[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