Glove Box Deep Thoughts

[JayDubBlazer]

So last night I needed to take me glove box apart to get to my radio and improve on how some of my wires are routed. While taking the cardboard insert out it dawned on me that somebody back in 1967 was hired to install these origami creations. Some recent high school grad was interviewed, in-processed and put to work almost 45 years ago with the sole purpose to install glove boxes. I began to ponder about what other crap jobs people started out on while building these rigs. I’m sure that putting in the HVAC lines and wires in the dash would have been a pain. Just think of all that newly stamped metal in the dash and how it would cut up your forearms as you try to weave it in place according to the assembly manual.
Take a step back in the manufacturing process and head over to where they formed all the metal for the frame and body. I’m sure a part of the stamping line wasn’t the safest place to work. I remember my first time in a larger factory and walking through an area with several 600 ton presses were set up in a line. One of the operators had a claw in place of his arm, an arm that he had lost on a similar press years ago.
Or the foundry where the engines, transmissions, and transfer cases where cast. There was no OSHA back then, the only regulation back then were your foreman and his quotas.
Sitting there in my passenger seat I just wondered where in the hierarchy of all the jobs and tasks required to assembly these trucks did the glove box installer rank. Because sitting there trying to remove that intractable piece of formed cardboard I was cussing up a storm.

[special-K]

I don't know,but I talked a good bit this weekend with a fellow who installed these windshields starting in '69. I learned some good stuff from him. Ponder on...

[eightbanger]

I liked that story Wes, very descriptive....reading your ponderings had me transported back in time to the assembly line
Now, did you get the thing done or you just sat there day dreaming...??

[stich626]

Originally Posted by special-K

I don't know,but I talked a good bit this weekend with a fellow who installed these windshields starting in '69. I learned some good stuff from him. Ponder on...

wanna share..

[webfoot]

Your post reminded me of a video I watched recently, enjoy.

"How to build a 1936 chevy".

http://www.dump.com/2011/07/15/fasci...ly-line-video/

[JayDubBlazer]

Originally Posted by webfoot

Your post reminded me of a video I watched recently, enjoy.

"How to build a 1936 chevy".

http://www.dump.com/2011/07/15/fasci...ly-line-video/

That was cool, was amazed of how much automation they had on the frame line. The rivetors were pretty accurate. I was suprized to see so many people wearing gloves.

[mrein3]

Originally Posted by webfoot

Your post reminded me of a video I watched recently, enjoy.

"How to build a 1936 chevy".

http://www.dump.com/2011/07/15/fasci...ly-line-video/

I KNEW IT!
Did you notice how when the two assembly line workers installed the grill it took two of them and it looked quite heavy? Like the radiator was in there?
Back in the late 80s we had a 1936 Packard in the shop I worked at. It was one of those restorations where the rich guy brings it here for mechanical work. There for body and paint. There for engine. There for tranny. Then brags about how "HE" restored it.
Anyways we had to get the radiator out of the car. I was pretty sure they built the car around the radiator. This 1936 Chevy line proves it for the Chevrolets that year. I bet Packard did the same thing.

We ended up calling a mechanic who worked for the owner's dad who owned the place back in the 50s. Without the 70+ year old former mechanic the owner of that car would be still "restoring" it.

[VA72C10]

Great post and I love watching that video every time I see it. American ingenuity at its' finest....

[68 IRON]

The machines and assembly line that move it....wow! And thats back before my father! In risk of getting slapped on the wrist....I think Boeing and the Dreamliner project should watch this! Great video....and yes...ponder on!

[mrein3]

Originally Posted by JayDubBlazer

snip
Sitting there in my passenger seat I just wondered where in the hierarchy of all the jobs and tasks required to assembly these trucks did the glove box installer rank. Because sitting there trying to remove that intractable piece of formed cardboard I was cussing up a storm.

My grandfather lost his farm along with everybody else in the great depression. He then moved his family up to St. Paul. After high school my dad was lucky enough to land a job at the St. Paul Ford Assembly plant. With nothing but a high school diploma in his pocket he was assigned to hanging rear ends in the car with another guy. According to my dad this other guy smelled really bad. When my dad asked him about it the guy said he could take three showers a day and still smell like that.
Remember back then a guy could get a job like that, keep his nose clean, and have a nice life and good retirement benefits. But would you want to work with a smelly guy for 40 years? A couple weeks working like that had my dad looking at trade school real hard.
With his trade school electricians training behind him he moved to the electrical department at the Ford plant where he stayed - except for a tour of Korea - with the company for 42 years.

Watching that video and thinking of automobile assembly line jobs made me remember that story.

When I see a video like the 1936 Chevy line I think of all those paychecks going out to the surrounding community. Think of all those houses that weren't in foreclosure. Think of all those college educations for all those children. Think about that the next time you buy a Toyota or Honda or foreign brand car or foreign made part.

[eightbanger]

Originally Posted by mrein3

When I see a video like the 1936 Chevy line I think of all those paychecks going out to the surrounding community. Think of all those houses that weren't in foreclosure. Think of all those college educations for all those children. Think about that the next time you buy a Toyota or Honda or foreign brand car or foreign made part.

Exactly! here, here mrein3.....I don't know who changed what or when that took all this away...it makes me sick, it really does.
This video is fasinating on so many levels, heck WWII hadn't even happened when this was made.

[mrein3]

Originally Posted by eightbanger

Exactly! here, here mrein3.....I don't know who changed what or when that took all this away...it makes me sick, it really does.
This video is fasinating on so many levels, heck WWII hadn't even happened when this was made.

I thought about that too in the 9 minutes I spent watching it over lunch today. How many of those guys died 5-9 years later in Europe or in the Pacific?

