Intro from an old Assembly Plant guy

[KMK454]

Keith, crazy to hear you sold the truck. Congrats on the new ride!

Question on the side-mount spare - how did you mount it up, and was it a factory option?

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by KMK454

Keith, crazy to hear you sold the truck. Congrats on the new ride!

Question on the side-mount spare - how did you mount it up, and was it a factory option?

Thanks for reading and commenting. Lil Red is nearby, so I still get "visitation".

The spare tire mount was factory: RPO P13.

K

[KMK454]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Thanks for reading and commenting. Lil Red is nearby, so I still get "visitation".

The spare tire mount was factory: RPO P13.

K

Thanks Keith!

Looks like LMC offers the bed-mounted spare tire add-on, but... you have to drill holes in the bed. Hmm...

[83GMCK2500]

Yay! Thank you very much Keith. I loved reading through this thread and experiencing the history/knowledge you've shared here.

[jkk]

Good stuff very interesting

[SKT]

Too cool Keith!

Any more pics or interesting stories?

[Palf70Step]

Very nice Keith!

[Ol Blue K20]

Did he do the art work himself or have it done? Either way that's very nice.

[Keith Seymore]

Thank you; He took the photo and gave it to a friend, who used a photoshop filter or something to create the line art.

K

[1976gmc20]

I can't believe I read the whole thread !!!!

[rwhit57]

Hey Keith, Good to see your still hanging around. I have a question, just curious.Were special order trucks built with any more attention to detail? I assume they come down the same assy line. Thanks, Randy

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by 1976gmc20

I can't believe I read the whole thread !!!!

Well done, you. I don't think I have ready the whole thread.

Originally Posted by rwhit57

Hey Keith, Good to see your still hanging around. I have a question, just curious.Were special order trucks built with any more attention to detail? I assume they come down the same assy line. Thanks, Randy

Thank you; no - same assembly line. The only thing would be if you put a sign in the windshield designating something (ie, "1st 1979", or "for Red Skelton") or sometimes if you were following it down the line the guys would ask "...zis yours?" and would do a little better job if they liked you.

K

[asphaltburner]

Glad to see you're using some of your retirement to keep up the posts, Keith! I'm doing the same,...on forums for a number of different kinds of vehicles/tractors.
Thanks for your continued contribution, man!
Todd Compton, alias asphaltburner.

[Daubs]

Hey Keith, I have a 2004 2500HD Crew Cab 4x4 with the 8.1L (L18) engine.

I remember reading a thread somewhere with a GM engineer who helped develop this engine. He talked how it was designed for medium duty trucks, very reliable, etc.

There isn't much I can find via google on this engine...

By the way, I love it! 134k miles, doesn't burn any oil, replaced the water pump...and that's about it. Super engine!

[wazzabie]

Thank you for sharing your story. About how long did it take for the vehicle to go down the assembly line? Where trucks left over night to allow the paint to dry?

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by wazzabie

Thank you for sharing your story. About how long did it take for the vehicle to go down the assembly line? Where trucks left over night to allow the paint to dry?

It was a couple days if you include the time to weld up the body, fab up the pickup box and get through paint.

After vehicles came out of paint and into trim it was about 8 hours from there to the end of the line, depending on line rate, work stoppages due to breakdowns or material shortages or whatever.

I caught my truck coming down out of paint and into trim at 4:30 pm. I'm pretty sure I was leaving the plant at the end of that shift at 1 pm, after already having driven it over to the shipping building.

Trucks went directly from paint into paint drying ovens. They were set anywhere between high 200 deg F to 350 deg F and the vehicle spent about 1/2 hour in there. They were ready to work on immediately, after cooling to the touch.

There were also paint repair ovens which were not as hot, particularly if running a completed vehicle through paint repair.

K

[wazzabie]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

It was a couple days if you include the time to weld up the body, fab up the pickup box and get through paint.

After vehicles came out of paint and into trim it was about 8 hours from there to the end of the line, depending on line rate, work stoppages due to breakdowns or material shortages or whatever.

I caught my truck coming down out of paint and into trim at 4:30 pm. I'm pretty sure I was leaving the plant at the end of that shift at 1 pm, after already having driven it over to the shipping building.

