Quote:
Originally Posted by Kurt S
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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