My dad worked for Crane Co., a big plumbing manufacturer that naturally had their own foundry. Every day a guy would walk past the guard shack pushing a wheel barrow full of used sand from the foundry. Each day the guards would prod a stick into the sand looking for pipe fittings or valves but nothing ever turned up. Turns out the guy was stealing wheelbarrows.
A friend s dad owned a Chevy dealership . He got the chance to attend GM institute for a " free" college education. He would work 4 hrs in the morning at the plant on the line and attend classes for four hrs in the afternoon. He told me his job was taking the carts of parts to the line when they were running low. He said they would turn on a light and he would grab a appropriate cart and haul ass to the proper place , return with the empty. He said it was Hell most of the time ,they would be yelling if they were out of parts and the line didn't stop, so some cars went off the line with no starters, or even steering boxes. These vehicles would be hauled with a big fork lift to a separate shop to be "reworked"and readied for shipping . He said there were thousands of small parts suppliers that would deliver parts to the plant when needed. The best story was a guy and his son that made several small parts for Mopar and Gm. \The guy told him one of the things he made was a small stainless cable with ends installed. He said they were used to keep the glove box from opening to far. In mid year 1969 they called him and ask for 1500 of these as quick as possible. Come to find out the 6bbl Road runners were introduced and they used these cables on the hood pins, they also were going to sell the kits over the parts counter.They used these on cars for years after. He did have a chance to work on the line. One job was in a pit walking along under a moving car installing driveshafts over his head .He hated it. After he tightened the rear u joint he would have to run back to his station and grab another driveshaft and do it all over again. He said an hour of that was like a lifetime.Installing interior pieces with causing any damage while you are walking sideways along a moving car was tough. He went to work after college for an airline and retired 10 years ago
I had a teacher that worked at Ford in the 90s before moving to the other side Michigan. He had all kinds of crazy stories about working there. One time, he said, a lady was so high on crack that she decided to take the forklift for a ride and drove it into the main water hookup, which happened to be right next to the server room. From what the way he talked there was more drinking getting done in the parking lot then actual work.
My father worked at Ford's Atlanta assembly plant in Hapeville GA from '52-'82. If he were still with us, I'm sure he could tell some amazing stories, as he had a photographic memory. The main thing I remember is that, back in the days when NASCAR race cars were built from a regular production car body and frame, the Atlanta plant built the units that went to Holman-Moody, Banjo Matthews, and other racing teams. Occasionally some of the drivers would come and tour the plant. Daddy told about meeting Fred Lorenzen, Ned Jarrett, Fireball Roberts, and Cale Yarborough.
I dated a girl in high school who's dad was a shift plant manger at the Rouge where they made Mustangs. This was 1969 and 1970. At the end of every shift he picked a car that rolled off the line to drive home. The speedometer was disconnected from the cars speedo and joined with a cable and speedo that strapped to the column. He always drove a variety Mach 1's, Boss 302's and seemed to love bringing home a Cougar Eliminator (really a Boss Cougar). Love to drive em like he stole them, I had many rides. To top it off he siphoned gas from these cars to his own in the garage. Gas was only about 25 cents a gallon.
I work with Freightshakers everyday. I'm pretty sure the staff must be same up there. Sent from my LGLS992 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Not to change topic of stories but the lack of pride in work and protection threw the unions is why they no longer are in St. Louis. There were all 3 big names in St. Louis and now there is none. I've know quite a few people that did work for them and I seen why they closed up and moved. Only one left is truck plant that is west of St. Louis.
Great book, by Ben Hamper. It was about him wanting to avoid the assembly line trap his whole family went through. Crazy crazy stories. They would double-up... meaning 2 guys would set up the work on the shift, building sub assemblies so 1 man did the job of 2 and the other could sleep.
We were taking the front apart on my '59 Ford a couple of years back. My son is taking the air inlet screen and out pops a new heater hose bracket. I guess a little assembly line humor. But cool that he got to see it himself. I doubt the small bracket could be heard from inside the car.
Ya, what they needed was a good PT program bright and early in the morning before heading off to the line. Calisthenics is a great way to build camaraderie and the team spirit.
Exactly! Just like the 100’ extension cord wrapped around the guy, at my plant it was 3/8 copper tubing. A lot of those old tales were meant to regale the new guys in the shop, but there was no truth to them. I remember the day there was a massive lay off at the first machine shop I worked at. I was there about 9 months, but there were men with 25-30 years going out the door that day too, some with tears in their eyes. A co- worker quipped this to me, an inexperienced newby, “Too bad, you are taking two welders with you.” Ouch!
