan). Interesting color combo on that Tempest.

He's actually checking "all" the functions on the vehicle: the car is on the "roll test", and he'll check front and rear lighting, turn signal operation, radio, he'll also cycle the washer and wipers, speedo function, etc - all while running it through the gears and up to 60 or 70 mph.

That long thing hanging to the driver's side is the remote control for the roll tester itself, and includes the Start/Stop buttons and controls for engaging the rollers.

There would be a similar station with a pit, used for setting the front end alignment (toe in, primarily). It might even be the next operation coming up.

I'm thinking that's another mirror in the upper left of the photo, for an adjacent roll tester. Normally the final line splits at the end and there are several roll test stations in operation, and the driver picks the next available lane.

I agree but don't understand the "no back seat" situation. Normally the interior is completed at Fisher Body before being sent to the General Assembly/Final line portion. Maybe Fremont just did it different than the other plants, or maybe they are running less the parts due to a material shortage (but that would be wild speculation on my part), but in my experience the interior would be complete by the time you get this far in the process.

K