Ever Visit a Car Factory?

[Brass is Best]

When I was studying Industrial Design at CCS in Detroit. We took a tour of the Ford Rouge Plant. That plant was building Mustangs at the time. We were there on the day that the bulk of the 2000 Ford Mustang Cobra R were built. Every car on the line was the same and red. It was pretty cool to see. The factory still had wood and brick floors in places. The Cobra R had to be built with the hood removed. As the large engine was popping the hoods off of cars when it was shoved in from below. We saw the aftermath of this carnage. Then at the end of the line we watched every car do a burnout between the end of the line and the final inspection station. It looked like the bleach box at a dragstrip. I remember thinking of all the people going to buy one of those cars and never drive it. Then sell it years later with low miles and swear it had never been abused. When in fact most of them did a burnout 2 seconds after being started for the first time.

Edited February 28, 2022 by Brass is Best (see edit history)

[MikeC5]

I had a class tour of GM in Tarrytown, NY in the late 60's and late 90's tour of the Saturn plant in Tennessee.  

[Marty Roth]

On 2/26/2022 at 9:38 PM, Harold said:

 I toured the GM plant in Linden, NJ a couple of times, once in the early 1970's (I believe they were making Chevy Monte Carlos) and also in the early 1980's (Toronado, Eldorado, and Riviera).  The tours were always fun and educational.  I still recall the paint shop on the assembly line in Linden where they had a bake-sand-bake process to achieve a smooth shiny finish. 

GM Assembly - Janesville, Wisconsin

GM Assembly - Shreveport, Louisiana

BMW Assembly - Greenville, South Carolina

GM Assembly - Framingham, Massachusetts (where my 1969 Pontiac Custom"S" was built)

VW Assembly - Chattanooga, Tennessee

 

GM ASSEMBLY - LINDEN, NEW JERSEY - Most memories are from 1947-1953, hanging on the hurricane fence behind this plant within walking distance from home (when Mom wasn't watching), or riding there on my Rollfast Springer bike - a very short distance from our first home at the 5-points corner of Blancke, Stiles, and Miltonia streets.  I had a favorite spot where I could cling to the fence and watch the new B-O-P (Buick, Oldsmobile, Pontiac) models rolling out from the "Gate", the end of the assembly line. 

 

A major visit came when GM opened its plants to the public in celebration of their 50 millionth vehicle, and displayed a gold 1955 Chevy (not built in Linden,

But I had also visited the plant separately that year as part of a TV commercial   Jackie Gleason was scheduled to take delivery of a brand new 1955 Buick convertible at the Linden plant. My Dad, as a Linden Firefighter since 1947, was also personal driver to Fire Chief Miller who chose to inspect the plant and to welcome Gleason. Of course I was invited, and was permitted to join them for the visit with Gleason. We drove into the plant in the Fire Department's red 1952 Mercury coupe, me in the back seat, Dad and Miller in uniform. Gleason was cordial and posed for many photos, including Mayor Hurst and some of the City Councilmen.

 

I visited the plant a few times in later years, but in 1968-1969, working for IBM in Mid-town Manhattan by day, and saving up for an engagement ring for my then-fiancee and now-bride of nearly 53 years, I got a nighttime job with Anchor Motor Freight, driving new cars from the "Gate" - the end of the assembly line, to the first receiving lot within the plant complex, and then driving groups of cars from the plant around the complex and across US-1 and behind Linden Airport to yet another lot where groups of cars would be loaded onto transport trucks for delivery to dealerships.

Edited February 28, 2022 by Marty Roth (see edit history)

[TexRiv_63]

My Father took me on a Ford plant tour in 1955 or 56, I would have been about 7 years old. Not sure where exactly but it was in Illinois probably around Chicago area. I loved it, this was another thing that cemented my lifelong interest in cars. We had a 55 Ford at the time so seeing the same type of cars being assembled was really cool. I remember having a booklet that described the assembly process with photos but it has not survived.

