Technical I Should have had Larger C-Clamps!

Wowser !

 

Homie on the left is right in the line of fire.

 

^^^^ I'm guessing that the apron was his issued PPE and probably all that was deemed necessary. But I do agree... stand out of the line of fire of escaping springs!

 

DAAAAAAAAAANG!

 

"C"hevy Clamps!

 

Hell yeah, imagine that popping out and hitting ya in the nuts! Lmao. OUCH!

 

Back in my really stupid days, when I unbolted the lower A frame on a Merc, I never even saw the spring launch out, and hit the garage wall. Woke my ass up in a hurry.
I'm still in my stupid days, this was way back in my really stupid days

 

How do you know when your C clamp is big enough? When you need a crane to lift it.

 

Had a good buddy building a 67 firebird race car, went to installing a set of morroso drag springs in the front. If you have ever seen a set of drag springs you know there's many coils and lots of length. Anyway as he was setting the spring into the upper pocket his cheap spring compressor broke launching the spring straight down at which point it recoiled just missing his head and thru the thin wall of his garage.

He said the embarrassing part was knocking on the neighbors door and asking to retrieve his spring out of their back yard as it had cleared the 8 foot privacy fence next to his garage as it exited the wall.

He bought a really nice spring compressor the next day...

 

Wish I could get a set of those. Hard to tell but sure doesn't look like those guys are wearing any steel toe shoes either.

 

Steel toe shoes?!?!?!? How about safety glasses or gloves?

Real Men!

 

Yeah, but those guys are paying attention. I don't see them playing on Facebook while putting those together, either.

 

No safety glasses either...! Probably a good thing this was done before OSHA existed...! LOL

 

There's a lot of things I respect when working on cars, but I fear those springs.

 

I think those are the "capital C" clamps . . .

 

Something about that Pic looks a little Dangerous !!

 

I first thought they were spot welders. I’ve seen them that big.
But C clamps??? Wow.

 

I started a thread about cutting the coils on my T Bird, but after reading more about it, I chickened out! Maybe if I had a set of clamps like those...

 

Can anyone identify the car?

 

When a "B" clamp is a tight fit!!!

 

Looks like a shoebox Ford

 

safety isn't top priority when you're doin' a set every 37 seconds. "Build 'em fast, we don't care if they last..."

 

could be a Chevy X frame, early 60s ish

 

Caption read, GM plant Van Nuys, Ca. 1957.

 

58 then....

look a the mount for the transmission crossmember.

 

You don’t need safety glasses after your body has been separated from your head!

 

Looking it over I suspect those cylinders are pneumatic.

 

Man, this reminds me of running big spot welders on the line in a GM plant although it was a few years later and not quite as dangerous looking as these spring compressors. Oh, and we had to wear safety glasses by then.

 

I think they are normal size clamps...and those are (politically correct) "little people" working on a Mini Cooper