You can't handle the truth!

[SS Tim]

What this really means:

End of the shift, end of the week.

One of the guys that built your truck was having a bad week. His union rep. won't talk to him. Yesterday his wife filed for divorce. Overnight the cat napped and crapped in the laundry basket on his only clean work clothes and the car had a dead battery, again.

Your truck is approaching his station.

He simply does not care about the broadcast sheet, assembly drawing or the colors called for on his trim card. He has parts in his hand that need to be installed and another truck behind yours. Momentarily he considers; the truck will have one gold and one parchment arm rest. All it has to do is pass the next inspection, then it's someone else's problem.

Wouldn't you like to know the actual day and shift your truck was built?

A warranty claims auditor at GM did too...

[Ol Blue K20]

Yes, would be nice piece of info

[TBONE1964]

Tim,

This is a good scenario and should always be considered when trying to figure out why some trucks/cars are not correct. Oddball things happen and human error is the most likely cause.

My example was in 1993 when a gentlemen brought his 1989 Olds Ceirra into the shop I was working for a brake inspection. After removing all 4 wheels it was obvious right away that the left rear brakes were 7 inch and the right rear brakes were 8 inch.

I asked about the history of the car, accidents or any warranty work and the owner stated that I was the first person to ever have the rear tires off and this was the first brake inspection.

I told him he should contact the dealer in which he purchased the car and let them know of my findings.

Was this car built on a Friday afternoon by someone who was working that station that had a similar situation with personal issues? We will never know.

I am not sure what the outcome here was but these type of things happen more than we know.

[truckster]

I used to receive cars for a Chevy dealer. We had a joke that you always wanted to buy a Wednesday car, because the Monday cars were built with a hangover and by Friday the workers were already getting started for the weekend.

We had a 76 Camaro come in just a few weeks after it was sold. There was a rattle the owner couldn't trace. I took the car out for a test drive, came back and pulled off the driver's door panel, and found an empty whiskey bottle.

[leftybass209]

I love your scenario. Those kinds of things run through my head any time someone says "you get what you pay for". No matter how expensive something is, its still subject to have flaws and problems.
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[Maxxd07]

I worked for the local Chevy dealership through high school and for the summers during my first two years of college, 1996-2003. In the summer of 2002 or maybe 2003 we recieved a shipment of new vehicles and one of them was a maroon Trailblazer, some how some way that thing made it from the factory to small town ND with a full blown GMC Envoy tail gate. That is something I will never forget.

[Longhorn 70]

A friend of mine in the 80's was a service manager at a local Chevy dealer. He warned me of the same things.... Get a Wednesday car if you can. He told a story of several "Targetmaster 350" engines that were replacements for failed engines that came through the dealership with only 1 bolt in each main cap. You can guess how long they lasted.

I was in parts at a Datsun dealer, tells you how far back. An older gentleman brought his truck in for service with 136K on the clock needing a clutch replacement. Shortly before I left he brought it back with only 60K on the new clutch. We told him the replacement part may have been made on a Friday or he was riding the clutch too much.

Thanks for the true chuckle, Tim.

[SS Tim]

Without naming anything.
New parts manager, problematic, asks "Should I buy that car X?"
Replied to the effect No not that car, don't buy that specifc option group and do not dealer install aftermarket modified wheels.

Well long story short nighmare car. Somedays I still want to call and say "I told you not to buy that car"... it was built January 2nd! They never actually knew.

[72chevyk10]

my folks got a brand new ford in the 90's with no shocks and 2 diffrent gear ratios in the 4wd. rear was 4.10, front was i think, 3.73. first time we pulled out of a field in 4wd the transfercase exploded haha

also heard a salesman say they had a truck come in once with a knock going around a corner. the repair shop pulled the door apart and found a washer tied to fishing line hanging there

[domeier]

You would not believe what the Fremont plant parking lot used to look like on Saturday mornings in the 70's - Empty sixpaks and bottles and cans and bottles and cans and sixpaks as far as the eye could see.

[madmoggy]

Originally Posted by domeier

You would not believe what the Fremont plant parking lot used to look like on Saturday mornings in the 70's - Empty sixpaks and bottles and cans and bottles and cans and sixpaks as far as the eye could see.

My truck was built in Fremont in 1970

[72chevyk10]

Originally Posted by domeier

You would not believe what the Fremont plant parking lot used to look like on Saturday mornings in the 70's - Empty sixpaks and bottles and cans and bottles and cans and sixpaks as far as the eye could see.

well that explains alot.. my truck is a fremont truck

[leddzepp]

This holds true in nearly every industry. You don't want surgery on a Monday or Friday either...for the same reasons.
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[jjzepplin]

I was a tire guy in the early 90's and a fellow came in with a new Jeep. Said his right front tire the kept going low on air. I removed it and found a leak in the sidewall.?? So I go to replace it and let the air out and it smelled like starting fluid. BAD! So I filled it up and let it out several times and slowly took the tire off the rim and found enough shrapnel to equal a very large can of starting fluid or some other volatile liquid. We took the rest of the tires off just to be sure.

