The Beauty of Hand Manufacturing

Have you been to a car or truck factory in the last decade? The efficiency and speed that vehicles are now built is utterly amazing… Especially when you consider the complexity and engineering of the technology-laden modern automobile. I have visited the Porsche factory in Stuttgart and a Ford F-150 plant in Detroit and they were equally impressive. It all goes back to some principles set in place by Henry Ford, but are now carried out with a robotic accuracy. Now, step into the garage and behold that 1920s-1940s era car and how it’s constructed. Body on frame, separate fenders (if you got em). All the elements are individual pieces attached to another larger piece, which all attached to the body, on the frame, making up an entire car. When pre-war automobiles were built, especially higher-end models, each component was a station on the line that was it’s own work of art. I found these stunning black & white images of the headlight area in the famous Packard Plant at East Grand Boulevard in Detroit. Each bucket and ring is being stamped, drilled, machined, and polished with accuracy and pride by hand. Something as simple as a headlight bucket has a beauty when its hand made.