Z code / Fremont, CA Assembly Plant

[Coley]

Originally Posted by SS Tim

Thanks, A lot of people here seem to enjoy a little techno history. Amazing some of the stuff that shows up digging for hard data on the trucks and buld processes.

Actually your truck was scheduled for a Wednesday build! :-)
http://www.rocketcalendar.com/calendar/1972-04

...Wednesday?....close enough, I'll take it! ...lol
I was trying to remember when they said the quality dropped off...Monday mornings? friday afternoons?....can't quite remember that ol' tale.
All Good
Coley

[serge]

My 70 is from there. Loved the pics.
Thanks,
P.S.
Is the plant still there?

[serge]

Originally Posted by serge

My 70 is from there. Loved the pics.
Thanks,
P.S.
Is the plant still there?

Never mind. I see its now a Telsa plant.

[SS Tim]

Originally Posted by muley

You can tell what day it was built off of the VIN number?

No not the VIN. But the build sheet has the vehicle's scheduled build date.

[Jason Banks]

Hmm...Mine was built Saturday, Oct, 28th 1967 at Fremont

[muley]

Originally Posted by SS Tim

No not the VIN. But the build sheet has the vehicle's scheduled build date.

Thanks SSTim.
I might have to pull my seat and turn it upside down to read it. What's left of it disintegrates if you touch it.

[SS Tim]

Originally Posted by muley

Thanks SSTim.
I might have to pull my seat and turn it upside down to read it. What's left of it disintegrates if you touch it.

I have really good luck stuffing a digital camera under the seat.
If you are going the pull the seat I'd use some artist's spray fixative or something to stabilize it.

[Dirt's72]

Originally Posted by Resto-Rand

I graduated from high school two exits up in 1972.

Had a buddy used to work there, we used to pick up stuff that went up in smoke at lunch times in the parking lot.

Used the auto campus streets as a shortcut until Toyota got all snotty and put in security / gates.

👍 Nice!

I just drove through there last Thursday night to pick up a Fremont built rv to add to a couple other Fremont built ones in the stable. 4 lanes hammer down on that highway headed to Santa Cruz I mentioned to the girlfriend that this is where my trucks were built. Fun trip. Coulda used some stuff that went up in smoke. Lol

[leddzepp]

Originally Posted by Dirt's72

Coulda used some stuff that went up in smoke. Lol

I'm sure there was plenty being passed around there as these trucks were being assembled When people get all uptight and concerned about "numbers matching" and how it was built at the factory, I just picture the guys that built these trucks and laugh.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by leddzepp

I'm sure there was plenty being passed around there as these trucks were being assembled When people get all uptight and concerned about "numbers matching" and how it was built at the factory, I just picture the guys that built these trucks and laugh.

Fremont was much "looser" than the other plants, probably due to their physcial distance from "Central Office" and because of the Southern California culture to which you allude.

K

[54blackhornet]

Fremont plant inspection Mark

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by 54blackhornet

Fremont plant inspection Mark

Not a formal or authorized inspection mark; inspectors normally either punch the traveling inspector work ticket (with a specialized hole punch corresponding to their identity) or add a small ink stamp/swipe with a tire marker.

The painter (production) put that unauthorized signature on there while the paint was still wet.

It would be categorized as graffiti.

K

[Coley]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Not a formal or authorized inspection mark; inspectors normally either punch the traveling inspector work ticket (with a specialized hole punch corresponding to their identity) or add a small ink stamp/swipe with a tire marker.

The painter (production) put that unauthorized signature on there while the paint was still wet.

It would be categorized as graffiti.

K

....I always wondered about that. So it was just some 'personalization' done at the time?...I like it. It would be interesting to find the guys who did it and talk to them. As well, it would interesting to see how many guys on the forum had their truck painted by the same guy?
Here are a couple of mine from Fremont
All Good
Coley

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Coley

....I always wondered about that. So it was just some 'personalization' done at the time?...I like it. It would be interesting to find the guys who did it and talk to them. As well, it would interesting to see how many guys on the forum had their truck painted by the same guy?
Here are a couple of mine from Fremont
All Good
Coley

Yep - there's a thread going already with many of these marks captured.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...ewall+markings

K

[1966 K10]

Here is my graff submission on my K10 carryall

[ho70]

saw a documentary of the ohio plant closing. It was one of the top plants in the US-sad. Almost destroyed a community.

[twouvakind]

http://digital.hagley.org/vid_NADA_B02_ID41

GM advertising video compilation, includes glimpses of manufacturing plant(s)

[factorystock]

No grease pencil markings, but did find a marking scratched into paint above heater motor on a Fremont build.

[mr.mud1]

my 72 Fremont built Cheyenne Super has these marks done in the wet paint on the left and right sides of the firewall.

[pjmoreland]

Interesting. I just went out and looked at the firewall on my '68 Fremont-built truck, and it's got this mark tucked away on the driver side of the firewall.

[Steeveedee]

Looks like graffiti to me. When I was in the Navy, some guys would paint their initials or something on the inside of some equipment when they overhauled it. Dumb, since heat exchangers (for example) have serious flow on the oil and water sides, and other equipment was pretty much the same. I wouldn't expect to see that graffiti at the next overhaul.

[RichardJ]

I can't think any markings like that would have been done on wet paint. My understanding is that the bodies traveled through the paint booth and on into and through the oven.

Maybe different in the '60s as opposed to the'70s. I knew a guy that worked at the VanNuys Plant in the paint booth in the '70s. 90% of the painting was automated, but the machines of the time weren't sophisticated enough to provide perfect coverage in all areas and reach every angle of certain bodies. He and another guy had to catch the areas the auto sprayers missed. Then they had to clear the auto sprayers and their guns for the next color. The way I remember him telling it, they wouldn't have had time to mess with markings.

A guy I knew in VietNam 68-69 said he worked in Fremont on the truck line installing drive shafts. I don't recall his history before Nam. Timewise, I'm not sure he would have worked on these '67 up trucks, but if he did, it would have to have been early production, summer of '66. He talked about enjoying working there.

[mr.mud1]

on my truck,it was definately done with the paint still wet,you can see the colors underneath and feel the ridges the paint made while still wet.Mark,72c20customcamper sent pictures of his ochre truck,built in Fremont with these exact same initials in the paint on the firewall of his truck.

[Keith Seymore]

They would have been done as soon as the operator finished that vehicle.

The vehicle would then leave that station and go into the bake oven, at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. It would still take several minutes to travel that linear distance.

At a line rate of 60 jobs per hour (one vehicle per minute) the operator's designated workload would be about 45 seconds, with 15 seconds to reload any stock, take a breath and travel to the next job. That's plenty of time to make a couple swipes with a stick, or the tip of your spray gun, and "tag" the truck with graffiti.

Especially once you get good at your job. Many of the "good" workers can perform two jobs at the same time, for a short period, like if one of their buddies needed an informal break, or first thing in the morning when the line is starting up and everyone is not yet in place.


K

[72c20customcamper]

Last time I did a tour of a GM plant it was in Tarrytown NY they were building xbody citations . You could watch them go down the line through a plexiglass partition . Watched as a guy was putting a bolt in for the subframe . I could tell it was crossed by looking at it . The assembler walked over to the wall and I assume cranked up the air as my view was obscured came back and proceeded to drive the bolt home . Hate to be the guy dropping it to change out the motor .

Guy who worked part time at my uncles body shop worked in the plant . After a few stories I never bought a citation or new anything for a long time .