https://i.postimg.cc/rsDBP2vb/3a.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/HnFqGPmL/3b.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/7Pc8Tbzy/3c.jpg

Nice car, A/C, dual exhaust, power windows, rs. Wonder if it is an SS L48/L35 or L30 RS ? Very interesting to look at.

That device is called a "wheel lug multiple".

As you might guess - it runs all the wheel lug nuts down at the same time.

In a truck plant, building multiple series, you'd have to have several of those hanging lineside: one for 1/2 ton 2wd (ie, 5 lug), 1/2 ton 4wd (6 lug) and then 3/4 ton and 1 ton (8 lug) [plus backups in case the primary tool goes down].

They were suspended on a tool rail from a "balancer" which offsets the weight of the device. If it was set up correctly you could move it up and down with just one finger.

K

Also - you can see that the work takes place at waist height.

The idea is that, ergonomically, you would grab the tire from the delivery system (probably at waist height) and then carry it over and install it on the car without having to bend over.

Most of the guys wouldn't do that. They would let the tire drop off the delivery conveyor, bounce it once like a basketball and let it hop right up into place.

There was an interesting guy in the St Louis truck plant, with a handlebar moustache. When he notice a crowd of visiting dignitaries he'd start showing off, letting the tire bounce while doing a flip, or bouncing them behind his back before popping them on.

It only reinforced my opinion: if you see a guy with a handlebar moustache you better keep an eye on him.

K

No A/C on L35 cars.

How did painting cars on the line work?

Would there be a grouping of cars by color, paint them in a series, clean the guns and then spray the next group?

Depends.

There could be groupings of cars (ie, several red cars in a row), but it kind of depended on the plant management philosophy, and union appetite.

That is, some plants would not allow too many cars of one color in a row. There may have been a work load leveling aspect, as you could not run too many A/C cars in a row, or too many manual trans cars, or too many tripowers, or too many sunroofs in a row. Certainly you couldn't have too many two tones, or vinyl tops in a row. Or maybe they just didn't like seeing them all the same.

In any case, when spraying manually there were separate guns and systems for the different colors. So after spraying a series of red cars you would hang that gun up and pick up the gun for the next vehicle. Separate gun, lines and paint vats for each.

Mechanized spray guns, on a reciprocating arm or gantry, would turn away and purge as you have suggested.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYgxgGlN8CM&t=1192s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5kqXN0gIb0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbTsvPSr_2M

For low volume or special colors (like John Deere green, or Mary Kay pink) there was usually a smaller separate system, with a smaller pot. That way you could load the unusual color for small runs and then clean the system when done with less waste.

I would remind the reader that the operator didn't worry about any of this. He could have been sweeping floors one day and painting cars the next. He just showed up and pulled the trigger, hopefully without screwing too much up. Skilled tradesmen (millwrights I suspect or maybe pipefitters) took car of all the setup, maintenance and cleaning.

K

We went to robotics in the mid to late 80's at truck, both reciprocating arm sprayers and then, slightly later, a "turbine bell".

The "Mini bell", as it was called, was a Behr product. It was a small cone shaped head, like a shower head, that spun at a high rate of speed (ie, 20,000 rpm) and slung the paint towards the car. The car was electrically charged so that the paint particles were "drawn" to it. In fact, you could stand next to the car and see the paint going around corners to attach to the back side.

The only problem was....the electrical charge would cause all the metallic particles in the paint to line up in an orderly fashion. This, of course, meant they didn't match the paint chip - or the front clip. We ended up spraying a top coat on those metallic colors manually in the paint repair both so that everything would match like it was supposed to. Non metallic color cars could just pass right through.

K

In the background of the guy painting the rally wheels you can see water flowing down the back wall of the booth.

The vacuum from this waterfall would suck in the paint overspray so that it could be collected as a sludge, dried out and discarded in a manner befitting hazardous waste.

Ford Motor Company would collect the sludge to polish and sell/reuse as a commerical product (aka "Fordite").

https://fordite.com/

K

Amazing, the amount of organization.