Intro from an old Assembly Plant guy

[Keith Seymore]

Painted black up inside the front wheelhouses:

[Keith Seymore]

Lastly - I think you guys know that as the trucks were built they were assigned a sequential build number. These numbers will often appear in crayon on the firewall, on the rear axle cover, on the tires, etc - anyplace where it was helpful for the assembly plant to keep the components or subassemblies in the right order.

Even though I followed this truck down the assembly line I didn't remember this but - in a kind of a cool coincidence - apparently my truck was "number 87".

[JohnC]

Cool! Nice little bit of history you found there! It's looking good man. I've used the satin, and the semi-flat too, and really like the results.

[3r!c84]

mine says it too right there but 84

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by 3r!c84

mine says it too right there but 84

Hmm....where was your truck built?

(If you aren't sure, just post the alpha portion of your VIN. You don't have to publish the numerical portion if you don't care to).

K

[Skirkpat]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Lastly - I think you guys know that as the trucks were built they were assigned a sequential build number. These numbers will often appear in crayon on the firewall, on the rear axle cover, on the tires, etc - anyplace where it was helpful for the assembly plant to keep the components or subassemblies in the right order.

Even though I followed this truck down the assembly line I didn't remember this but - in a kind of a cool coincidence - apparently my truck was "number 87".

I bet you remember a few times of people putting on # 97's part on # 98, and #98's on # 99 and then....ooooohh no, get the repairman!!! LOL

Lookin great, keep up the good work.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Skirkpat

I bet you remember a few times of people putting on # 97's part on # 98, and #98's on # 99 and then....ooooohh no, get the repairman!!! LOL

Lookin great, keep up the good work.

Yep.

The main offenders in that regard were the axle line, which was where the axle assemblies were "trimmed out" (that is, brake lines, ebrake cables, shocks, etc were installed), tires and wheels, hood & fenders, anywhere where the assemblies were built up in a remote area of the plant and then conveyed to the main line. If you got out of sequence there then you had a whole series of vehicles that were messed up.

The VIN stamp was another one. There were several workstations between the VIN stamp and the inspection station, so if you had a bad stamp (or got out of sequence) you had five or six trucks to repair.

Incidently, we actually had a bank of "wrong" tire/wheel assemblies set aside for use. If you built a truck with a wrong axle (ie, six lug instead of five lug, or vice versa) then you could simply install the corresponding "wrong" tire/wheel assembly. That way you could continue to build the truck without stopping the line and the truck would be repaired later (in a "Heavy Repair" stall out back, in the case of an axle replacement).

K

[Keith Seymore]

Here's my victim for this weekend. Installed the patch panel on the pickup box behind the left rear wheel....



Here's the panel after it's cut out, and with the patch panel from LMC:







This little bracket doesn't offer much structure! Like a dummy I forgot to paint it after I cleaned the rust off of it and before I installed the patch. After I was done I tried jamming Rustoleum red metal primer up there with a brush. That will have to do, I guess.



This is after it is "flanged"



...and screwed and bonded in place. Sort of a "Frankentruck" appearance!





Incidently, I made those cuts so that they will be covered by the wheel opening molding and body side trim (across the top) and somewhat obscured by the bumper (along the back).

[Keith Seymore]

By way of review, this is the same process I used on the cab corners.

Before:



After:

[Keith Seymore]

...plus one in the trailer:

[JohnC]

Very nice collection you have there Keith!

[3r!c84]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

...plus one in the trailer:

73 chevelle?

[Keith Seymore]

The Chevelle:





Tryin' to put 'er in the 9's...

(...didn't happen that day...).

K

[legendman]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

This is after it is "flanged"



...and screwed and bonded in place. Sort of a "Frankentruck" appearance!

Great thread.

I have a question on the "flang", is it a tool that does the stepping of metal ?

Not sure if Keith still checks in here, maybe someone else will know.

[Keith Seymore]

I'm here; thank you.

It's a small tool based on a pair of vise grips. The jaws have features built in to create a small die so that when the vice grips snap closed they form an offset.

I probably got them out of the Eastwood catalog.

K

[Keith Seymore]

Found a coupe more old photos of the red truck from when we were in Arizona.

These would have been 1991-1994 timeframe.

K