Ace-Garageguy Posted September 6, 2014 Posted September 6, 2014 Sorry fellas...no BLANG BLANG music in the background, no gee-whiz idiot commentary, no sound at all for that matter. Home-movie style footage of the first run of 'Vette bodies being laid-up and assembled.
jeffs396 Posted September 6, 2014 Posted September 6, 2014 How cool is that? Oh, how things have changed. I like seeing them use clecos to hold subassemblies together and rivets actually used in its construction! Thanks for sharing that Bill!
Harry P. Posted September 6, 2014 Posted September 6, 2014 What an incredibly labor-intensive, slow, and primitive (as in all hand-done, no automation) process. And the guy spray painting without a respirator! No OSHA back then, huh?
Ace-Garageguy Posted September 6, 2014 Author Posted September 6, 2014 (edited) What an incredibly labor-intensive, slow, and primitive (as in all hand-done, no automation) process. And the guy spray painting without a respirator! No OSHA back then, huh? Yeah, and most of the guys doing the polyester layups aren't wearing gloves, and none of them are wearing respirators either. I don't know if you've ever worked with liquid polyester resin, but the smell is overpowering (think bondo X 20). Plus it's loaded with bad stuff. I think this is a film of a prototype, pre-production body being made though, as the early production cars used a rubber "vacuum-bag" technique to remove trapped air bubbles from the layups, and this isn't seen in this footage. We'll assume the production workers were better protected. One big reason GM opted to use fiberglass on the Corvette was to save the massive expenditure on steel press-dies for a very limited-production run. Without respirators though, the layup-guys would certainly feel like hell after doing one set of parts. Ask me how I know. Edited September 6, 2014 by Ace-Garageguy
Harry P. Posted September 6, 2014 Posted September 6, 2014 The only person I saw wearing a respirator was the guy grinding the edges of the finished piece. And like you said, the guys actually laying up the fiberglass... no respirators, no gloves. They were bare-handing the stuff, pressing and smooshing it into place. How times have changed.
sjordan2 Posted September 6, 2014 Posted September 6, 2014 Having spent many years doing advertising for fiberglass boat manufacturers, I can second all the observations and warnings posted here. As I understand it, the first Corvette was rushed into production without a lot of the manufacturing questions resolved. Look at any of the early C1 Corvettes and you'll see a maze of spider cracks in the bodies.
Art Anderson Posted September 7, 2014 Posted September 7, 2014 Having spent many years doing advertising for fiberglass boat manufacturers, I can second all the observations and warnings posted here. As I understand it, the first Corvette was rushed into production without a lot of the manufacturing questions resolved. Look at any of the early C1 Corvettes and you'll see a maze of spider cracks in the bodies. Actually, with most any C1 Corvette, all the way out through 1962, spider web cracks were at every body panel joint--seen many that problem over the years. Art
Art Anderson Posted September 7, 2014 Posted September 7, 2014 What an incredibly labor-intensive, slow, and primitive (as in all hand-done, no automation) process. And the guy spray painting without a respirator! No OSHA back then, huh? Consider too, that Chevrolet built only 300 Corvettes that first year, without knowing for sure that the car would continue (they likely would have axed the Vette after 1954 had it not been for that upstart from Dearborn, the all new 1955 Thunderbird! Art
unclescott58 Posted September 7, 2014 Posted September 7, 2014 Much more labor intensive than I would have guess. I assume the first part of this film is taken at fiberglass plant in Ashatbula, Ohio? Final assembly in Flint or St. Louis? Basically a hand built car. Scott
Ace-Garageguy Posted September 7, 2014 Author Posted September 7, 2014 Actually, with most any C1 Corvette, all the way out through 1962, spider web cracks were at every body panel joint--seen many that problem over the years. Art Cracking at panel joints, corners and attachment points is common on just about every fiberglass car, boat or airplane, but the designers are learning how to locate the joints so they don't show, or eliminate them entirely. The most pervasive and frustrating of fiberglass deterioration is the failure of the surface gel-coat, and this type of surface failure was common ALL OVER the old Corvette and Lotus bodies (and all the other cars and 'glass airplanes of similar vintage). It requires extremely skilled and labor-intensive correction, and on aircraft it can lead to structural failures as the cracks propagate down into the laminate itself. The newer materials and build techniques deliver products that are much more tolerant of stresses encountered in use, and more resistant to UV exposure.
Art Anderson Posted September 7, 2014 Posted September 7, 2014 Much more labor intensive than I would have guess. I assume the first part of this film is taken at fiberglass plant in Ashatbula, Ohio? Final assembly in Flint or St. Louis? Basically a hand built car. Scott That video was shot, I believe, at the Chevrolet plant in Flint MI, where the first Vettes were built (St Louis came a couple of years later IIRC). Art
unclescott58 Posted September 7, 2014 Posted September 7, 2014 (edited) That video was shot, I believe, at the Chevrolet plant in Flint MI, where the first Vettes were built (St Louis came a couple of years later IIRC). Art Vettes were built in Flint, Michigan only in 1953. The assembly line was moved in St. Louis, Missouri in December of 1953. Almost all Corvettes from 1954 through 1981 were built in St. Louis. With some '81s being built in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Were Corvettes of course are still being built. I don't know if any bodies, short of the Motorama Corvettes, being done in Flint. The bodies were made by the same outfit that made the Studebaker Avanti and Avanti II bodies. That company was Molded Fiberglass Products out of Ashtabula, Ohio. The bodies there then shipped to Flint, St. Louis, or in the case of the Avantis, South Bend, Indiana. I don't know if Molded Fiberglass Products is still involved with Corvette bodies today, or not. I have to look into that. Scott Edited September 7, 2014 by unclescott58
unclescott58 Posted September 7, 2014 Posted September 7, 2014 (edited) Okay, I went Molded Fiberglass Products of Ashtabula, Ohio's own website. It looks like I'm wrong about the Corvettes out of Flint getting their bodies from Ashtabula. They were involved in the first bodies, but didn't start building bodies in Ashtabula until the '54 models. And yes, they still build Corvette bodies in Ashtabula today. So it looks like that whole film was probably shot in Flint. Scott Edited September 7, 2014 by unclescott58
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