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#21
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Sidebar:
Whenever I use that phrase, I always think of this story: I was sitting here thinking about some of the build conditions on my truck, and how they would never fly today, such as: * Door gaps that vary as you walk your way around the periphery of the door * Adhesive moldings that fall off * "Skunk stripes" of body color that peek out from behind wheel opening moldings (when looking into the wheel housings) * Exposed fasteners in the interior * Exposed sheet metal (painted body color) in the interior and etc - stuff like that. Anyway, I thought to myself "...that's how we made 'em". So - that's what made me think of this: back when I was at the assembly plant the UAW (the local union) was very militant. We were always butting heads over build quality and personnel issues and there was very much a "us vs them" mentality with the plant management. As a result, "somebody" (...I don't know who...) got the idea that we should have a plant "mascot". They went so far as to design and build this giant caped "cat" costume, like a superhero, complete with a huge fuzzy plastic head. The idea was that this cat would make appearances down on the assembly line, visiting and shaking hands with the workers, generally doing zany things to lift our morale and thereby improve product quality. His image would appear on our stationary and cartoon pictures were painted on the walls in the audit area, cafeteria, and other areas where the hourly employees congregate. They even had a contest to "name" the Quality cat, with the winner earning some highly desirable gift or activity (...I'm sure it was a day of paid vacation...). When all the results were in the winning name was chosen.... ....wait for it.... "Howie Makem".
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'63 LeMans Convertible '63 Grand Prix '65 GTO - original, unrestored, Dad was original owner, 5000 original mile Royal Pontiac factory racer '74 Chevelle - original owner, 9.85 @ 136 mph besthttp://www.superchevy.com/features/s...hevy-chevelle/ My Pontiac Story: http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=560524 "Intro from an old Assembly Plant Guy":http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=342926 |
#22
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Ok - so now we have this giant cat costume; we need somebody to wear it.
One of the ladies in the Specifications department was chosen. She was a crusty, tough old bird (...in fact, that was her name: "Birdie"). In hindsight she was probably a pretty good choice, because I'm sure she could hold her own in a bar fight. She wasn't very happy about being chosen to be "Howie Makem". Besides Birdie's attitude problem there were some issues with the cat suit itself. One was that it was incredibly hot inside the suit, a situation that only exacerbated the heat in the plant during the notoriously humid Michigan summer months. The huge head was also an issue, making it difficult to maneuver in close quarters. But the biggest problem was that the head prevented the wearer from seeing out - they had to cut some small "eye holes" in the neck in order to provide some semblance of outward visibility. In the end, because of the safety implications, even that wasn't enough and we had to assign an escort, leading Howie by the hand through the plant. As you might expect, the line workers were not all that enthused. I think they thought they were being "talked down to" (...wouldn't you, being accosted by a giant cat wearing a superhero cape?...) and Howie was generally greeted with cat calls (no pun intended), obscenities and inquiries about his/her gender. The escort had to perform double duty, both as a seeing eye guide and bodyguard. It all came back to me this morning. What a vivid memory: Birdie and her escort walking through the plant, hand in hand, her sweltering in the giant cat suit, greeting the line workers on one side and spewing profanities like a sailor on the other... K
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'63 LeMans Convertible '63 Grand Prix '65 GTO - original, unrestored, Dad was original owner, 5000 original mile Royal Pontiac factory racer '74 Chevelle - original owner, 9.85 @ 136 mph besthttp://www.superchevy.com/features/s...hevy-chevelle/ My Pontiac Story: http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=560524 "Intro from an old Assembly Plant Guy":http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=342926 Last edited by Keith Seymore; 02-07-2010 at 09:45 PM. |
#23
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'63 LeMans Convertible '63 Grand Prix '65 GTO - original, unrestored, Dad was original owner, 5000 original mile Royal Pontiac factory racer '74 Chevelle - original owner, 9.85 @ 136 mph besthttp://www.superchevy.com/features/s...hevy-chevelle/ My Pontiac Story: http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=560524 "Intro from an old Assembly Plant Guy":http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=342926 |
#24
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Mike
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so many pontiacs, so little time.................. moderator is a glorified word for an unappreciated prick.................. "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." --Albert Einstein "There is no such thing as a good tax." "We contend that for a nation to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle." - Winston Churchill |
#25
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Holy crap! Looks like they're emerging from the doorway for a fashion show. For those non-car people out there, this is like seeing Bar Rafaeli and Angelina Jolie walking into your living room wearing bikinis.
