[iluv69s]

Hey Guys..long time no chat...hehehe..

Well, I just had to run home to my computer to add a little flame to this thread. I just got home from my family "Easter Dinner'..a week late, but better late than never.

Anyway, My brother was there with his family and I had to ask him what is the "real" deal where he works. You see, he has been at GM for 24 years and currently works on the assembly line at the Wilmington Plant. He is line manager?? I think??

I mentioned my car. And I got to asking him about the VINs, and the procedures at the plant now. He actually was stamping (actually said it is a scribing machine)the VINS on the blocks and putting the VIN plates in the Saturn cars recently. He even said the machine has an X for if you make a mistake..and then it puts a number below...same as the old days..real interesting stuff..a security guard gives him 50 VINs and exactly 100 rivets...he has to double count them..then he has to return them to the security guard during every break to be locked away...he also talked about the prototype soltise hardtops they recently made...pilot cars!! really cool hearing this stuff from my own brother...after this thread!!

Obviously a lot has changed since back in the day. But I asked my Brother about if there was ever a time when a part is not there for a car..or something goes wrong..if the cars just continue down the line or what?? Could a VIN be out of sequence because of something like that.

He works on the trim line of the Saturn solstice..he said rather often the cars continue down the line with a missing part and then they play catch up, BUT...he said at any given moment there are up to 20 cars pulled off the line in his department alone ..and for up to a few months...beause of a defect or lack of a part...he went on to say how the car has a paper sheet attached and they can tell if it is a dealer order, a customer order, an import, or a fleet order...and if it is a dealer order, they will ship the car without a certain option, but if it is a customer order, it could sit and wait for up to 2 months waiting for a part.."getting all dusty in the corner". He said cars "get lost" in there...

He also talked about at times if there is a bad defect like a bad throw-out bearing, someone will park(hide) the car way out in the lot so it gets lost for a while before they have to repair it. He said it depends how bad the defect is on how quick they want to repair it and put the car back on the line.

I mentioned that there is supposed to be a guy that makes sure all the parts are there before they begin the cars...my brother said "yeh right...there IS a guy alright!!! hahaha"...

He also said that he would assume it was worse back then in 1967 because now everything is computerized and bar coded..don't know??

Anyway...but thats whats happening now at GM assembly lines!!!

BTW The possibly "last ordered" 67 Z-28 is being relisted tonight!! hehehe



thanks again SYC Max