Assembly line worker

[jordan]

I was shooting the breeze with my boss yesterday.  We ended up talking about cars.  She ends up saying that her dad used to work in Detroit for Chrysler when he got back from Vietnam very early in the war.  This got my interest.  She says he loves talking about when he worked there.  She said she never listened to him about it because she didn't understand, so it was nothing she really knew about. 
      Later in the day she called me and said she called him for details.  He worked for Chrysler assembling cars from 1964 to 1971.  He said he helped build B-bodies and even the E-bodies.  He said he probably even helped build my car!  How cool! 
     Currently he lives very north in Upper Michigan along Lake Superior.  I don't really have access to talk to him at this time, but I do go snowmobiling every year, and the boss said I can use her second house there.  She will set me up to talk with him next winter.  This gets me kind of excited.  I wonder how much detail he remembers about his jobs. 
      Is there anything special I should ask him about that is not clear about the assembly process?  I wouldn't think there are many more guys around that built our cars 50 years ago and like talking about it.  I hope this turns out cool someday soon.  Ill keep you posted.

[kawahonda]

Maybe you should consider setting up an ebodies live stream.

[Jay Bee]

That meeting sounds so cool, now I can't wait for the winter. Anyway, not really car related but ask if he knew "Rock" and if there was any meaning to him signing some cars.

[jordan]

@JayBee that is the first thing I thought about too.  I will definitely ask.

[worthywads]

I hadn't thought of this in a long time, but my step-grandfather worked at the AMC factory in Kenosha WI in the mid 60s through early 70s.  He talked about putting fenders on Javelin and AMXs.

He also talked about some aspects of engine assembly.  Not sure how often this would happen but apparently occasionally they would get a short block that had needed an overbore, and they would also get occasional heads that had been milled because of warping etc.  If they could, they'd hold a pair of extra milled heads for the next over bored block.  He thought it was hilarious trying to get that extra few HP for the old lady buying the sedate rambler.

[70/6chall]

Here's a story on the same order of ex Chrysler assembly line workers.
About a year ago went to an all brand car show held at a church here in town. Maybe about a 50 car turn out. Was checking out a semi custom '53 Ford 2-dr. Nice looking car was talking to owner we got talking about Chrysler's and wouldn't you know it he worked at the LA Chrysler plant late 60's until it's closing. He was a painter and since they had one assy. line, he figures he painted my car. He was telling me as the car pulled over a paint pit there were painters on each side of car under and over painting in unison. Maybe a guy that actually had something to do with painting my car. Just a story of interest. Thanks,   Al

[Chryco Psycho]

I would ask about shaker supplies & colors , some of the oddball options such as cruise & rear shoulder belts , proceedures for special handling cars etc , there are a lot of stories based on limited facts .

[mccannix]

I have a friend who lives an hour from me who worked in the Windsor Chrysler Canada plant from 1967 until 1977.
He was single then and left the farm for the big city lights
He has some pretty cool stories.
He also used to come home about every third weekend and had a briefcase that he had items like hood pin plates, cables, the various nameplates, and small stripe kits.
He used to sell them for peanuts to the local kids and that was his beer money while home for the weekend.
He had become a union steward in the UAW in the 70's and only left Windsor for good in 1977 after witnessing the shooting death of local UAW 444 President Mr Brooks by a recently fired disgruntled employee.

[ec_co]

sounds like a great opportunity to record the session for historics and load it up to youtube

[anlauto]

You have to remember 98% of these guys didn't give a crap about what they were working on, it was just a paycheck ... 

[RUNCHARGER]

I worked briefly assembling semi truck chip trailers. Most of the guys are on drugs and I doubt will have any recollection of what they did 10 years from now. Every trailer looked like the last one. I did wiring, lighting and air lines and components. My personal goal was to have every line perfect, straight and neat so I could feel satisfaction in it. Not too many cared at all.

[JH27N0B]

The manufacturing plant employees with the most relevant knowledge of how things were done would likely be engineers; line engineers, process engineers, manufacturing engineers, they were the ones dealing with issues that would come up and solutions for how to assemble the cars on the line in the most time efficient ways.

[cuda hunter]

I hope the guy is "ROCK".  Maybe he has some knowledge of the different doodles.  Would be great to hear anything about the doodles.