[GT182]

MescaBug, I hauled cars out of the St.Therese GM plant from 78 to 93. The Camaros and Firebirds were our last, as they closed our Anchor Mtr Frt terminal in Champlain, NY Thanksgiving of November 93.

Funny thing, the Quebec government always said that GM would never close that plant. It's a shame it's now gone. A lot of pride from the workers went with it's closing.


The only GM plant left in the Northeast is Wilmington, DE. And it looks like it's on it's way out too. Chrysler in Newark, DE is closing soon. Either before Christmas or just after the new year... they can't make up their mind.

[GT182]

Citydesk, congrats on your retirement. Now you can take all those parts you snuck out of the factory and build something wild.... it's a Johnny Cash kinda thing.

[citydesk175]

Originally Posted by GT182

Citydesk, congrats on your retirement. Now you can take all those parts you snuck out of the factory and build something wild.... it's a Johnny Cash kinda thing.

Thank You
Sadly......I never snuck out any car parts.

I did manage to keep a document dated 1974 that canceled the 1975 model year GTO.
I mentioned it to a GM archivist and HE WANTS IT asap.
I assume I will get a chance to post it here too.

Regards
citydesk175

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by citydesk175

I did manage to keep a document dated 1974 that canceled the 1975 model year GTO.
I mentioned it to a GM archivist and HE WANTS IT asap.

Does that mean I need to give it back, or did you keep a copy?

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by citydesk175

Thank You
Sadly......I never snuck out any car parts.

I did manage to keep a document dated 1974 that canceled the 1975 model year GTO.
I mentioned it to a GM archivist and HE WANTS IT asap.
I assume I will get a chance to post it here too.

Regards
citydesk175

Here it is:

[Old Blue 66]

Hey Keith,

That scan might turn up in a GTO club newsletter in the near future. I would assume thats ok with you??

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Old Blue 66

Hey Keith,

That scan might turn up in a GTO club newsletter in the near future. I would assume thats ok with you??

Yes - but we should check with citydesk do get an "original copy", which might work better than this faxed copy.

K

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Region Warrior

Now thats where i would have liked to shop!

Mike - that's a very good observation.

One of the disadvantages of working in the assembly plant is that you are surrounded with all these brand new vehicles; Chevy pickups, in my case. All day, every day, you are looking at these things going: "...ooh, there's a nice one...." or "...that would be good but in a different color..." or "...that's a good color but with different wheels...".

I had to succumb twice: once in 1980 and once in 1987. Picked out the options I wanted and then headed over to the local dealership. I followed both of these trucks down the line when they were built (making sure everything was up to snuff) and in the case of the '87 I actually drove it over to the shipping building.

I told "Lloyd" it was my truck; I left the plant at 1 am and by 5 pm the next day it was sitting at the dealership!

K

[Jerry H.]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Mike - that's a very good observation.

One of the disadvantages of working in the assembly plant is that you are surrounded with all these brand new vehicles; Chevy pickups, in my case. All day, every day, you are looking at these things going: "...ooh, there's a nice one...." or "...that would be good but in a different color..." or "...that's a good color but with different wheels...".

I had to succumb twice: once in 1980 and once in 1987. Picked out the options I wanted and then headed over to the local dealership. I followed both of these trucks down the line when they were built (making sure everything was up to snuff) and in the case of the '87 I actually drove it over to the shipping building.

I told "Lloyd" it was my truck; I left the plant at 1 am and by 5 pm the next day it was sitting at the dealership!

K

Tell me about it!! It was bad enough working at a GMC dealership for 3 years as a sales manager. My only problem is that I never got a demo to drive, soooo; in three years I bought 4 new trucks. 2 Sierra's, 1 Denali, and 1 Sierra Denali. I sold the Sierra Denali after I retired because I didn't need it. I sure wish I had it back. Still owe the 2001 Denali, it has only 60k miles and I just replaced the original tires last week. It's been a great vehicle. I don't see getting rid of it any time soon.

[Keith Seymore]

I was in a meeting today where we were discussing the organic materials in brake pads and how that recipe (or lack of control) can affect brake noise (squeal).

It reminded me of a story my Dad once told me:

Back in the mid/late 70's he was working at Chevrolet Flint Manufacturing. In addition to the sheet metal components that they made they were also the supplier for a fiberglass (maybe "composite" would be a better word) front header panel for passenger cars. This would be the piece in front of the hood that supports the headlamps, grille, and closes out the front of the fenders.

