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Re: I love factory bolts
One of my favorite assembly line stories has to do with factory bolts:
On the squarebodies, the attachment of the front fender "nose bolts" to the rad support was especially tough, because it was blind and had awkward access. As a result we would cross thread the bolts often or (worse) break the weld nuts loose. Once you do that it can't be fixed on the moving repair line; it has to go into a stationary stall for repair.
We discovered that there were two suppliers for a bolt that same size: One from Lang Fasteners and one from Ferndale Fasteners. The Langs would crossthread like crazy but the Ferndales wouldn't for some unknown reason, maybe because of the difference in coatings. The Langs (part number 3846202, btw!) were black phosphate but the Ferndales were silver cadmium.
What we ended up doing was stealing a box of the silver bolts from Line 2 and run them all night with no issues, and then lock them up in our locker, set out a box of black bolts on the job and then go home.
We did that for several years. First shift could never figure out why we didn't crossthread those bolts and why they had a mess on their hands every day.
K
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