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1959-1980 Pontiac Window Sticker Reproductions : http://www.pontiacwindowstickers.com My Bio: I am currently writing articles for POCI's Smoke Signals magazine and enjoy promoting and discussing the history of the Pontiac Motor Division. |
#26
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#27
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Sorry I didn't see this earlier. Thanks for the info guys, we now know more about the assembly line!
The shot on the HPP website is much smaller than the actual photo and it was clearly "ZN" in the larger shot. The only ZN I could find in any reference was a 400 in 1973. |
#28
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You know it's funny that out of all the photos in that article, the only one that gets any attention at all is that one of the SD.
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Greg Reid Palmetto, Georgia |
#29
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#30
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Sorry, HFR, I didn't see this post when I posted that pic in the other one.
I think we still have a lot to learn about how things worked back then.
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John Wallace - johnta1 Pontiac Power RULES !!! www.wallaceracing.com Winner of Top Class at Pontiac Nationals, 2004 Cordova Winner of Quick 16 At Ames 2004 Pontiac Tripower Nats KRE's MR-1 - 1st 5 second Pontiac block ever! "Every man has a right to his own opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts." "People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid." – Socrates |
#31
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Love the photos. It appears the engines in this photo are late 50s Pontiac or maybe even GMC's with the small water pumps and stick bellhousings. You can make out the clutch plate and disc springs in one photo...great stuff
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Roll around in the excitement |
#32
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I'll bet the Y8/ZN photo is from early 73 production or pre-production, or whenever they started building the SD-455. Could this be one of the first SD-455s off the line? The engine is not completely dressed yet. Looks like the guy is wrestling with the unique SD distributor, so it's probably right after distributors were put in. Perhaps a staged shot since I assume the union wouldn't let management touch stuff unless it was pre-production, an emergency, and/or a staged publicity shot.
Note the lack of bar code stickers on the engine valve cover labels. I had always assumed bar-coded engine stickers started at the beginning of the 1973 production year, but obviously not. The manifest sheet you can make out "455 Super Duty-Auto 1973" The engine assembly number 12° 4 BBL L-S-2 "270" for the carb 7043270 "432" for the idle stop solenoid 1997432 "175-A" perhaps for the EGR valve 7040175 and a few of the other numbers. Anyone spot a date? Does "IAL" on the flywheel tage hide the word special?
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http://www.pontiacpower.org/ Last edited by fiedlerh; 03-29-2010 at 12:21 AM. |
#33
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What are the chalk markings indicating on the second photo that Rocky 389 posted? Each cylinder has an alphabet.
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Greg Reid Palmetto, Georgia |
#34
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Probably piston size. The bores were measured and then the appropriately sized piston (coded by an alpha character) was selected and installed. K
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'63 LeMans Convertible '63 Grand Prix '65 GTO - original, unrestored, Dad was original owner, 5000 original mile Royal Pontiac factory racer '74 Chevelle - original owner, 9.85 @ 136 mph besthttp://www.superchevy.com/features/s...hevy-chevelle/ My Pontiac Story: http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=560524 "Intro from an old Assembly Plant Guy":http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=342926 |
#35
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K
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'63 LeMans Convertible '63 Grand Prix '65 GTO - original, unrestored, Dad was original owner, 5000 original mile Royal Pontiac factory racer '74 Chevelle - original owner, 9.85 @ 136 mph besthttp://www.superchevy.com/features/s...hevy-chevelle/ My Pontiac Story: http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=560524 "Intro from an old Assembly Plant Guy":http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=342926 |
#36
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Well, that was my first thought...but then I figured, heck, they're brand new engines....They couldn't get the bores the same size?
