[vidguy]

Very interesting. Lots of details on the testing, and interior construction too. Although it mostly is showing a 70 Monte Carlo body,
There are some good segments featuring the 1970 Formula design at 6:25 and a number of times later. Also road testing.
https://youtu.be/yYgxgGlN8CM
Beware the Brylcream at 9:36

[Pepper Judge]

Originally Posted by vidguy

Very interesting....
There are some good segments featuring the 1970 Formula design at 6:25 and a number of times later. Also road testing. https://youtu.be/yYgxgGlN8CM

Very interesting clip. The 70 Firebird at 6:25 shows a 3 in 1 Firebird, Formula and TA clay hood.

[PunchT37]

Looks like at 5:33, that Impala has 454 badges on it. Never saw a 4 door like that.

[hgerhardt]

I like the front and rear seat airbags at 3:00...

"every MAN is encouraged to..."

One thing I had no idea of is in 1970 already GM was using tools to digitize clay bodies, CAD, CNC milling machines, welding robots. I thought all that came 10 years later.

Great video! Thanks for sharing.

[Scarebird]

follow on video, circa 1979:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAL5-B2ROkw

the TATA upholstery stitchers in action among other things...

[locomotivebreath]

That was great . I cruise by what’s left of the old fisher plant in Fairfield Ohio on a daily basis . The nastalgia was strong today when I went by after watching the video !

[dataway]

I watched that one, and the one they did for the 80s, almost the exact same script but different film.

The later one was kind of sad, they were working on those horrible little sh*t boxes of the early 80's.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by hgerhardt

I like the front and rear seat airbags at 3:00...

"every MAN is encouraged to..."

One thing I had no idea of is in 1970 already GM was using tools to digitize clay bodies, CAD, CNC milling machines, welding robots. I thought all that came 10 years later.

Great video! Thanks for sharing.

Pretty much how we do it today, except the points are picked electronically and the data goes directly to disk (rather than via a paper tape, then converted to magnetic tape). The data can be used to make parts or tools directly. We very rarely make a technical drawing unless it is in support of the design of a fixture, or if a supplier needs/requests it.

I noticed the airbags as well; GM gave my dad a '74 Impala with experimental airbags to drive for a short period of time. I remember him commenting that he wasn't sure if he should be flattered (because they trusted him driving a company car) or offended that they thought he was more likely to crash it! (lol)

K

[Keith Seymore]

The plant shown is Flint Assembly, my alma mater. I saw a different reference that mentioned this was in support of the 1972 model year.

At that time the body side was Fisher Body and the chassis and final assembly took place in the other half of the plant under the auspices of Chevrolet Motor Division - all under the same roof. There was a block wall dividing the two jurisdictions with a large opening for the vehicle bodies to pass through.

The next year when the plant was retooled for pickup truck production it became wholly a Chevrolet plant. For as long as I worked there (from 1979 through 1986 as a resident, and then through the mid 2000's as a visitor) that wall, and the opening in the wall, was still there, allowing fork truck traffic and materiel to pass through from one side to the other.

I haven't been up there in a few years but I would imagine it is still like that.

K

[Keith Seymore]

The other "future technology" they showed was dipping the scale plastic car body into a fluid filled tank.

By the time I started in Flint the ELPO tanks were installed and in use on both assembly lines.

That marks the only time I ever fell asleep at work

As a GMI student we rotated through the different areas of the plant, to get exposure and experience in all facets of the operation.

During my rotation through the paint shop I had to partner up with the guy that maintained the dip tanks, checking to make sure that the chemical composition remained in balance, etc. Admittedly, it was kind of boring, and the paint shop is very warm, and it was sort of a sedentary assignment....and the paint ....shop.......was............very ..................warm..........and

When I woke up the guys were hovering very closely over me and I assume I was about to get pranked in some way. I'm not sure what they were up to but I was very careful to keep moving after that.



By the way, we still use the ELPO dip tank process. In fact, when H2's were built in Mishawaka they were tumbled end-over-end in order to ensure full coverage and to get all of the air bubbles out.

K

[Keith Seymore]

Seeing the snippet on the water trough reminds me of another story:

I designed the engine air induction system for the GMT800 series trucks, to be introduced in the 1999 model year.

Water ingestion testing is, by definition, a destructive test. The problem with the GMT800 was that not only was the truck new but the engines were a new design, too. That meant there weren't many around and you sure as heck didn't want to damage one.

We debated for a couple months about how (and if) we were going to test our design. We ran a couple of competitive vehicles through our test and they passed, so we knew we had to do it. Finally we hit upon an idea: we found an "old" prototype GMT800 radiator support and fender in the trash, so we added those to a carryover GMT400 pickup, and then installed our new induction system to emulate the new front corner. We remote mounted the engine air cleaner in the existing truck and then plumbed our new system to a shop vac (and generator) in the pickup bed. That allowed us to (a) drive the truck in the water trough, (b) not damage a current production engine (c) flow air through our new system in a somewhat representative environment and (d) collect and measure any water that was drawn in. Pretty clever, I think.

I still remember the first time we hit the 1000 ft trough at 25 mph with 12" of water: water was spraying over the top of truck and flowing big time into the cab through the heater box. I imagine this is what it was like on the Titanic, and I was crouched standing on the passenger seat and screaming like a little girl. But - our basic idea worked and we were able to continue the development process.

I was still pretty nervous, though, the first few times we had rain once we started driving the trucks on the road.

K

[Half-Inch Stud]

Imagine seeing YOUR car in such a video

[unruhjonny]

Originally Posted by Pepper Judge

Very interesting clip. The 70 Firebird at 6:25 shows a 3 in 1 Firebird, Formula and TA clay hood.

According to Rocky's book, the TA was originally going to have the Formula hood - so maybe we're seeing the early Trans Am mock up on the drivers side?

Note it has a wrap around rear window!

[cdnroundport]

Good call on the rear window I agree that clay is the way the TA was supposed to look like before Bill Porter was told it had to have a shaker and they ran into problems with the rear 1/4 and/or curved rear window production

[nas t eh]

Originally Posted by unruhjonny

According to Rocky's book, the TA was originally going to have the Formula hood - so maybe we're seeing the early Trans Am mock up on the drivers side?

Note it has a wrap around rear window!

Did you notice the 1st gen. 400 emblem on the trunk of the green 70 Formula about 6-7 minute in. IIRC it was something you wondered about in past threads. They were obviously considering including that before deciding on only the front fender and grill locations.

[unruhjonny]

I saw it at the door test part of the video - but didn't notice it earlier...