Intro from an old Assembly Plant guy

[Keith Seymore]

Somebody has a birthday today -

Built second shift Monday Sept 29, 1986. I left the plant at 1 am on Tuesday after driving it to the shipping building.

It was at Hank Graff Chevrolet in Davison by 5 pm that same day.

K

[Getter-Done]

Did you special order it?

Happy Birthday to your Red truck.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Getter-Done

Did you special order it?

Happy Birthday to your Red truck.

Yes. When I saw that Hurst floor shift coming down the line I knew I had to have one.

Couple funny stories about that process attached below.

I got the "Class A" discount, so I paid the invoice amount rather than the full MSRP.

I love how they spelled my name wrong on the paperwork.

K

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Funny story about ordering and building this truck:

I ordered it just like the other trucks that my family drove: manual windows and locks, no air, etc. Sometime between the time I ordered the truck and before it was built I got the word that I was going to the Desert Proving Ground. In a panic, I tracked the order down and was able to get air conditioning added to the truck before it was built.

That was only the first hold up. I ordered the truck with the MY0 (aka MY6) manual overdrive trans (3rd gear is 1:1 and 4th gear is an overdrive, with a floor mounted Hurst shifter). This was about the time when Mr Gasket was buying out Hurst and, because GM was not sure they could get the shifters, they placed this transmission combination on "Stop Order". I received word that my truck would not be built and so I started fretting about what I might be able to do for "Plan B" (...order the three on the tree Saginaw trans and then replace it with my own Saginaw four speed with a floor shift, etc).

During this time I was walking through the plant, past the motor line, and I noticed a bunch of these transmissions on pallets: stacked up, dozens and dozens of them. I called the Material Control supervisor over and asked him "...how many of those transmissions do you think you have?".

"Probably a hunnert" he said.

"Don't you think we oughta' build 'em, rather than leaving them sit there?" I suggested

He thought that was a pretty good idea, so when I got back to the office I mentioned it to my boss.

We ended up building one hundred of those trucks under a temporary deviation (one of which, naturally, was mine).

[KevinK7]

...Another post led me here.
What a great story. Not only the truck itself, but your long career with GM.
Kieth, Thanks so much for sharing.

[Keith Seymore]

I just had a new reproduction window sticker made.

This was done by Paul@winvoices.com. We did everything we could to make it as accurate as possible, using the original invoice, SPID label, and other contemporaneous references.

K

[rodstored-72]

Keith, again!! THANK YOU! for sharing your life's journey with us. and thank you for the link! hope all is well and that the new year is starting off great for you & your family!

[Shark_13]

The history and pics and stories are fantastic. Thanks for sharing

[57NAPCO]

Keith we are very fortunate to have you here. Your extensive knowledge and the sharing of the history of the square bodies priceless.

Thank you for being here!

[eric8]

Wow very cool build. You might have the only limited slip equipped V6 C10 with a 4 speed still in existence. I’m always amazed at the number of SPID’s I look at, and almost never see the G80 option. Which seems like a no brainer, especially on a 2wd truck. Never understood why people didn’t get them.

Could you have gotten a factory tach with this combo?

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by eric8

Wow very cool build. You might have the only limited slip equipped V6 C10 with a 4 speed still in existence. I’m always amazed at the number of SPID’s I look at, and almost never see the G80 option. Which seems like a no brainer, especially on a 2wd truck. Never understood why people didn’t get them.

Being from a more performance oriented family, and driving 2wd trucks exclusively at the time here in Michigan, my dad and I always ordered the G80 rear axle.

Still do.

But I recognize we are probably outliers.

Originally Posted by eric8

Could you have gotten a factory tach with this combo?

Yes –

And no.


Yes – normally. You could get any option content with the MY6 that could be had with any other manual trans (M20, M62/M64). So that would include the tach cluster, and cruise control, etc.

The problem was this: recall that my trans was stop ordered briefly during the ordering process. When they did that the engineering specifications team stripped all the MY6 associated RPO content out of the VDS* (as is their custom). When the stop order was lifted, via the temporary deviation, they had to manually add all that stuff back in – but in the confusion they missed U18 (Tach cluster) and K34 (cruise). As a result when I tried to order my truck with those two options the order got bounced.

It ended up getting built without.

I procured a tach cluster and installed that after the fact. If you were to remove the cluster today you would find some hard wires behind the cluster still that I needed to add in order to make it work.

I recall for the cruise set up I ordered a service kit over the counter. It was packaged and had everything I needed to add cruise (including instructions).

You could get anything over the counter at Milford if it had a GM part number.

K


*the Vehicle Description Summary: this is the matrix that defines what options are available on what models and in what combinations

[Keith Seymore]

Just noticed today is June 11th; it was June 11 1979 that I started at Flint Assembly -

By way of update: I retired from GM in February of 2019.

Started with Nissan in May of 2019 and just quit on May 1st of this year (these are hard times for Nissan. They failed to renew my contract).

So - living the dream. One month into retirement for reals

[Mike80D]

Hey Keith. I have really enjoyed reading through your story on the truck. Your knowledge is very appreciated by those who are interested in the history of the company, and the trucks. You missed my 78 Flint built Scottsdale by 1 year. I recently bought it from the original 83 year old owner, and have a ton of records from his maintenance. One that is pretty amusing is that with less than 300 miles, the 305/2bbl was back in the shop for some running issues. Anyway, hereÂ’s a few pics. IÂ’m in the process of cleaning up the original paint, donÂ’t mind the rust, and even though the 305 is still running, it has a significant rod knock. I was able to find a low mileage L48 350 from a 78 Corvette that was removed for a LS engine, and I will be putting it in my truck soon. Lastly, my family and I love Michigan. We like to camp at your state parks. My Mother grew up in Dearborn in the 60s-70s. Have a great day.

[Mike80D]

Originally Posted by Mike80D

Hey Keith. I have really enjoyed reading through your story on the truck. Your knowledge is very appreciated by those who are interested in the history of the company, and the trucks. You missed my 78 Flint built Scottsdale by 1 year. I recently bought it from the original 83 year old owner, and have a ton of records from his maintenance. One that is pretty amusing is that with less than 300 miles, the 305/2bbl was back in the shop for some running issues. Anyway, hereÂ’s a few pics. IÂ’m in the process of cleaning up the original paint, donÂ’t mind the rust, and even though the 305 is still running, it has a significant rod knock. I was able to find a low mileage L48 350 from a 78 Corvette that was removed for a LS engine, and I will be putting it in my truck soon. Lastly, my family and I love Michigan. We like to camp at your state parks. My Mother grew up in Dearborn in the 60s-70s. Have a great day.

Pics

[Mike80D]

Trying to add more pics, the forum is being tricky about trying to use my phone.

[D13]

Welcome to the good times Keith. Hope to see you at the races some time this year.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Somebody has a birthday today -

Built second shift Monday Sept 29, 1986. I left the plant at 1 am on Tuesday after driving it to the shipping building.

It was at Hank Graff Chevrolet in Davison by 5 pm that same day.

K

Another birthday; another year gone by.

I mostly just wanted to point out that September 29th falls on a Monday this year, just as it did 39 years ago.

K

[Getter-Done]

Happy Birthday.