[Don Jr.]

Guess I need to chime in too on this. As Harold did I visited the Ford Mahwah plant in 1971. Working for Helfrich Ford dealership in Schenectady back then as a mechanic, we were treated to an evening tour of the plant. They assembled full size fords and pickup trucks if memory serves me correctly. After work we were loaded up in a bus and went down. What a night it was. As a young man I never imagined seeing this at the time state of the art building process. First stop was where the floor pan came flopping down the line. Two guys were holding a large spot welder suspended from cables on either side of the line. As we watched him spot weld the sides to the floor pan he was talking to us explaining the job. As he worked and talked to us he missed several hits of the spot welder. We saw there was a counter of some kind that registered the number of hits the welder made. When we asked about this he said not to worry because he knew how many hits each side was supposed to have. In his words " that's O.K. man I get the next one up to count" . Very interesting! As we toured the plant we saw a yellow Ford station wagon body ready to be dropped on a chassis. Well an assembly line worker who had a bar to align the body mount holes to the frame as it settled onto the chassis found out a hole was not there to accommodate a bolt. Suddenly a siren went off, we were told to move to the edge of the walkway.

you could hear relays banging down all over the place as the line came to a halt. A crew in a powered special cart came flying up to the compromised car, got out and jumped into action. Within about 5 minutes a hole was made the body lowered and bolt installed. Wow what a show we got. And after the body was lowered the assembly line started powering up again as we heard the relay's slamming closed once more and the line continued. Back to normal. We got to see painting booth from the outside as the cars were in the tunnel. Guys were dressed in suits with helmets. Both sides had painter. The car was raw steel and the car got either assume lead where the roof met the body side panel or plastic. We were explained the difference was weather the car was going to get a vinyl top or not. We noticed a painter started a tic tac toe game on the B pillar of a Ford behind the rear door in chalk. As the car progressed each guy played guess passing the time away in there. When the final guy finished the game he had a rag soaked and rubbed the game off the body. The body then went into a large tank for primer came out after a brief baking process and painted the assigned body color. Later that evening we saw a Green Ford body ready for the nose steel. As we watched all the cars were coordinated to another line where the front fenders hood and inner fenders were traveling along from another part of the plant. Guess what, this green Ford was getting a yellow nose. No problem as they just bolted the nose as if nothing was wrong. Our tour guide said there is a Yellow Ford with a green nose somewhere else on the line. After final assembly and checks the cars would be sent to another direction before they left the factory and both cars would have the noses changed. What a night. Finally we saw where they filled fluids up in the cars and fired them up. A guy would start the car rev it and you heard a squeal as he patched out to a bunker that had moving walls front and back. Well he put that car thru the paces in there. While he was banging the car into all its gears he was testing everything on the car. lights, horns,  directional. When he was done the drums dropped down , the 2 walls front and back dropped and off he went  to a final inspection area. And think all those customer that yelled at me not to hot rod their new car as I dealer  prepped it for them to pick up. My little secret now divulged. Thanks for letting me revisit my great memory of this. It is a miracle there are not more issues building a car. Thanks.

[8E45E]

Like Walt, I was also in a factory decades after it was shut down.  In this instance, I was allowed to do a 'self-tour' of the Foundry at the Studebaker factory in South Bend.

 

https://forum.studebakerdriversclub.com/forum/your-studebaker-forum/general-studebaker-specific-discussion/6882-south-bend-self-tour-2-the-foundry

 

I took the photos in 2007.  I believe it was demolished in 2010.

 

Craig

[Skylark4367]

I toured a GM pickup truck assembly plant in Flint, MI in the summer of 2011.  It was a very hot day.  My main memories are of how hot it was inside the plant (no air conditioning) and how loud it was.  The tour guide was very nice and we had a thorough tour of the plant.  My other memory is of a golf cart inside the plant which had a bumper sticker that read "friends don't let friends drive Toyotas".