I also wondered if that particular plant made airplanes or tanks or jeeps 5 years after those '36 Chevys rolled off the end of the line.

I'll have to ask my dad but I think St. Paul made tanks.

[MalibuSSwagon]

Originally Posted by mrein3

Think about that the next time you buy a Toyota or Honda or foreign brand car or foreign made part.

Toyotas and Hondas sold here are mostly built here.

Also many components in new GM or Ford vehicles are made outside this country, in Mexico or Canada or somewhere else, just like the "foreign" branded car. Think about that.

[eightbanger]

Originally Posted by MalibuSSwagon

Toyotas and Hondas sold here are mostly built here.

That's the real punch in the mouth...they've even got you building their s**t.

[SOON2BLAZE]

Originally Posted by eightbanger

That's the real punch in the mouth...they've even got you building their s**t.

Well put!

[magwakeenercew2jh]

The vid made me, too, ponder.

I thought about the ballet that those guys moved out on the line. Each worker depending on one another to get all their respective jobs done.

I thought about the intense minds that the people who designed those machines must have had.....and how THEY must have had an artful method of working with
the designers to make changes to those machines every time the end-product changed.

It made me proud that we, as Americans, had honest livings to be made with our hands AND minds....and I know it made the folks that were sweating brimming
with pride to both be on the team, and to deliver quality.

The "Old Guy" in me says that when we started measuring everything with dollar bills instead of integrity and loyalty....well, things started to be different.
Send the kids off to college and they come back wanting to wear a white shirt and tie and drive an Italian sports car.....

I got a fix for the whole thing:

1) Bring back the manufacturing sector. 2) Buy American.

Seem too simple? Yup. It is.

[JJorgensen52]

Originally Posted by MalibuSSwagon

Toyotas and Hondas sold here are mostly built here.

Also many components in new GM or Ford vehicles are made outside this country, in Mexico or Canada or somewhere else, just like the "foreign" branded car. Think about that.

Even if the car is built in a out-of-US plant, and from parts of various origin, all the R&D and tech support that went into designing and building that car and the plant was done right here in the good ol' USA.

Plus, statistically, only something like 35% of the cost of a car actually goes to pay for the parts and labor. The balance goes to the corporation. At the end of the day, I feel better driving a Chevrolet that was assembled in Mexico, because the better half of the money I spent stays right here at home. That "US Built" Honda or Toyota is still paying for some CEO's salary in Japan. :2cents:

[MalibuSSwagon]

Originally Posted by JJorgensen52

Even if the car is built in a out-of-US plant, and from parts of various origin, all the R&D and tech support that went into designing and building that car and the plant was done right here in the good ol' USA.

Plus, statistically, only something like 35% of the cost of a car actually goes to pay for the parts and labor. The balance goes to the corporation. At the end of the day, I feel better driving a Chevrolet that was assembled in Mexico, because the better half of the money I spent stays right here at home. That "US Built" Honda or Toyota is still paying for some CEO's salary in Japan. :2cents:

I'd rather have 300 blue collar jobs here in the US, than one greedy executive sucking the company dry.

[fastwillie 696969]

a few years later the women were doing the work for ww2 on planes and cars and ammo.
shipping yards

[pat 70/71]

My wife's dad used to run a buffer at a gm plant that weighed 90 pounds all day and he was just out of high school then went to ww2 as a waste gunner on a b17 and walked around his whole life with metal in his lower legs from the flack that they flew through on the way to and from germany! These men did their jobs and very seldom talked about it. Just a very solid generation of people. Who we loose at a rate of 1,300 per month. read that fact a year or two ago and it makes me very sad and very proud. the vid was great to see thank you very much for posting it. cheers, Pat

[gferris5]

This all reminds me of the best book EVER. It is by John Jerome, and it is titled "Truck." If Hemingway worked on cars, he would have written this book--it is that good. It is a book full of philosophical meanderings, glove box ponderings and life philosophizing.

How can you argue with a book that starts, "Hauling cow-**** one load at a time is terribly inefficient. I need a truck." After that, he undergoes the adventure of restoring a truck.

Buy it from Amazon:
Amazon.com: Truck: On Rebuilding a Worn-Out...

[prairewolf]

great thread and video of assembly line. ......

and I do not think True competion from Toyota,Honda and others ever hurt US automakers. it only made them better. jmo

[69heavychevy]

I remember going to the Arlington GM plant for a tour 8 years ago. All I could think of was how inefficiently their assembly line set-ups were. I remember wondering how a company could stay afloat with so much wasted labor. I saw one lady who's sole purpose was to make a few connections on the interior harness, there was these other two guys who did some sort of quality check on an almost complete truck. Whatever these two guys did was so useless that had time to play Madden on their PS2 in between vehicles...

[eightbanger]

Originally Posted by gferris5

This all reminds me of the best book EVER. It is by John Jerome, and it is titled "Truck." If Hemingway worked on cars, he would have written this book--it is that good. It is a book full of philosophical meanderings, glove box ponderings and life philosophizing.

How can you argue with a book that starts, "Hauling cow-**** one load at a time is terribly inefficient. I need a truck." After that, he undergoes the adventure of restoring a truck.

Buy it from Amazon:
Amazon.com: Truck: On Rebuilding a Worn-Out Pickup and Other Post-Technological Adventures (9780874517552): John Jerome: Books

Ordered!! thanks for this gferris5.

[gferris5]

Originally Posted by eightbanger

Ordered!! thanks for this gferris5.

Sweet!! Please let me know what you think. I read for a living (well, more or less) and that book is amazing. (sorry if I hijacked the thread, I thought it was on topic...)