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Greg Reid Palmetto, Georgia |
#37
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They did eventually get to the point were they did not have to hand select specific pistons. K
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'63 LeMans Convertible '63 Grand Prix '65 GTO - original, unrestored, Dad was original owner, 5000 original mile Royal Pontiac factory racer '74 Chevelle - original owner, 9.85 @ 136 mph besthttp://www.superchevy.com/features/s...hevy-chevelle/ My Pontiac Story: http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=560524 "Intro from an old Assembly Plant Guy":http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=342926 |
#38
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That's interesting. I never knew or even thought about that.
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Greg Reid Palmetto, Georgia |
#39
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K
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'63 LeMans Convertible '63 Grand Prix '65 GTO - original, unrestored, Dad was original owner, 5000 original mile Royal Pontiac factory racer '74 Chevelle - original owner, 9.85 @ 136 mph besthttp://www.superchevy.com/features/s...hevy-chevelle/ My Pontiac Story: http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=560524 "Intro from an old Assembly Plant Guy":http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=342926 Last edited by Keith Seymore; 04-16-2010 at 11:01 AM. |
#40
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Now, relative to "union wouldn't let management touch stuff": makes me think of a story, if I may. In fact, this will show how "militant" the union was at my home plant, Chevrolet Flint Assembly -
At the time of this story, I was a supervisor on the Line 2 (Blazer, Suburban) Chassis line. Among other things we hooked up the brake lines, evacuated and filled the brake system, tested the brakes and did any last repairs before sending the chassis over to "motor set". It had been quite a day, probably like any other, which means frenzied frenetic activity on your feet for 8 or 10 hours, and then, once everybody else goes home you get to stay late and do the paperwork, inventory and get ready for the next shift. All of my workers had gone and I was kind of wandering aimlessly, trying to get my head back on straight. I noticed the repair bench was kind of a mess; Without really thinking, I started picking up exhaust hangers and brackets and was hanging them back on the appropriate pegs when, quite suddenly and out of nowhere, the Shop Committeeman pops out from behind the bench. "WHATINTHEHELLDOYOUTHINKYOU'RE DOING!!" he starts screaming, spit flying from his reddened face. "YOU BLAH BLAH UNION WORK BLAH BLAH I OUGHTA BLAH BLAH" reading me the riot act. Truth be told, I sorta tuned him out, for one thing because I was so tired but for another thing because his response was so far over the top that it just wasn't even registering. I'm sure I tried to explain that I was just doing what seemed like what a normal human being would do and...whatever... and, after an uncomfortably long time somehow he finished up and left. I don't even recall my response but I probably just shook my head and went on about my business and forgot about it..... ...until.... ... ...the next day. I was up in the front of the building, where the offices are, in the Personnel area. As you might guess, that's also where the Labor Relations office is and - no big surprise - this guy was in there chewing on one of the salaried workers. I didn't think he saw me but as I came in the door without even taking a breath he wheeled around and, with great fanfare, pointed directly at me and very loudly says "...and HIM!! HIM!! I CAUGHT HIM 'VIOLATING' DOWN ON THE CHASSIS LINE LAST NIGHT!!" "Violating"?! What kind of word is that, I thought. To this day I still think it makes it sound like I was sodomizing sheep on the assembly line! Geez. I was just a kid, maybe 19 or 20 or so, supervising probably 25 or 30 hourly employees. Even now I still just shake my head in wonder. K
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'63 LeMans Convertible '63 Grand Prix '65 GTO - original, unrestored, Dad was original owner, 5000 original mile Royal Pontiac factory racer '74 Chevelle - original owner, 9.85 @ 136 mph besthttp://www.superchevy.com/features/s...hevy-chevelle/ My Pontiac Story: http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=560524 "Intro from an old Assembly Plant Guy":http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=342926 Last edited by Keith Seymore; 04-16-2010 at 11:12 AM. |
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