Quote:
Originally Posted by tom406
Striping
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A few observations:
Someone from Florida gave me a beautiful clear hardcopy of that photo back in the pre-internet days. It might be ambitious for me to think all the internet versions floating around came from my first post of that photo, but...maybe.
A couple thoughts, I guess, while we are here:
a) Photo taken in the Pontiac Michigan facility, Plant 16. That's were the final prep/polish took place before shipment.
b) You can see he is using a Beugler paint tool and following along the top of a paint fixture attached by vacuum cups. In spite of that there was a lot of variation between assembly plants, in terms of where the stripes started and stopped, and in some facilities the ends of the stripe were "taped" to provide a terminus, whereas in other plants the stripe was left to trail off naturally.
c) You can also see the repair/inspection tickets laying on the top of the dash. Once the item is taken care of the repair person would punch the box with a little hole punch; the punch would have different symbols (hearts, moons, clovers, etc) so that it could be traced back to a specific operator. The location of the tickets is significant, too. They could be placed behind the windshield wipers, smashed in the A pillar vent, or rolled up in the door handle - each location flagging what what repair or prep step was next and where the vehicle should be shuttled.
d) Note that this operation takes place off line. Jobs that are not tied to the assembly line (heavy repair, drivers, material control, etc) are highly coveted in the assembly plant and - since every benefit and job assignment is based purely on seniority - are usually manned by the older personnel. I love the fact that this looks like somebody's grandpa doing this job. I don't love that I am probably older than him now than he was when this photo was taken.
K