1967 Camaro assembly line

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Kurt S

I remember a purple short-bed truck coming down the line with a purple long-bed on it. Turns out the long bed truck with the short bed had come down the line about 20 minutes before. They blocked up the bed so it would go down the line and attached what they could, the rest went into the bed to be shorted out at the repair station.
Didn't happen often - there's not enough room to in the plant for that!

That's one of the good things about building pickup trucks (I guess) - you just throw all the loose parts in the bed and kick that can on down the road.

We had a truck one time that didn't get the hole cut out for the floor shifter. Didn't realize it until body drop, when the cab wouldn't sit down on the mounts.

The repair man rode that one down the final line, cutting the hole with a hammer and chisel, while the cab was teetering on the trans tower. The fenders, hood, batteries, etc all went in the pickup box to get installed in heavy repair.

K

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Kurt S

I'll add that much of this is discussed in JohnZ's article, including the difference between LOS and NOR front sheet metal. http://www.camaros.org/assemblyprocess.shtml

I always enjoy reading John Z's write up at CRG.

I went back just now to read about the front end sheet metal and noticed a couple things:

1 - about shimming:

What we used to do for fender shims is tape a packet together, like 3 shims, ahead of time and we would run those all day whether the truck we were currently building needed it or not.

Eventually the final repair supervisor would call back and say something encouraging, like "SEYMORE!! YOU IDIOT!! WTH ARE YOU THINKING?!?! ALL THESE FENDERS ARE RUNNING HIGH!! ARE YOU EVEN LOOKING AT THESE TRUCKS?!? TAKE A SHIM OUT BEFORE I COME BACK THERE AND SHOW YOU HOW TO DO THIS!!" I can just imagine the spittle flying into the phone mouthpiece.

So we would start running a new shim pack, like 2 shims, until he called again with his latest observation.

Basically it was to address "macro trends". You had about 45 seconds to complete the truck in front of you and move to the next one; that's not enough time to fit and re-fit each individual truck.

This technique would get you close on the majority of vehicles. There was a repair station at the end of my area. There was also a short moving repair line (two, actually) at the end of final line. If they could fix them there while on the move then they would; otherwise it would be out to a stationary repair stall in "heavy repair" for the really bad ones.

I should add that some of the repairs did not consist of removing the bolt or adding/deleting shims. Often the repair consisted of bending, twisting or hammering while the line was moving.

I had four guys hanging fenders, btw. One at the front and one at the rear of the LH fender; one at the front and one at the rear of the RH fender. They could do the job by themselves if properly motivated, like if their buddy wanted to punch out a couple jobs early, or to help move one or two jobs when the line first started and there weren't enough operators - but I would never ask them to do that.

2- squaring fixtures:

We never had much luck with fixtures of any kind. Usually what would happen is the guys would use them whenever there was management or any other spectators around, but when not being directly observed they wouldn't use them, especially if they were big/bulky/hanging overhead on balancers.

K

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Kurt S

I remember a purple short-bed truck coming down the line with a purple long-bed on it. Turns out the long bed truck with the short bed had come down the line about 20 minutes before. They blocked up the bed so it would go down the line and attached what they could, the rest went into the bed to be shorted out at the repair station.
Didn't happen often - there's not enough room to in the plant for that!

Fortunately - you don't have to keep them all inside!

Here's a picture of Flint Assembly's back yard. These are all vehicles awaiting repair of some kind or to be driven over to the shipping yard.

Flint Assembly, Flint Metal Fab and the V8 Engine plant are all co-located on the same piece of property bounded by I-75, I-69, Van Slyke and Bristol Roads. I've seen them completely fill the back yard and flow over into the adjacent parking lots with repair jobs*.

In fact - some times we would lose vehicles back there. They would usually turn up during model changeover when the repair back log would get worked down. Often by then we had already built and shipped a replacement vehicle made to those same specifications.

K

*During the chip shortage vehicles were also stored at a defunct horse race track (Sports Creek) in nearby Swartz Creek Michigan. That is pretty typical, as Ford used to store vehicles at the Cedar Point amusement park, for example (they ended up losing quite a few from there as well - stolen).

