1936 Chevrolet Assembly Line

[beana51]

FLINT MICHIGAN USA This is really awesome footage. A 1936 Chevrolet assembly factory. Note the automation that was already in place, the workers lack of any and all modern safety equipment, glasses and helmets, and they ALL know exactly what to do and its getting done. Note also that when the body comes together with the chassis that it is in FULL trim, Interior, windshield, all glass etc. is already in place as it is dropped onto the awaiting rolling chassis, "AMAZING". Simplicity at its best. Note that while the metal finishers are checking the sheet metal for minute and tiny flaws and defects that they are wearing heavy leather work gloves. How would YOU like that repetitious job of placing 3 rivets in the 3 holes on the chassis for about 35 to 40 years. ..In those days...depression..It Was A Job!! Watching in Full Screen Puts you in there! http://www.dump.com/2011/07/15/fascinati....bly-line-video/

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[brad kaste]

I liked the early form of a robot where it torqued down a particular bolt on the chassis. Very cool video.

 

[dogknot]

Very cool video. I have to admit though, I would have been looking for a new job after 3 or 4 hours of that kind of repetition.

 

[rhumbaflappy]

I worked at the Chevrolet Janesville Wisconsin Assembly plant from 1976 to 2010, when the plant closed.

In 1976, the Flint plant of 1936 looked more modern, cleaner, and better lit than Janesville! The assembly process is nearly identical to the truck and car lines we had back then.

Janesville made many improvements over the years, as did all GM facilities. But in the end, auto assembly isn't much different today then it was in 1936. Robotics and procedural changes only occured if there was an economic advantage. Safety isn't a very high concern... excepting that a corporate safety award will also get the plant manager a bonus. The body shop used kevlar gloves and sleeves for the last 10 years... saved lots of fingers! ( I almost lost one when sheet metal cut through my leatrer glove like it was made of paper ).

I had many different jobs in many different departments. Upon hiring, I was man-handling pickup-truck box side panels to the line ( each weighed about 70 lbs. ). A few years after, I worked on the frame line... riveting frames with huge rivet guns.. it was very much like the film showed... but we had a lot more parts and rivets!

When I retired ( at plant closing ), I was team coordinator of the final inspection line. Previous to that, I was the team coordinator of the body shop inspection group ( a very interesting job ).

My first inspection job was as the startup man on the final line. I had 18 years seniority. Visitors were amazed that the engines weren't tested prior to starting the vehicle. 3 of us would start them up and look for leaks and listen for noises... we were actually pretty good at identifying problems. My father had the same job 15 years earlier than I... and had the same foreman. By plant closing, we had 5 men starting them up, and they were plugged into a very costly electronic device, that did the same thing 3 of us did a few years earlier. The devices were constantly being tweaked and fudged to make the statistics acceptable to Detroit... the head offices. The new process was not any more reliable at finding defects than the old process... but it sent data!

Lots of memories this morning. I hired in at $8.00 per hour. My old job, working for a newspaper printing plant, paid $3.65. I had kids, they needed to eat. I stayed for the money, which was always pretty good.

Dick

 

[Willy]

I did assemblyline work at Red River Army Depot outside of Texarkana Texas in the early 80s assembling M113 armored personnel carriers that were rebuilt at the depot. My last year there was taking almost complete vehicles, road testing them and then fixing what ever I found wrong. Then I'd get them inspected so they could go on to final fit out. Had a lot of fun doing that but my supervisor and I couldn't stand each other and it was looking like I'd be working for him for the next 20 years or so if I stayed on there. So, I went back in the Navy and did a career there.

 

[middle]

When I bought my 57 chevy pickup last year and began hunting for manuals, parts, etc, one of the things that I found that is now available is a dvd of the assembly process of that particular vehicle. I didn't buy it because i only had the bread at the time to buy the dvd version of the 1957 shop manual, which is real handy cuz you can blow up the photos and text and print out what you need as opposed to getting the bookform manual all greasylike every shop manual in the world should be,lol.
Anyway, soon i will also purcase the assembly dvd. So one can see exactly how certain things were put together. I guess the car manufacterers filmed all of the processes for every year/ model.
One real neat helpful thing I've learned about working on vehicles from a friend of mine is that "at the factory, it all went together real smoothly, with clean, new bolts and could be pretty much finger tightened before applying force....so, when I work on the truck, I tap old boltholes and clean them up and have been using new, high quality bolts and nuts, aviation grade when possible.