Verne Frantz's 63 Impala Anniversary SURVIVOR

[sYc]

Verne, he is a wealth of information. I have spent countless hours quizzing him. In fact, when I was working on my Camaro, he stopped by the shop and gave me the once around on how the cars were built and why things were the way they were. My first show out with the car, SC in Memphis, I got docked for some of the things he said were right on. Kind of soured me on the whole judging thing.

[Mr70]

Would Moparts father be able to speak about these Assembly line tactics at an SC Reunion,or just attend in General?
I for one would enjoy listening to what he has to say.
As stated earler,"People who worked in those plants back then are a Precious resource Today"..

[SS427]

Or how about signing him up on here. I think we would ALL like to hear the stories. I know I would.

[Verne_Frantz]

Tom,
I've already heard from mo. Unfortunately, right now his Dad is having some hearing problems, so I'm going to send him some questions.
As I said, having the opportunity to speak with someone who was actually there and who took part in making these cars is a precious advantage to those of us who want to know how it was really done.
If I decided to restore a car, I'd rather know it was restored with historical accuracy rather than to an established judges' standard. Knowing it was right would be more important to me than a $10. trophy.
Thanks
Verne.

[sYc]

I hear you about being historical correct. Rob and I still bug him from time to time about how things were done. And, I guess the most important thing I learned from him, the cars were built on an assembly line, by hourly paid workers, so each car was/is unique. That is why the history of how the cars were built is so interesting.

[Bill Pritchard]

[ QUOTE ]
Knowing it was right would be more important to me than a $10. trophy.

[/ QUOTE ]

AMEN

[moparts]

I will be glad to quiz dad on anything you guys want to know.
To say dad is computer illiterate would be the understatement of the decade so I will have to be the translator. That way I can also make some of the stories a little more politically correct. Some of the stories will leave pictures in you head that you just can't erase. But as Tom can tell you we have spent many a hours prying information from his 73 year old mind and we are both still fairly sane.
Here is some background info: Dad worked at Fisher Body in St Louis from 1954 until they closed that line and then he transfered to the truck side until they closed the plant for good in the early 80's. For the last 4 or 5 years GM flew him all over the country trouble shooting paint at different factories.
I want to say this before we get started: if it is about the painting of the cars dad can tell you quite alot, but when the cars left that part of the line thats when the info gets less in a hurry.

[Mr70]

Moparts
Does he remember NOT painting cars,but leaving them in Primer for Dealer delivery?
If so,can he tell us what Bodystyles and cars specifically?
Also,if a Car was designated for a Special Paint color code,not a regular Available code,did he hand write that code on that car somewhere?

[moparts]

[ QUOTE ]
Does he remember NOT painting cars,but leaving them in Primer for Dealer delivery?

[/ QUOTE ] He doesn't remember any of the cars that they built ever leaving that way. BUT they only built the big cars at St. Louis. BUT when he went over to the truck line they did send out trucks in primer only to speciality paint shops. So like everything else there is always a lot of BUTS.

[ QUOTE ]
Also,if a Car was designated for a Special Paint color code,not a regular Available code,did he hand write that code on that car somewhere?


[/ QUOTE ] When cars came out of primer there was a guy that his job was to look at the build sheets and mark the trim and paint number on the cowl. The build sheet didn't go through the paint shop, the only way the color and trim was know was by what was marked on the trim tag. The build sheets met back up with the car after out of the paint department. A special paint color that wasn't of the norm would not come out of the 3 or 4 hundred gallon containers that the standard colors were out of. The special colors were mixed and sprayed out of a pot that followed the car down the line. This made sure that special colors would be consistant over the entire car.

[ QUOTE ]
I'd love to know if he might know the meaning of the very faint "17" stamped from the front in the cowl tag just under the paint code

[/ QUOTE ] He said that is a possibility, or could have been a notation to tell what number hose the special paint was in. ( now I did say eariler that special paint was done out of a pot, but (theres that but again) if they were planning to do alot of these cars they would have had a bigger batch of the paint.)

So there is the info I found for the first round. Hope this helps. By the way dad said he would love to see this car in person.

[SS427]

Thanks for the neat infomation. This is the part of the hobby that makes it interesting.