Intro from an old Assembly Plant guy

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Public Service Safety Reminder!


Always use jackstands when working under a vehicle:




and use caution when backing trailers:



(lol) -

K

Ha, ha. These pics reminded me of a couple that I have.

I was doing some work under the front end of my wife's T10 Blazer and came in the house to find this:



He's got all the right tools, a saw, a screwdriver, wrench, and he is fumbling around with a hammer--what more do you need??

Your tractor pic reminded me of this one:



This was my pedal tractor when I was his age, so I dug it out of my Mom's shed and restored it for him a few years back and gave it to him for Christmas. After I got done with it I told my mom if she ever buys her boy another pedal tractor to buy two of them to save me a ton of restoration money later on.

I enjoy reading your posts. It sounds like you have ahd a helluva run there at GM. Does GM still build trucks at Flint??

[83GMCK2500]

Originally Posted by mosesburb

Your tractor pic reminded me of this one:

I had one of those when I was little as well. I had a trailer for mine too.

[mosesburb]

Yeah, me too. That damn wagon took some serious work to get back to a useable condition. I had overloaded it so many times that I had cracked the bottom and sprung what was left of it like an oil can. It was a mission during the restoration to get the wagon usable. I could have gotten a new one for a lot less effort that it took to repair this one, but what fun is that?? I added a reinforcement across the width of it and welded the axle brackets to the pan itself--seems to be holding up well. How many kids do you know that broke their toy wagon from overloading it??

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Big Block

I can second all of the above! I also own a 1965 Tempest, I am the second owner.

Very nice. I like the Corvette rallys, too (I have pictures of our car with Corvette rallys - painted black - installed. I still have those wheels, too).

K

[Keith Seymore]

Moses - I laughed out loud a dozen times looking at your pics....

I could go a bunch of different directions here but will limit my comments to the following:

a) My tractor, when I was little, was a green one. In fact, I know I ran into the side of the GTO at least once with it (now I wish I was more careful!). I could ride wheelies on it - rocking it back on a homemade trailer hitch - but since it only had one drive wheel it would turn in a circle I could go around three or four times without touching down.

b) Those cement block walls look familiar! My photos were taken during our years in Mesa.

c) Nice job on the resto - I have all the stickers to redo the red one. There's quite a little cottage industry out there for restoring these pedal tractors.

d) James was probably 6 or 7 when he figured out how to back that trailer around. (His mother still can't back a trailer). These days, among other things, he parks airplanes by backing them into the hangar, using those little "tug" trucks. He came by it honest!

e) Yep - still building trucks in Flint. They had been building HD pickups, crew cabs and dual wheel vehicles, but just made an announcement that they are getting some lighter duty trucks now, too.

Edit: I'll have to see if I can find pictures of the "dual rear wheel" wagon my dad made...

K

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Moses - I laughed out loud a dozen times looking at your pics....

I could go a bunch of different directions here but will limit my comments to the following:

a) My tractor, when I was little, was a green one. In fact, I know I ran into the side of the GTO at least once with it (now I wish I was more careful!). I could ride wheelies on it - rocking it back on a homemade trailer hitch - but since it only had one drive wheel it would turn in a circle I could go around three or four times without touching down.

Ha, ha. Yeah, I was the king of the Rockford reverse 180. When I restored it, I found out what reverse 180's do to the axle shaft.

b) Those cement block walls look familiar! My photos were taken during our years in Mesa.

I figured that was probably where they were taken. Looks like winter as the grass is tan and the kids are wearing long sleeves and or long pants as opposed to tan grass and shorts with flip flops.

c) Nice job on the resto - I have all the stickers to redo the red one. There's quite a little cottage industry out there for restoring these pedal tractors.

Thanks. Cottage industry, yeah, I guess that would be one way to put it. Extortion racket might be another??

d) James was probably 6 or 7 when he figured out how to back that trailer around. (His mother still can't back a trailer). These days, among other things, he parks airplanes by backing them into the hangar, using those little "tug" trucks. He came by it honest!

Ironically, I back stuff up for a living myself (nothing even remotely as cool as an aircraft though). I always took for granted that not everyone can back a trailer up because I learned it so young.

e) Yep - still building trucks in Flint. They had been building HD pickups, crew cabs and dual wheel vehicles, but just made an announcement that they are getting some lighter duty trucks now, too.

Nice to hear something is still going to be built here. Are your Volt cars going to be produced in the states??

Edit: I'll have to see if I can find pictures of the "dual rear wheel" wagon my dad made...

Sounds interesting.

K

...

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by mosesburb

...Nice to hear something is still going to be built here. Are your Volt cars going to be produced in the states??

Yes - Detroit - Hamtramck (affectionately known as "D-Ham").