[special-K]

I had scheduled oral surgery for a Saturday morning to have a wisdom tooth extracted. The last thing I remember before going under was the surgeon saying,"Let's hurry up and get this done. I have 18 holes waiting". I come to,he's off playing golf,and I'm told the tooth in front of it is fractured. It ended up being fractured so bad they had to pull the took. They were nice enough to do that for free.

[Gokart Mozart]

These are 2012 models!

[PanelDeland]

I worked with a guy who put left hand door panels on Thunderbirds in 77-78 IIRC.He claimed that if I ever bought one that there would be 3-4 screws in the door panel/handle assembly instead of the 5 it was designed with.The last screw was hard to get to,so nearly always left out.In fact he told me that the trainer showed him how to do the job and a day or so later,while he was still trying to get the speed required to do the job,the trainer came by and showed him the shortcut.

[flyingtim01]

I used to have a 2000 S-10 4WD, had it from brand new. For months, there was a clunk in the front end going over a bump with the wheels turned. Two dealerships went through 2 idler arms, 1 pitman arm, a PS pump and 3 PS hoses (one blew off before I left the lot) before I finally put it up on a lift myself and found that not a single boot in the front end had an ounce of grease in it. Ball joints, tie rods...all boots collapsed and bone dry. Needless to say, after greasing the front end, it was quiet as a church mouse.

[ls1nova71]

Things did make it out of the factory that weren't right from time to time. I got this glove box door from a buddy of mine when he restored the truck. It was on an Independence city maintenance truck, it was a 1 ton NAPCO 4x4 conversion, Custom 30, 350 4 speed, and was medium green. When he first got the truck I noticed all the options were wrong, after looking at it close, it had the SPID of either the truck in front of it or behind it on the assembly line, the VIN was 1 number off. So apparently they built 1 tons and 1/2 tons together.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by SS Tim

Wouldn't you like to know the actual day and shift your truck was built?

I ordered a couple trucks new and followed them down the line. My '80 was already in the shipping area by the time I got to the plant - but I caught my '87 just in time.

It was coming down out of paint and into trim at the beginning of second shift (4:30 pm) on Monday September 29, 1986. I followed the cab/box all the way through trim, then dropped down to the first floor to follow the engine line and chassis line build. After body drop it went straight out the back where I drove it to the shipping building myself.

I left the plant at 1 am Tuesday morning and by 5 pm Tuesday afternoon it was already sitting in the parking lot at Hank Graff Chevrolet in Davison. I still had to pay the $525 destination fee to go the nine miles from the plant to the dealership.

Relative to your original assertion: just like anything else we had good days and bad days; good workers and bad workers. But most of the folks were pretty gracious when they saw you following your own car/truck down the line.

This truck has been a daily driver for 27 years, with 200k miles on it. So it's been a pretty good truck for being a "Monday build"....

K

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by ls1nova71

When he first got the truck I noticed all the options were wrong, after looking at it close, it had the SPID of either the truck in front of it or behind it on the assembly line, the VIN was 1 number off. So apparently they built 1 tons and 1/2 tons together.

I have 34 years with GM, all in engineering, assembly and new product launch. Eight of those were as a Production Supervisor at Chevrolet Flint Assembly.

It still happens.

Getting out of sequence (whether stickers, or VIN stamp, or axles, etc) is a huge mess because it usually doesn't affect just the vehicle you are looking at - you usually have a whole line full of 'em.

The line doesn't stop for that so you have to expend one or two workers to go fix the mess while you keep everything else running (and pray nothing else goes to crap in the meantime).

In fact we used to have a library of various tire/wheels set aside at the install location so that the matching tire/wheel could be installed on a wrong axle - all to keep the line moving. The wrong axle would be repaired "out back" (meaning "Heavy Repair").

Wish I had a dollar for every truck that was a Chevy on one side and a GMC on the other....

(lol)

[Keith Seymore]

**Warning - shameless self promotion follows**

By the way, my build/intro thread linked below has about 27 pages of stories, experiences and conversation (for anyone who might be interested).

"My Pontiac Story" is my biography/autobiography about growing up in a GM family and racing factory sponsored Pontiacs (if you like mid 60's Pontiacs - approx 11 pages of stories and recollections).

K

[Orange67]

Wish I had a dollar for every truck that was a Chevy on one side and a GMC on the other....

(lol)[/QUOTE]

HAHA, a buddy of mine works for a local Chev dealer, they had a Colorado ON THE SHOWROOM FLOOR that had Colorado on the left door, and Canyon on the right..... so, not only did it make it past the plant inspection, it made it off the truck, into the detail bay, and had been parked on the floor for a couple of weeks before my buddy noticed it. (and he is a parts guy, so he's not out on the showroom very often...)

[alsriv2]

Never had a serious issue, but did take delivery on a 1990 minivan that had specific options on the window sticker that were paid for during the purchase. Didn't do a real good look-over when taking delivery and found out weeks later that the rear window defroster (listed on the window sticker) was not fully installed. The correct glass was there, but part of the wiring harness and the dash controls were never installed. Just blanking covers/trim pieces. Dealer didn't believe me at first, but did fix the problem after they researched it.

[Street Smart]

I worked at a Buick dealership here in Brooklyn back in the `80s. I remember going crazy with a rattle on a brand new Park Ave. Eventually found a couple of crushed beer cans in side the right side kick panel. Must of been a Friday afternoon build...