Trucks went directly from paint into paint drying ovens. They were set anywhere between high 200 deg F to 350 deg F and the vehicle spent about 1/2 hour in there. They were ready to work on immediately, after cooling to the touch.

There were also paint repair ovens which were not as hot, particularly if running a completed vehicle through paint repair.

K

That is really cool you got to see your truck get built. That didn't take much time at all for the paint to dry.

I think starting in 78 the bodies were dipped in a zinc solution. They still would rust out. I have a photo of the 78 rusting two years after it was built.

Maybe you would know the answer to these questions.

1. My 78 K5 hood bent when I was closing it I think because I never had oiled the hinges before. The hinge got bound up on one side. What is the best way to prevent the bent hood? Do I need to get new hinges?

2. In 78 GM added bracing rods from the bell housing to engine and tcase to engine on the K5 Blazer. In 72 the K5 tcase bracing was to the frame. Why would the 78 K5 not have bracing to the frame like the 72 K5?

3. What does the white chalking indicate on the valve covers? I've seen the number 21 in chalk on several covers including on my k5. Also for the 73-87 was the chalk markings standard on all GM assembly plants or would each assembly plant have its own distinct chalk markings?

4. At the assembly plant about how many people were on the line do you think that assembled the 73-78 chevy? Did these lines run 24x7?

5. Did the couple of days estimate also include engine building? I assume the engine was built at the same time as the body was being built.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by wazzabie

That is really cool you got to see your truck get built.

I got to do that a couple times; I followed my ’80 pickup down the line as well.

Originally Posted by wazzabie

I think starting in 78 the bodies were dipped in a zinc solution. They still would rust out. I have a photo of the 78 rusting two years after it was built.

Bodies were dipped in an ELPO tank starting around that timeframe. This allowed the primer to get in all the nooks and crannies better than spraying.

http://73-87.com/7387info/Assembly%20Line.htm

When H2s were built in Mishawaka Indiana they were also dipped. The bodies were tumbled end-over-end to ensure there were no air bubbles and that there was complete coverage inside.

Originally Posted by wazzabie

Maybe you would know the answer to these questions.

1. My 78 K5 hood bent when I was closing it I think because I never had oiled the hinges before. The hinge got bound up on one side. What is the best way to prevent the bent hood? Do I need to get new hinges?

I’d try cleaning and lubing your existing hinges first, to free them up. If that doesn’t work then I would go for new hinges. There is also a reinforcement that can be added to your hood to brace it in that area, available commercially through most of the repop part supply houses.

Originally Posted by wazzabie

2. In 78 GM added bracing rods from the bell housing to engine and tcase to engine on the K5 Blazer. In 72 the K5 tcase bracing was to the frame. Why would the 78 K5 not have bracing to the frame like the 72 K5?

Could be changes due to continuous improvement (for driveline bending/Noise and Vibration performance) or maybe even better assembly. If the braces go from the engine to the trans/tcase then they can be installed on the motor line, rather that waiting for the chassis line to make the installation. That makes them easier to install, and drives the workload upstream, which is always desirable.

Originally Posted by wazzabie

3. What does the white chalking indicate on the valve covers? I've seen the number 21 in chalk on several covers including on my k5. Also for the 73-87 was the chalk markings standard on all GM assembly plants or would each assembly plant have its own distinct chalk markings?

Normally they were build sequence numbers written in an attempt to keep everything in order, or often were added as a heads up to downstream workers about what option content to expect (paint color, engine, trans, brake system, etc).

The chalk marks were not a formal engineering requirement and therefore were “ad lib”, and could vary by plant, by shift, by operator, and even the color could vary based on whatever was laying around.

There has been a bunch of good discussion on this forum. Some of my favorites are attached below:

Factory Markings: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...ighlight=Linda

Need Help Deciphering Factory Grease Marks: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...ighlight=Linda

Show Us your Crayon Marks: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...ighlight=Linda

Factory Grease Pencil Marks: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...ighlight=Linda

Z Code Fremont Asssembly http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...light=graffiti

Found my Build Sheet: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...light=graffiti

Numbers at top of firewall: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=545345

Help CC to the Nuthouse: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...ghlight=grease

Originally Posted by wazzabie

4. At the assembly plant about how many people were on the line do you think that assembled the 73-78 chevy? Did these lines run 24x7?