K

[old Rusty C10]

LOL Keith do you know the guy who decided to put those lousy torx bolts to hold seatbelts in every GM vehicle??? Id really like to beat him with my3/4 drive breaker bar!!!

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by old Rusty C10

LOL Keith do you know the guy who decided to put those lousy torx bolts to hold seatbelts in every GM vehicle??? Id really like to beat him with my3/4 drive breaker bar!!!

No - I can't think of who it would be, but I want second crack at him!!

Seriously, that's why my truck still has the original belts in it. I started to pull them out, beginning on the passenger side, but twisted the head off every bolt. Since I could repair them from the bottom (by cutting the square weld nut off and replacing with a loose nut and bolt) I figured I'd better quit before I got to the driver's side - which would be blocked from underneath by the fuel tank!

I figure if I ever have the tank out for some reason I'll twist that one off and repair it while I am at it.

K

[old Rusty C10]

I was working on my other truck today... the Chevy S 10 and i thought i had it made... three of the four mounting bolts wewre the nuts with the attached washer on them ... the fourth connector has the seat belts attached and had the torx head bolts... I finally got the right decent torx socket and they promptly stripped out... what we did was to take an 11/16 bolt and hold it upside down and sketch out the head of the bolt, cut it out with the makita 3 1/5 inch grinder and jam a socket on it then ratchet it out that way..then off to lowes to find the correct replacement bolt and washers
turned an hour job into a three and half hour adventure..

[83GMCK2500]

Shoot guys...(knock on wood) I have NEVER had a problem with those torx bolts on the interior. NOW those friggen philips-head that hold the tailgate handle on can die in a friggen fire. I want a piece of the guy that spec'd those bolts.

[Keith Seymore]

Well guys - I was doing a "mid winter" assessment of how lil Red is holding up under his first snow season and.... everything is looking pretty good. The cheap "driver quality" trim rings are not going to make it, and the outside mirrors are getting a little pockmarked but everything else (especially anything painted "red") is holding up ok.

At any rate, I noticed a little trick that I hadn't shared with you all yet:

I was looking at my tires. They are just a cheap P235/75R15 of some type, but they are whitewalls. Naturally, for the ones on the ground I just had them mounted with the whitewall "in", but I didn't want to see the w/w from underneath the truck.

So - I just painted over them, allowing the black Krylon from painting the backside of the rally wheel to go over the tire sidewall.

That's probably not a big deal but then I realized that the spare tire up in the bed of the truck was going to be visible from both sides - and - that the white wall would also be visible and not match. So I did the same thing: just put a nice coat of Krylon on the back sidewall of the tire.

I know it sounds hokey. It cracked a little bit where the tire pulled into the bed rail upon installation but, other than that, so far so good...

[JohnC]

Great tid bit on the tires Keith. Also glad to hear the update on how the truck is holding up after the refreshment.

[truckfan]

too bad the poor thing had to be out in the cold all winter......

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by truckfan

too bad the poor thing had to be out in the cold all winter......

Yah. I agree.



It's never even been inside my garage.

K

[1986swb]

Great job on your truck. I'm doing a similar rebuilt to my GMC 1/2 ton SWB, slowly but surely. Suspension and drive train are done. Interior upholstry and exterior paint are next.

BTW - I like your memory lane shots -- then and now.

Keep up the great work! Gosh. If you were only in Seattle .... Take care.

[Keith Seymore]

Found out over the weekend that my Chevelle was featured in the May 2010 Popular Hot Rodding magazine, as well as a small photo on the cover.





Here's a link to the original "behind the scenes" thread, along with the complete finished magazine article.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=355677

K

[tucsonjwt]

Welcome aboard Keith. Your post brings back memories.
I also worked for GM in the late 1970s, before being laid off and moving to Arizona. I got a GM sponsored graduate degree via CMU which offered classes in various GM plants and other offsite locations, including Flint Truck Assembly. I remember watching the body drops on my way to class in conference rooms deep inside the plant. All of the GMI grads in my graduate classes complained that they could not get out of their first production supervision assignment and into engineering, since those jobs were all filled by outside "top tier" engineering school grads, and not "car school" grads. It's good to see that you proved their perception wrong.
I bought a 73 C20 454 for $450 in 1982 and drove it out here to AZ after being laid off from GM. I kept that vehicle for 21 years, until rust made it too dangerous to drive. I then bought a 76 C20 350/350 (a real dog) which I sold after two years. In 2002 I bought a 83 C20 454 granny 4 spd. (with a gear vendor) and had a dump hoist conversion installed. I drive that today, after countless repairs- just a second vehicle.
One quick question that has always been a problem with 454s - how do you stop "starter heat soak" - the no start condition when the engine is hot? So far, I have installed remote solenoid, GM high torque mini starter, and dual start batteries - but still a somewhat difficult start in 110 degree AZ heat.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by tucsonjwt

... All of the GMI grads in my graduate classes complained that they could not get out of their first production supervision assignment and into engineering, since those jobs were all filled by outside "top tier" engineering school grads, and not "car school" grads. It's good to see that you proved their perception wrong.