At seemingly random intervals they would get complaints back from the assembly plants of bubbles, pits and lack of paint adhesion. Usually, as quickly as the problem surfaced, it would go away again on its own without them having a chance to diagnose what the root cause was.

On one occasion the were able to secure a part that manifested the problem and get it shipped to their chemistry lab for analysis. When the report came back there were high levels of "glucose" in the part.

Dad called the lab technician on the phone. "Glucose?" he said. "You mean, like - sugar?".

"Yes" the tech replied. "For the purposes of this discussion, they are essentially the same thing."

Dad put that information in the back corners of his mind and they continued to investigate.



After a long period of study, they did finally figure out what the issue was.

They were able to track the occurrence of the incidents back to one specific independent trucker. Apparently what was happening was this: The trucker was from the Atlanta area, which is where the resin for this composite part was manufactured. He would take a truckload of the resin up to Flint and drop it off (as per the plan). Then - rather than running home empty - he would head up to Saginaw, where he would take on a full load of Pioneer sugar and make a run home with that, dropping the sugar at the Coca-Cola bottling facility in Atlanta. He had quite a system going since he could make money on the return trip instead of deadheading home. That's where the sugar in the part was coming from - the contaminated resin.

I have no idea what made them think to cross reference the incidents with the individual shipments but once they confronted this particular trucker (and told him to stop) the problem went away for good.

I also would rather not know what that first batch of Coke tasted like after he had hauled resin in that truck...

K

[mike nixon]

You'd have thought Coke would have caught that one before GM did.

It brings a thought of constipation to my twisted mind.................................


Mike

[citydesk175]

Originally Posted by Old Blue 66

Hey Keith,

That scan might turn up in a GTO club newsletter in the near future. I would assume thats ok with you??

It is ok by me too, You can consider this to be a Certificate of Authenticity for that Pontiac Engineering Document unless it becomes involved in a court case and I will claim early onset of Alzhiemer's and disavow all knowledge of any and all engineering Documents.

so have fun with it and I hope your subscribers enjoy it while enjoying a turnaround 2009

Take care
Citydesk175

[citydesk175]

There is something nice about being connected. I was asked "When was the Pontiac Final Assy plant closed down?" I called my buddy at the GM Heritage Center who recognised me even though I have been retired these many months (2 and a half) I asked my question. He did not know how to find out the answer. I suggested the GM research Library. (I am disconnected from everyone because I have no connection to the online phonebook) He called me back with the answer in a research library structured format.

Made me wonder........ Did my friend get more out of my info quest than I did?

If so, I earned this month's retirement check................ again

regards
Citydesk175

[242177P]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Some more of the same.

Would this have been the same general area, or an entirely different plant?

[Old Blue 66]

Originally Posted by 242177P

Some more of the same.

Would this have been the same general area, or an entirely different plant?

Look at all the A bodies in the far back round

[Keith Seymore]

More, courtesy of CD:

Originally Posted by citydesk175

I just spoke to a recently retired friend who had spent some of his formative years at Willow Run. He told me vignettes of longer GM stories from Willow Run. Many of them sounded like the type I had heard at Pontiac and I can assume the GM Culture is universal even in a red headed stepchild division like Pontiac.

One of his stories ground on me personally because it was about a suggestion that went south. A machinist figured a way to do a cut that was fractions of a second faster and spread out over thousands of parts, really added into money. Somehow the guy's partner figured out how to put a very subtle flaw in his settings and produced a load of parts before they bounced and were traced back to his machine.

Meanwhile, our hero (you remember... the one with the IDEA) polished up his suggestion submission and took it to the Foreman who laugh in his face about it cause his partner had already used up every cent of the guy's savings estimatein the suggestion. "I don't wanna see either one of you for a long time so get out! So much for a great suggestion and 20 grand suggestion award.

===========================================

How else can you waste money in a subtle but very expensive way? My Uncle told me of a sheet metal cutter operator who was off on the dayhis boss wanted a dozen pieces 2 feet by 6 feet in a hurry. He had a millwright or somesuch operate the machine and every piece of metal when cut measured out at 22 inches by 6 feet. The boss went ballistic and the Millwright spent an hour looking the machine over to find out the fault.

Finally, the Millwright remembered he had used the other guy's metal yardstick (by Starret or Lufkin) instead of his own. Sure enough, the yardstick was 34 inches long with inches 1 and 2 chopped off very neatly. The enraged boss had the Millwright cut the yardstick into 2 inch pieces and took them to his desk.