Oh, man! I hadn’t thought about a number, but it would be a lot!

There were seven final assembly locations building squarebodies, and you had not only the actual production assemblers on the line but absentee replacements, temporary relief men, inspection, repair, etc. I had 29 production operations in my area and had about 36 hourly employees by the time you had one for each job, three or four utility men and one quality man (aka “right hand man”). Don’t forget all the support on top of that: material control, fork lift drivers, repairmen on the short moving repair lines, repairmen out back in the stationary stalls of heavy repair, drivers for moving the vehicles off the end of the line, drivers for running repair parts out back, drivers for shuttling vehicles around between repair areas, drivers for running the vehicles over to the shipping building, etc.

I wouldn’t know how to put a number on that.

Some passenger car plants ran 3 shifts of production but I don’t think trucks ever did. They ran either one or two shifts of 8 hour production 5 days a week normally, with occasional scheduled runs of 6 days and/or some 10 hour days. There was usually a bit of unscheduled overtime per day (a tenth of an hour or two) just to make sure all the buffers and accumulators were full for the start of the next production shift.

UAW employees were entitled to a break in the morning (6 minutes for every hour worked), a 1/2 hour lunch, and a break in the afternoon. There were a couple ways to accomplish this: one technique was a "rolling relief", in which case those absentee utility men and relief men I mentioned would "tag" one employee at a time to provide them a break, while the line continued to run. When that person returned from break they would work their way down the line, covering for each assembler one by one. The second technique was called "mass relief", in which the line would stop for 24 minutes (or whatever the allotted time was) in the morning, and again in the afternoon. In that case all 6000 or 10,000 people in the plant would all make a beeline for the restrooms or cafeteria, all at the exact same time. The line would stop for that 30 minute lunch break as well.

Originally Posted by wazzabie

5. Did the couple of days estimate also include engine building? I assume the engine was built at the same time as the body was being built.

No – engines were built in the days, weeks and months ahead of time, at specific engine build locations. Engines were built in Flint, Michigan, Tonawanda NY and St Catherines, ONT CAN, for example, then racked up and shipped via rail or truck to the various final assembly locations. Same with other component parts – transmissions, t cases, drive shafts, axles, steering gears, power steering pumps, alternators, starters, HVAC modules, etc. All built up ahead of time.

The intent was that these would be a first in/first out type usage, but sometimes material would get moved around and lost in the assembly plant, only to be discovered at a later date.

Passenger car assembly in Pontiac Michigan was unusual in this regard. They poured the iron, machined the parts, and built up the engines right there on the same plot of land as the final assembly took place. The timeframe from when they poured my engine block and cylinder heads, built it into a running engine, installed it in my ’65 GTO and shipped the car was 9 days. But even in this case it was not a "just in time" sequenced assembly. Engines were still built up in volume and shipped over to the final assembly plant in batches.

K

[LT7A]

I went back in the thread and read up a little bit. Any chance you can tell us about that secret project now?

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by LT7A

I went back in the thread and read up a little bit. Any chance you can tell us about that secret project now?

Prob not. It's going to be about 30 years before I can share any technical details and I'm not allowed to post anything electronically.

I'll just leave this cool random photo here without any editorial comment.

K

[S10Fan]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Prob not. It's going to be about 30 years before I can share any technical details and I'm not allowed to post anything electronically.

I'll just leave this cool random photo here without any editorial comment.

K

The Beast!

[LT7A]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Prob not. It's going to be about 30 years before I can share any technical details and I'm not allowed to post anything electronically.

I'll just leave this cool random photo here without any editorial comment.

K

How random! Cool photo.

[Nick_R_23]

Interesting. Always wondered who gets to design the next generation.

[rodstored-72]

keith, thank you for being a member on here & sharing your knowledge... my ex wife's uncle worked at the arlington tx plant. I "think?? he worked on the police cruisers. he has some good stories as well.

[85/Silverado]

Those were the days, My Mother worked at the Pontiac Plant in Pontiac and Dad worked at Dodge Truck in Warren. We had some great arguements at the dinner table in the 60,s and 70's....lol