I toured the same plant in 1972, they were building Chevelles and , I believe, Monte Carlos. It was a great day for a 16 year old kid who loved cars. Near the end of the tour we came upon a "final adjustment " station. A guy with a very large hammer and a 2 x 4 would open the doors. If the fit didn't satisfy him, he would place the wood piece against the car and smash it with the large hammer a few times. Then he would slam the door shut and send the car along. A few years ago, while installing the front clip on my '69 Firebird, I finally understood the value of the large hammer.
I find these stories to be interesting and disheartening. Had the employees taken time to think, or perhaps been provided with some leadership logic, they may have realized how poor workmanship and theft could have ruined the company they worked for. Seems like it eventually did.
Didn't help anything, that's for sure. One problem, if you want to look at it that way, was America wasn't bombed during World War II. Consequently many factories were very old, outdated designs compared with our competitors, in some cases who we as a nation or at least the government subsidized the rebuilding efforts.
Quality is mostly a human issue. The goings on of the workers and the resentment that was harbored by the Unions certainly didn't help the overall quality of the American Automobile. Too bad the Industry didn't embrace the teaching of Demings. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming
Oh, I see now. It was the lazy employees on the line performing monotonous tasks in a scant amount of time that were the root cause of poor quality. Leadership logic? In many cases that was brow beating, rather than reasoning with someone or working with them trying to work out a reasonable solution. If any one thing helped introduce a better quality product built in a less stressful environment it was the fundamental design changes the auto industry went through. Early on in this thread somebody mentioned installing driveshafts. Think about doing that in the time allotted, not what you think might be reasonable, but the speed the moving line was set at. Think you could keep up for an eight hour shift? Today’s cars are built with many more sub-assemblies eliminating many boring and stressful tasks, but with that came elimination of many positions.
You speaking from experience, or just shooting from the hip? It's posts like this that get a good thread shut down, due to the pissing match to follow. What's the point in poking that pile? Let's keep the thread to stories, and not opinions. For the record, I've personally seen the good & bad of both sides, just shy of 39 yrs. Hell Bob, I respect you & enjoy your posts. But this just seems like a shit-storm waiting to happen. Let's just let it lay and enjoy this thread for what it is, stories.
While I was attending University in the 70's, Chrysler had a program called "Temporary Part Time" or TPT for short. Due to the high absenteeism, Chrysler would hire university students to work on the line. I had various jobs but the most common was exhaust systems and leaf springs. If you want to get in shape, lift leaf springs for 8 hours. The strangest job I witnessed was adjusting the fit of the doors with a 2X4. Put the wood in the door and slam the door. Worked everytime. At lunch, a few of the lifers would run across the road to a blind pig. Get totally hammered in 30 minutes. One guy was running behind his job trying to catch up. He clearly wasn't paying attention and ran right into on of the overhead hooks that the vans were hanging from. Knock him right out and the line stopped for a few minutes. Overall, it was a good experience. It paid for my university and kept me mobile in cars. I knew for sure I couldn't do it for life though.
bureaucracy Kills pride in workmanship, bureaucracy doesn't co-exist with logic, bureaucracy is established by the very top company leaders. Although its intent is to provide order and policy, every single discrepancy causes chaos and a Committee being developed to negotiate a path around a small obstacle. The guys succumb to that bureaucracy after being beat senseless with it let their pride in workmanship die, forget about logic and go thru the motions to provide for families while trying to satisfying their own agendas or they find and do something else. The unions attempt to protect workers and isolate them from insanity charges being brought against them for simply following the policy and order created by the bureaucracy set in place by the visionaries. The union may also need to reaffirm the fact these are indeed human beings and protect them from being disposable assets. Both abuse and In Turn destroy the other. I hired into GM as a skilled trades welder, not assembly line but plant maintenance. I passed multiple rigorous testing sessions and was 1 of 30 hired out of 3700 applicants. It was the absolute longest 85 days of my life. I was teamed up with 3 millwrights tasked with building a set of stairs for a mezzanine. Being the new guy, nervous and eager to do a great job I silently watched for 2 weeks and waited for them to successfully lay out the stringers. During that time I was adjusted for helping them, for straightening up, for sweeping up shit they were walking on. On Monday of week 3 I wasn't nervous anymore I was completely frustrated and so were the millwrights. I asked the friendlier one if I could assist them. Immediately was told no. I asked him if he knew how to lay out the stairs. He barked as if I insulted him and said if he knew it would be done. I told him I knew how to do it and that if they went for coffee instead of me that when they returned the stairs would be laidout. When they returned about 30 mins later the stairs were ready to build and I actually got to do my job for about 4 hrs that day. There's more to that story and I could probably wright a book about those 85 days.
