How were the A bodies put together down the assembly line? OK what I see when taking any older car apart converting into a stock car body, Drag racer, Street ride etc....... is what appears to be multiple pieces (some large , some small) that must be pushed up into a template or on some kind of fabrication table set up with each piece being spot welded together and set back down on the conveyor belt only to be picked up by the next group which adds their parts / pieces to the car which in turn do exactly what the previous group does and sends the beginning of a car down the line. As it continues down the line it begins to look and become whatever product line is being produced on that production line........................... whether its a truck division or a car division plant.
Were their QC people on these same lines assuring that quality was being put into each car as i have read where these A body cars could have been out of square etc.... to a certain degree and they were still pushed off the assembly line only to have the sheet metal division correct the bad?????? I don't remember how much this old body man had stated how much these cars could be off but it was more than I thought they should.
I am sure they tried to correct these types of problems ASAP but had to find the fault area to correct in the first place. If there are any retired line workers on here this might be interesting to know. Texas Red
Hard for me to speak of specific processes at Lynch Rd. (See article) or Dodge Main since I spent so little time there. My career total for time in production, I believe Dept. 9190 @ about $3.25/hr., was 2 weeks. I operated a "hanging gun", a spot welding gun hitting respot welds. This was the popular method of fastening in those days. Later, I taught hundreds of robots, mostly Fanuc, but earlier, many Nachi, and ABB, to do the resistance spot welding. I do recall parts being loaded into welding fixtures and clamped, sometimes by hand clamps, then spot welded. The PS [Process Standard (for welding)] spelled out how the welds were to be inspected, among other requirements. Weld destruct testing was most common, with a hammer and chisel. Air chisels were much better to separate two parts and examine the welds. The weld would be measured at two points for size, preferably with dial calipers and averaged those two measurements. If undersize, the weld or "nugget" could be improved (grown) with more time progammed in. The general rule is, when first devising a weld schedule: If no nugget whatsoever-then increase current. If small nugget, then increase time of current flow. To devise a schedule, I always requested type of metals, thicknesses, coatings, etc.
I'll try to answer the questions, if I can. Much metal was scrapped. Why? Well, if the stamping building of an assembly plant cut the blanks short, then stamped a part out with presses and sent it to assembly, there could be many edge welds because of "short stock". They tried to blame our processes first so we would have to prove it was their fault. Then, if they already stamped 500 of the parts, some big shots would show up and say so what, adjust your processes. We're not scrapping 500 hoods.
Typical early but automated hood subassembly line:
Inner portion of hood was the skeleton or frame for the outer, or skin. At one station of the hood line, the slam (latch) bracket was welded onto the inner. Another station the nige brackets were welded on. These stations were called Geo Stations, where each part was located by pins though holes in the parts, to the inner and received at least two welds to "lock" the postion. GDT. These welds MUST hold. Then the panel was transferred through other stations and received the response welds. After the inner was complete, it was joined with the outer, back then manually, and then continued through outer stations. This fastening processes varied but for most of the 60's and 70's I believe it was welded to the inner along the sides and nose. (I guess I gotta go look at a Duster hood). It could have been hemmed too, where the edges are folded over. Later, in the 1990's we glued them with two-part epoxy. I hope this answered the question, kind of, about assembling some of the parts. I did a lot of "closures" - doors, hoods, decklids and also floorpans. I never went back to BIW or Metal Shop after those two weeks of Hell I spent there, and never served full time in production again.
BTW: Rest in Peace, Mr. David Patik (2020) and Mr. Gil Cunningham (2022). Thank You for the How Chrysler Built Cars article.