[Keith Seymore]

One other thought relative to moving all these vehicles around:

For those of you familiar with the UAW and the plant structure you know there are multiple jobs and job classifications. For example, there is an "assembler" classification with an associated rate of pay, and then maybe a "utility assembler" classification for a few pennies more an hour, on up through repair and skilled trades. Advancement through these non-skilled designations is based solely upon seniority.

One of those classifications is "driver". So - there are a particular set of people (and pay rate) whose sole function is to drive the vehicle off the end of the line, perform the roll test, shuttle the vehicle to the various short repair lines inside the building, and/or shuttle vehicle between locations outside the plant.

The assembly line would be scheduled to run a particular time period in advance (say 8 hours, or 10 hours, or 11 hours) but could spontaneously be increased (or decreased) to meet the immediate need. For example, final might go "8.0" but trim might go "8.2" or "8.5" in order to re-fill any buffers that had been depleted throughout the shift. Cab shop might go "9.0" that day for the same reason. The change would be communicated through shouts up and down the line, often before the foreman would receive the official news by phone.

After running all day teams would be assigned to work overtime, after the line shut down, to work the repair down. Often times it felt like a punitive measure, especially if it had been a tough day with a lot of repair. Hourly volunteers would be solicited to drive out back, for overtime pay and at the (typically higher) driver pay rate, and foremen would take turns in an attempt to spread the load out.

I say all this to say: you might work a scheduled 11 hour day, then get tapped to work another hour or two out back working repair. Then go home, sleep, and come back in the next day to do it all again.

K

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

The assembly line would be scheduled to run a particular time period in advance (say 8 hours, or 10 hours, or 11 hours) but could spontaneously be increased (or decreased) to meet the immediate need. For example, final might go "8.0" but trim might go "8.2" or "8.5" in order to re-fill any buffers that had been depleted throughout the shift. Cab shop might go "9.0" that day for the same reason. The change would be communicated through shouts up and down the line, often before the foreman would receive the official news by phone.

One tenth of an hour = 6 minutes. Everything was done in 6 minute increments.

Line 1 first shift would eat lunch from 10:12 to 10:42 am.

Line 2 first shift would eat lunch from 10:54 to 11:24.

Meanwhile, these days, I cannot remember if I ate lunch or not.

K

[Mr70]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Meanwhile, these days, I cannot remember if I ate lunch or not.

Keith,First,thanks for all your knowledge & details about this process.
Second,What could one do if you didn't want to eat Lunch in that 30 Min period back then?
Could you drive to a FF restaurant nearby,or read the Newspaper in an open area outside to pass the time,or did you have to stay inside?

[Kurt S]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Fortunately - you don't have to keep them all inside!

Here's a picture of Flint Assembly's back yard. These are all vehicles awaiting repair of some kind or to be driven over to the shipping yard.

Most plants these days don't want repairs waiting. Build it once. But that depends on management and has changed over the years. JohnZ's book talks about 6000 cars outside of Lordstown, waiting on repairs.
JohnZ's book - The Automobile Business - from the Bottom Up

Not sure if you remember the Ford Expedition seat shortage. One of the top $ makers for Ford and no rear seats. So they just built them and stored them anywhere they could lease within 10 miles of the plant. They were literally everywhere around Wayne MI. Can't imagine the logistics of keys and moving vehicles and people around.

[L72copocamaro]

KS...love to read those stories!!

[Keith Seymore]

This photo is from Fremont but it reminded me of something.

Flint Assembly has an unusual arrangement, in that the two final lines come together in the middle of the plant to form a “main aisle”, with assembly action on either side.

As I student I used to host the factory tours, when Boy Scouts or Rotary Club or the DAR or whomever would come in for a plant visit. The tour was very high level and consisted of a run down the main aisle to the end of final and then back.

Flint’s second story is very high as you can see in the second photo. The body drop clamshell operators would show off a bit for the tours, letting the cab and box essentially free fall and then stop abruptly mere inches above the chassis.

It was, admittedly, pretty impressive and the groups were fascinated. They would stand and watch for as long as I would let them.

K

[RPOLS3]

Love these stories - thanks