Thanks for the note. I was able to use my time as a supervisor to weasel my way into the Assembly Liaison job - first as a Flint Assembly employee and then as an Engineering employee - doing the same work. So far, everything has gone according to plan career wise (other than that little "bankruptcy" thing last year...)

Originally Posted by tucsonjwt

... One quick question that has always been a problem with 454s - how do you stop "starter heat soak" - the no start condition when the engine is hot? So far, I have installed remote solenoid, GM high torque mini starter, and dual start batteries - but still a somewhat difficult start in 110 degree AZ heat.

Sounds like you are doing all the right things. The only other thought I can offer up is that eventually the ignition wiring gets bad, from heat and age. My Chevelle got to where it wouldn't start even with two new batteries in the trunk. That's when I wired up a pushbutton start, jumping directly across the posts of the starter. As soon as I did that - no more problems. You just turn the key to "on" (not crank), push the button and away you go -

K

[tucsonjwt]

Keith - way off subject, but since I am a former Michigander, I have been following this story about the only true "wolverine" ever seen in Michigan which was just found dead in the Thumb area. I don't know if you have seen this also, but being a UM grad, I have an affinity for wolverines. The second story shows actual live pics and video of this magnificent animal.

http://www.mlive.com/environment/ind..._michigan.html

http://www.mlive.com/environment/ind...ine_has_a.html

[djinva]

I'm new here and this is an awesome read. I've probably had 20 Chevy pick ups over the years and just bought a 71. My first vehicle was a 71 stepside with a 307 and a 4 speed with a vertical gate shifter(of course this wasn't original), I really abused that truck. I probably be a little easier on this one.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Well guys - I was doing a "mid winter" assessment of how lil Red is holding up under his first snow season and.... everything is looking pretty good. The cheap "driver quality" trim rings are not going to make it, and the outside mirrors are getting a little pockmarked but everything else (especially anything painted "red") is holding up ok.

I haven't forgotten about you all; I have been just waiting for winter to be over so I can see how everything held up. This was 'lil red's first Michigan winter in many, many years (21 years, to be exact). It was 75 degrees a couple days this week so I'm sayin' were DONE! (...I hope...).

As it turns out, things look pretty good.

The cheap trim rings were the first casualty. They started with some surface rust right after their first exposure to snow/salt:



I've replaced them with some Wheel Vintique stainless parts which I got through the Summit catalog. These actually saw a little snow and look no worse for wear. I think they are going to hold up ok:



The outside rearview mirrors were the only other problem. They corroded and got pock marked. I tried cleaning them up but to no avail; ended up just purchasing another set of mirrors and replacing them outright. I also snapped off the retaining screw removing the driver's side, so I liberally applied some "never sieze" when I went back together.





I might save those old ones and paint them silver for winter use - or - I might just put new mirrors on the truck every spring, since they are not really that expensive in the grand scheme of things.



Here's why I love the vinyl flooring in my trucks :





...and here it is, looking pretty much like when I took a simliar photo back in September of last year.

[menace121978]

wow... its amazing what the salt does to stuff. i never thought just 1 winter would eat up the the trim rings and mirrors like that! crazy...

looks awesome all cleaned up again... looks just like it rolled off the factory assembly line

[Keith Seymore]

I was right! Spring has officially sprung in Michigan!

Stopped by the Autozone bookstore cruise this morning. We've been meeting off and on all winter long but today was definitely the first "big" gathering.

The truck was clean and available, so I ended up just driving that. Those of you that have "cool" daily drivers can appreciate how nice it is to just hop in your daily and participate in a cruise or a show...







"One of these things is not like the others..." Can you spot the daily driven Chevy pickup amongst the Corvettes and Ferarris?



It wasn't a bad (or particularly long) winter; just didn't do a lot of automotive stuff; but it's good for the nice weather to be back!

K

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by menace121978

wow... its amazing what the salt does to stuff. i never thought just 1 winter would eat up the the trim rings and mirrors like that! crazy...

looks awesome all cleaned up again... looks just like it rolled off the factory assembly line

I think the quality of the repop chrome is just not that great (or due to "modern" government regulations regarding hazardous materials).

Compare those to the original door handles and/or bumpers - which still look very presentable...

Thanks, btw -

K