Harrison radiator questions

[BCreekDave]

Originally Posted by 70 copo

I guess everybody commenting here is assuming that the radiators shipped from Harrison NY were shipped painted and NOT painted at the final assembly plant?

Were they? It would seem unlikely as all the radiators were black and they required some corrosion protection before installation. It would seem that a dedicated paint line would be easier to install at Harrison than at each of the assembly plants.

[Kurt S]

Originally Posted by 70 copo

I guess everybody commenting here is assuming that the radiators shipped from Harrison NY were shipped painted and NOT painted at the final assembly plant?

Good question. The higher value parts that were supposed to be painted (e.g. starters, horns, radiators, etc), were painted by the component plants. They were responsible for the quality of the part and didn't want paint on the threads, etc. Commodity parts (brackets, pulleys, etc) could be painted by the assembly plants. I can't think of any exceptions to that off the top of my head.
There had to be some decisions made by purchasing - some of the pulleys were plated and not painted.

I was in the Lockport plant years ago. It's been a long time, but IIRC, they were painting all radiators. That's why there top rails have the hanger holes in them.

[70 copo]

Kurt, excellent. You are solid on the trail of the truth. I am working through the investigation with the Norwood line workers who worked the dress portion of the radiator sub conveyor now.

Just like I did in Echoes, when I cross validate what I am told I will post the conclusions here.

[Starship]

Not a Chevelle guy here, but, does the factory assembly instruction manual show the petcock as an individual part OR as a part of the radiator assembly. If shown separately, I'd say no paint. If part of the assembly, odds are it was painted.

[70 copo]

Still speaking to workers that worked at Norwood plant going through the validation on this issue.

In the mean time for your consideration:

[70 copo]

Those of you with a copy of Echoes open it to the 2nd floor assembly print and with a magnifier you will locate the radiator conveyor. This is adjacent to the "dog house" front end "buck build" area that supplied sheet metal drop.

I am wrapping up the validation and will post the conclusions in a couple of days.

Here is the AIM:

[70 copo]

Nan here is the drain cock called for in 1970. For some reason GM decided to use a drain cock primarily used in trucks dating back to 1963. Construction is brass.

[70 copo]

Ok here is the answer that I have been able to validate. Gentlemen, this work is getting much harder to accomplish without hearsay, fortunately I was able to still confirm the key information from 5 men with the recollection of the operation of the 2nd floor buck build area, rail unloading area, and material transfer operations.

Determinations:

Old style copper radiators arrived via train car from Harrison painted.
Radiators were shipped on skids 50 per skid staggered stacked on the flat side.
Radiators Physically separated by cardboard sheet and were strapped to the skid.

Radiators were next tugged (forklift) to the radiator conveyor where they were unpacked off the skids and separated by production designation on the floor in rows.

Radiators were then put on the Radiator conveyor when directed from the second floor- (eg-"send us 20 small radiators and three big radiators")

The radiators were placed on the conveyor where they arrived on the second floor and were unloaded and placed into a smaller short term accumulation area where each radiator was sequenced to the rest of the buck build. At this point the production manifest was the document that directed which part was used on the specific build.

After the Radiator was manifest matched it was dressed, with the radiator cap the overflow hose and the drain valve (petcock)

I am told this is the way the drain valve looked and physical appearance when installed:

[Mr70]

Good research Phil,so bent ear flanges faced the Radiator too?

[70 copo]

Next the front end was assembled on the build buck. This build was called building the "dog house" by the men.

The buck fixture was a series of fixed structural attachment points designed to force the front end into an acceptable tolerance.

Sheetmetal drop (through the hatch) was the action of transferring the completed dog house down to the main line where it was matched to the correct body.

On to the question: Were petcock's painted? YES they could be, but not with consistency.

The buck tended to scratch the sheet metal up while the front end was being aligned on it, therefore fender skirts, and the core supports were typically scratched while being maneuvered on the Buck so one of the last operations after the doghouse was craned off the buck (but prior to the physical transfer to the 1st floor) was a minor black out operation.

This was literally a guy with a rattle can of black spray paint whose job was to look and see if he thought the scratches were bad enough then at that operators discretion would touch up the areas for cosmetic purposes only.

I am told that petcocks that are found painted today on original cars are likely the singular result of an operator's preference to discern what was responsible and appropriate to spray some black paint on before it went through the hatch.