The next day the guy was back and could not find his yardstick. He was told his boss had it. The boss got to ask the fatal question: "How long have you been adusting for the shortness of your yardstick?" "About 15 years." "You wont have to do that anymore" And the boss handed him all the pieces of his yardstick.

More to come soon

[MikeCio1]

Originally Posted by 242177P

Some more of the same.

Would this have been the same general area, or an entirely different plant?

Is that a, what I would describe as a very rare 67 Grand Prix Convertible in the back ground?
One of my favorite all time Pontiacs!

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by MikeCio1

Is that a, what I would describe as a very rare 67 Grand Prix Convertible in the back ground?
One of my favorite all time Pontiacs!

Stick or auto?

(lol)

Sorry - it's an "inside joke" referring to this thread:

http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=586995

[Keith Seymore]

GM Suggestion Program

Seeing the reference to the GM "Suggestion Program" made me think of a story dad told on more than one occasion:

Naturally, as he and the other skilled tradesmen in the shop went about their work they found better, cheaper and/or faster ways to do things. They decided to form a team of three or four individuals who would specifically be on the look out for good ideas and then they would go back, as a group, and corporately submit their Suggestion ideas into the proper channels. These days the maximum suggestion award is $20,000; I don't know what it was back then but I will say Dad earned enough money from suggestions on the '65/'66 Chevy pickup truck grill that he was able to buy our first truck, a '69 GMC, for cash.

This arrangement worked pretty well until one of the guys decided he wanted all the Suggestion reward money for himself. He started taking the ideas from the group and then he would hurry back and write them up by himself and submit them under his name only. As you might guess, after he did this a couple times the rest of the group caught on and they were none too happy about it.

They decided to write a series of bogus suggestions and assign this guy's name to them. They started out innocently enough, but since the "fake" suggestions continued to be accepted and implemented the suggestions got more wild and more outlandish as time went on. The coup de tat (...whatever that means...) was when they wrote a suggestion to remove all the stall doors in the restrooms out on the floor (to combat the skilled tradesman from reading while sitting on the pot) as a cost savings idea.

When this was followed up with a Suggestion to install "clear polycarbonate" doors on the stalls (presumably for security purposes), also submitted under his name, the gentleman was called into the office and it was "suggested" that he not submit any more ideas...

[Keith Seymore]

Do you grind your teeth?

May as well do one more, while I'm thinking of it....

Dad was raised in the poor rural south in the 30's and 40's. He came Michigan in the mid 50's, along with scores of others moving north to seek employment in the great automotive factories of that era.

Somewhere as a youth he had contracted "trenchmouth" (or "hoof and mouth disease"), probably from drinking at a public well. As such, his teeth were really bad. One of the first things he did when he joined GM and got some good health care benefits was have all of his teeth pulled and a set of false teeth made. Keep in mind he did this even though he was a relatively young man (early twenties at that point).

He had that same set of teeth for the rest of his life. Part of the reason for this, probably, is that "mechanically inclined guy" that he was he could perform a lot of "false teeth maintenance" for himself. For example, if he had a spot that was causing a sore place on his gum he would just take out his die grinder or some sandpaper and polish the offending area until it didn't cause pain anymore.

Unfortunately, discretion was not one of his strong points. He liked to tell about a time when he was working on a die...

(...Picture this: him up inside one of those big "press like" machines, wearing his blue/grey coveralls, covered with sweat and grinding dust inside this dimly lit, oily, loud, manufacturing plant...)

...when he realized he had his teeth were hurting his gums. So, right there inside this die, he pulls his teeth out and grinds on the bad spot, polishing it off with some sandpaper he had nearby. Once he was satisfied with the fix he popped his teeth back in his mouth, rolled them around to his satisfaction and --- looked up to see the Plant Manager standing in the aisleway looking at him in disbelief.

After an awkward moment of recognition, the Plant Manager shook his head, as if to say "...tell me I didn't just see what I think I saw..." and walked away.

Dad meekly went back to work and finished his shift.

I should add that his teeth fit so well (plus he had immediately dropped the uppers in the sink and chipped one of the front teeth, making them not so perfect) that most people did not even know. We kids thought it was cool that he could take them out and brush them and always suggested he could wash them in the dishwasher. It didn't hurt, either, that he would entertain us by rolling them around in his mouth (but only when he thought Mom wasn't looking).

On the other hand, there was the time he sneezed while making a left turn and blew his uppers out into the intersection of Woodward and 14 Mile...and had to dodge traffic to retrieve them....