I used to give the tours at Flint Assembly, when I was a co-op student.

People would stay and watch the body drop operation for as long as you would let them.

K

Fremont Assembly.

I think the white car is an Oldsmobile (if memory serves) followed by a Buick, followed by a Pontiac.

K

I worked at the Ford assembly plant in St Paul, Sept '72-July '73. The whole assembly process was fascinating but I agree, the body drop was about the coolest step on the line. Watching the body go in the paint booth in primer and come out in color was about the next most amazing process.

They didn't do that here in Michigan, either.

The first thing we would do when we got a new vehicle is pop the wheels off and paint the rotors/calipers and rear brake drums, and coat the wheel lugs with never-seize.

K

Notice that these two photos are of the same operation (it's the same guy in the pit).

The white car in the top photo appears to be about two stations farther down the line than in the second (bottom) photo.

You can see the pit operator has a long drift pin inserted into the chassis/frame, to help guide the body down in the correct position. He's got his body bolt/cup assemblies staged on the flat track and will start tightening down the body bolts as soon as the body is set.

They guy at the left front will simultaneously guide the steering shaft down over the steering gear rag joint coupler.*

K

*We used to support the steering shaft with a large white elastic band. Consummate professionals that we were, the guys used to shoot those across the main aisle at each other like giant rubber bands. You would find them hanging in the rafters and all over the place.

My first "real" job after graduating from GMI was as a production supervisor, Flint Line #1 (pickup) Fender Set area, second shift.

I had about 36 hourly employees to perform around 25 or so production and repair operations

My area started immediately after body drop. We would:
* Fix any body bolts that were loose or cross threaded from the previous area
* Tighten the pickup box down
* Install the spare tire
* Sub assemble floor mounted manual trans shift levers, and install to vehicle, add SPID label to glovebox
* Install LH front fender
* Install LH battery tray and battery
* Install RH front fender
* Perform a number of underhood wiring and hose connections
* LH repair station
* RH repair station
* Pit repair station

Then on to hood set.

Line rate was 60 jobs/hour, or one complete vehicle off the end of the line per minute. That was fast enough that if you were standing on the flat track when the line started up it would throw you off balance.

I did that for a little more than a year before moving into engineering in the Engineering/Assembly Liaison and new product launch team positions. All according to the "career plan" I had mapped out in my head.

K

----Keith,,,The yellow 64 with the red top is interesting. Was it likely to become a cab or something similar?......Bill S

I hadn't noticed, but - yes, could be something like that.

We would run special fleet orders, typically in "batches", meaning over the course of a couple days or a week every number of vehicles (like every 10th or whatever) would be a special.

I was there when they ran all of the military CUCV vehicles, with the camo paint jobs, and those were every 12th vehicle. On Line 2 we would run two Suburbans followed by one Blazer. We did Suburbans for the RCMP that were purple primary color with red secondary color above the beltline.

You couldn't run too many of anything in a row, in order to help balance the operator workload. Can't run too many two tone paint jobs, or too many A/C builds in a row, or manual trans, or cab high running lights, or tripowers, or such.

Incidentally - that seemingly random camo paint job? It was standardized. There was a painted component hanging in the spray booth as a template and the painters were expected to (freehand) match that.

K

Never mind.

Keith, I found two of these elastic bands under the passenger side front carpet of my 1970 Chevelle, Atlanta built. Are these the plastic bands you used? When I lifted the carpet, I thought this was a snake at first. Looks like something discarded from the production line.
Phil Woj.

I've got a '68 C10 pickup truck built at Fremont. Did the trucks run on a completely different assembly line there?

In looking at the two 1964 Chevrolet assembly line photos, did they really paint the exhaust systems (but not the muffler)?

Lee
Yes, the engines were painted at the engine plants.

Need a Pontiac sign for the Man Cave, don't you wish :eek2:

Not the engines, the exhaust systems:

https://i.postimg.cc/htD05F85/download.jpg

Looks like it, although ours were completely white rather than striped as yours appears to be.

There were a bunch of commercially available fixtures, like the rubber bands, bungees (used to support the front end of the drive shaft until engine set) etc.

And then a bunch of slave fixtures that were made locally, in the jig & fixture shop, like the master cylinder slaves, etc.

The intent was to gather them up at the point of removal and truck them back earlier in the process for re-use.

K

Yes - trucks were a separate line at Fremont.

K

Evidentally - although that is not something we did for trucks.

There is some variation based on product ala that famous photo of the red Firebird at body marriage.

K

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