Ford plant in 1966-67. Milpitas, CA. Started installing brake lines and interior trim, 2 weeks later a suit named Whitehead comes up and asks if I really 'build hopped up cars'...I say "Yeah, why?" "Come with me..." We walk across 3 lines, come to the one stopped, 2 guys have a new 390 partway into a '67, 'hovering'. This was the first 390 job, first time I saw one. "Won't clear, can't set it..." Easy to see why! So I said, "Pull the master cylinder off..." They did, and in it went. Whitehead gave me a better job, "on down the line". Nobody was 'allowed' to make any change in 'steps' on the line, or I'm sure one of the guys would have removed the master and written it in on the build sheet. Instant fire. (or so they threatened) Great company, mostly good people, but I wouldn't have chosen that as a career. Just an experience.
I had a buddy in high school who was a straight laced Mormon. after high school he got a job at the Fremont GM plant. next time I saw him he was a giant pot head, long haired and riding a Harley. I think working at GM had a positive effect on him.
That is a very true video! I "slaved" at the Ford plant in Louisville Kentucky between 1965 and 1969 on the frame line. It was 10 hours a day and 8 on Saturday for 4 years.It was the job from hell! I believe the pay was $3.64 per hour. I missed one day of work in all those years and had my ass ripped out the next day. They made me feel like I had killed Henry Ford by being off sick!
Now the useless workers hide in the cubicles. I know because I sit next to them. I'm the only gearhead in a sea of mechanical engineers. They all want to talk about Harry Potter all day. No thanks..
My dad (rip pops) got his first real job in this country in 1958, at the GM Tarrytown plant. His first job was to buff the tops of the dashes on those 58s. Imagine getting in and out of a car with a heavy 50s era polisher? For 8 hours...and probably a car every minute or two? He got jobs for other family members and they all quit the same day...3-4 guys I believe. They couldnt take it. We came out to Socal for a summer vacation in 1968...and never went back. He got transferred to the Van Nuys Plant and worked there till he retired in 1988. The more seniority you got the easier job you got...at the end he was putting on the plastic emblems on the side of Camaros and Firebirds on the front fender. Even that job...how many of those little paper backers do you have to pull off the back of an emblem before your fingers bleed? I mean they built 60 cars an hour or so..so figure 2 guys did the same job...so 30 cars per hour x 8 hours...240 emblems. Every day. I toured that Van Nuys Plant in the late 70s and it was the single loudest place I'd ever been in. LOUD. Clanging, assembly line moving along, clicking, noise like you couldn't believe. I saw a guy with forearms the size of small trees as he took wheels and tires off a rack and put them on a car. There was a jig that helped him lift the wheel/tire combo to mount them to the car..was mounting the wheels about chest high...then he had to start the lug nuts and use a special suspended by a wire impact that would tighten the lug nuts. The repetitive motion this guy did was better than any gym membership. I remember he was a beast. After that tour I had new respect for my dad...I couldn't do what he did...or at least didn't want to....for 30 years.
I'm pretty sure Dirty Old Man Dave worked at one of the plants in Georgia,I'm sure he would have a yarn or two. HRP
I would imagine after you became acclimated to the job it became second nature. I remember how my fingers would get tired and ache when I was little and started milking a cow. And it wasn't long before I could milk two cows without thinking about it. You can get burnt out on any job. I loved to turn wrenches. But when I did it for a living it ruined the joy. Even today I like to get on my tractor or bulldozer and plat for a day or two. But to do it every day becomes no fun at all. I think what folks need is to be creative. and the same old thing becomes a Drudgery when its no longer a challenge.
In 1985 I worked construction at the old Fremont GM plant then called N.U.M.M.I. (New United Motor Manufacturing Inc.) It's now the Tesla Plant.... anyway there was a big sore spot that GM shut the plant down, reorganized and reopened with Toyota and a whole new set of worker/union rules. They did rehire some of the old GM supervision and talking with one of them he stated "I would have shut it down too" He said he knew of one employee that went up and down the line all day, everyday, dealing drugs, and several that he had no idea what they did or who supervised them. Any attempt to discipline or rectify was met with extreme resistance from the UAW Not my experience but his.
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