The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Got 30 minutes to kill?

Thanks for posting the link!

Every time I watch that I learn something new. Some of the parts shown being made were actually for the 1935 Master's...the filming must have overlapped the two model years.

Also, for the never ending discussion about the engine fan color (black vs gray), it clearly shows they were gray!

It's also amazing how many men it took to man the assembly line with boring jobs like dropping one rivet into a frame hole so the next station could press it tight.

Mike B

Pretty fascinating to watch.
The casting of engine blocks (making cores and molds for instance) was cool, as was the forging of crankshafts.
Lots of hand work, as in moving parts around. Today, nearly everything is handled by robots. But even back then, there was a lot of robotic assembly done, as in riveting and welding frames.

Now Mike, this is for whatever it's worth department. An old man that eventually became a robotics specialist for Chevrolet told me back in 1992, told me the following; He was originally hired by GM as an engineer in the paint division and stuck with it for 46 years. He told me that at one time up until Chevy started painting engines orange that almost all fan blades were grey, but wait there's more........He said that grey was preferred by the old time mechanics because a grey fan was easy to see against a black or oxidized radiator. He also told me at the time this was going on all L-6 engines had a problem with the fan blade cracking at the base rivets. Which was a problem that lasted much longer than GM cared to remedy (another reason along with many more cooling issues), for fan shrouding. He also said that there never was a direct paint number for engine grey or blue, this was up to whatever paint company's price was less. Engine paint codes have become more popular as more folks like us restore older Chevrolets. However, he was a great help to me restoring a pristine 62 Vette. However I had just pulled the 235 out of my 54 AD and put a new coat of blue Chevrolet engine blue and he never said a dang word. In the near future I'm pulling the 54-235 out and painting it the proper grey. He also painted the newly rebuilt engine of the Vette the wrong color of orange. So there it is for whatever it's worth. Oh by the way the GM parts department only sold black replacement fans back in the day. Go figure. Doc

Did you notice the mechanic adjusting the valve train by sticking a rod up to his ear and against the engine block. Thats still the best way to find a tic or knock!

Doc, I did a significant amount of research before I painted the 235 in my 54 3100. I came to the same conclusion. There were specific paint codes for everything except the engines. Another fact was the 235 was painted blue if it was going into a car and grey if it was going into a truck. The grey was very similar between assembly plants but they all mixed their own engine paint and that led to slight variations. If I ever have to pull my fan blade I will have to consider painting it grey.

Joe, My Dad was a pretty good back yard mechanic and he taught me to put a long screwdriver against the engine and my ear. Amazing what you can hear. Side story, the guy in front of my Dad in the line for job assignments in the Marines wanted to be a carpenter. They said nope, we need mechanics. Dad was thinking perfect, I want to be a mechanic. They said, nope we need carpenters. Go figure!

I was taught the screwdriver trick way back then as well.
I've heard lots of stories about the armed services putting guys in odd professions. Although I had some pretty good mechanics in my shop, I've heard of guys who worked as wrenchbenders being sent to cook's school in the army. "The needs of the service" and all that.

My dad was a fair mechanic back pre WW2, working at a service station or two. When he enlisted just after Pearl Harbor he was sent to cooks school then bakers school. Go figure!

The engines were not painted at the assembly plant, they were painted at one of the two engine plants, Flint or Tonawanda and then shipped to the assembly plants

Chevrolet did have a paint code for the engines, it just wasn't made public because no one else needed to know it...not because it was a big secret or anything like that.

Mike B

Great film, thanks for posting Tiny!

I have always enjoyed the dramatic way those films were produced, much like a movie complete with dramatic lighting and an orchestra. It seemed rather dark in parts of the factory, gloomy even. There were certainly some awfully mundane and repetitive tasks involved in the assembly. I bet it resulted in lots of heavy drinking.

DES57, Yup I have a broom stick that I have used for years. Back when I was very involved in different types of racing many friends and competitors used fancy stethoscopes with an 18 inch piece of steel attached. Ever try to hear a bottom end noise on a 426 Hemi crammed into a 38 Willis. Broomstick worked every time, also I was too poor to buy fancy stuff. Doc

Tiny, great film, thanks. That is the kind of technology that won WWII. Doc

Joe H My teacher nearly 60 years ago would just feel for loose rockers,I learned shortly,on hydraulics you just want them all to shut-up so you can hear to adjust them.

Doc. Hall We used the broom stick too,still do along with several other methods. Glad I have been around trouble-shooters my whole life. Always big fun to show the kids what to do. Have seen the kids show the hot- shot teachers a few things too!!

I've been a broom stick operator all my life also.

I’m impressed with the frame assembly. Pretty impressive. Pretty smart engineering to dream it up!

And the size of those sheet metal machines!! Wow!

Try getting Americans to work like that today!?! Especially millennials. If it doesn’t have a keyboard forget it.

Thank you for sharing that. Very interesting for sure.

It appears those frame rivets are compressed into place cold. I was always under the impression they needed to be set hot? I've seen old videos of bridge builders who set rivets while they were glowing red hot.

I'm not a bridge builder but I thought bridges were built using iron and the frames are steel. Maybe iron rivets need to be hot to be malleable enough???

Bucking bridge rivets cold would require a BIG press that would be hard to manage while hanging out in the middle of no-where...much easier to do with a hot rivet, pneumatic hammer and a bucking block. And as the hot rivet cools it shrinks pulling the two pieces of steel together even tighter.

Mike B

On one scene, where they were riveting the frames, the men were standing between the machines that were forming the rivet heads. It looked to me, if they were to step one foot to the left or right, they would be part of the frame. Not for me.

Great film to watch though!