Good video.
A few observations and comments:
a) Door fit – in the assembly plant the doors were fit in the cab shop and not removed again after that. In other words, raw sheetmetal prior to ELPO dip and paint.
b) I also agree that the body would be fully trimmed out; that is – a/c system was assembled and charged by that point; brakes assembled and bled and fully functional; engine totally dressed, including radiator hoses.
c) Setting the body on straight was not an issue for “longer” body styles: crew cab, Blazer and Suburban. But the shorter body style of the regular cab truck made it easy for it to sit down cockeyed. Since the hood atttaches to the front of dash that would shoot the hood off to one side, forcing the radiator support and fenders off to that same side in order to match. Because the front bumper is attached to the frame this manifests itself as an uneven gap between the bumper and the front of the fender from side to side. Also – nothing was measured in the assembly plant – wherever that cab landed is where it got torqued down.
d) Agree with setting the rad support on loose. In the assembly plant it would have been fully loaded: radiator, headlamps, grille, lower valence panel, any aux coolers all already installed. The radiator support and fender were built up separately in a remote area of the plant and then conveyed to the final line in build sequence.
e) When we did it the fender inner (wheelhouse) was already installed to the fender (see above). There was a guy at the front of the fender and a guy at the rear of the fender; they would remove the fender from an overhead conveyor, swing it down and over the tire and into position in one fluid motion.
f) We had small magnetic spacers to form the fender to door gap. They were about ¼” thick and the fender was jammed back against the spacer while driving the bolts.
g) Shim packs were built up ahead of time based on build trends, not per individual trucks. See previous discussion below.
We set the fenders and bolted them down in about 45 seconds, all day every day. That gives you 15 seconds to reload, catch your breath (maybe read a line or two in the newspaper) and then go get the next one. I calculate I did about 900,000 vehicles during my tenure.
K
What we used to do for fender shims is tape a packet together, like 3 shims, and we would run those all day whether the truck we were currently building needed it or not.
Eventually the final repair supervisor would call back and say something encouraging, like "SEYMORE!! YOU IDIOT!! WTH ARE YOU THINKING?!?! ALL THESE FENDERS ARE RUNNING HIGH!! ARE YOU EVEN LOOKING AT THESE TRUCKS?!? TAKE A SHIM OUT BEFORE I COME BACK THERE AND SHOW YOU HOW TO DO THIS!!" I can just imagine the spittle flying into the phone mouthpiece.
So we would start running a new shim pack, like 2 shims, until he called again with his latest observation.
Basically it was to address "macro trends". You had about 45 seconds to complete the truck in front of you and move to the next one; that's not enough time to fit and re-fit each individual truck."
Also -
"This technique would get you close on the majority of vehicles.
There was a repair station at the end of my area. There was also a short moving repair line (two, actually) at the end of final line. If they could fix them there while on the move then they would; otherwise it would be out to a stationary repair stall in "heavy repair" for the really bad ones.
I should add that some of the repairs did not consist of removing the bolt or adding/deleting shims. Often the repair consisted of bending, twisting or hammering while the line was moving."
K
