Vintage automobile factories

Have they been watching one too many early Sci-Fi trash film?

 

Not a factory per se, but pretty fascinating.

By Hampton C. Wayt: In the mid-1960s, if you were a young boy or girl interested in becoming a car designer at General Motors, you might have written to them asking for some information on career opportunities. And if you did so, you might well have received a promotional slide set housed in a blue cardstock cover in reply. Embossed with the General Motors Styling Section symbol, the set consists of twelve different images of GM Styling’s facilities at the corporation’s Warren, Michigan Tech Center campus—each image individually captioned on the paper mount.

• The lead photo shows the General Motors Technical Center in Warren Michigan, it covers an area of 335 acres with 16 staff buildings placed in a campus-like setting of water, trees and lawns.

• General Motors Styling Section promotional slide set.

• Some of the contents of the General Motors Styling Section promotional slide set.

Examining the contents closely, it is fascinating to note the imagery and messages the set contains. The majority focus on the Styling division’s buildings, rather than to aspects of the design process. From Bill Mitchell’s (formerly Harley Earl’s) executive office replete with scale models of the first three Firebirds, all the way to the cafeteria with its “superlative industrial cuisine,” the scenes were chosen to present Styling as “an inspiring atmosphere for artistic endeavor,” as the accompanying text states.

• Separate studios are maintained by the Styling Staff for each car division client. Plastic light panels cover the entire ceiling for proper indoor lighting. Cadillac studio image centers on a ’63 convertible.

Naturally, a trip through GM styling would not be complete without some cars. A photograph of the Cadillac studio centers on a ’63 convertible surrounded by drawings, full size clay models and Harry Bertoia “Diamond” chairs fabricated by Knoll. Future VP of Styling Chuck Jordan can be seen on the far right speaking with a couple of designers, while on the left a sculptor works on a facelift design. Can any of our readers identify these individuals?

• Adjacent to the Styling Auditorium, enclosed by a high brick wall and a border of tall trees for privacy, is an outdoor viewing yard where advance designs can be evaluated in natural daylight.

Other images feature some well-known concept cars. The “outdoor viewing yard” places both the Corvette Stingray racer and Shark prototypes in front of the Styling Auditorium’s stately dome. Inside the auditorium itself is one of the 1954 Oldsmobile F88 show cars in red (as opposed to its better-known gold incarnation).

• Finished designs are recorded on paper in the Styling Staff’s Engineering Drafting Department by highly-skilled surface development experts, who carefully prepare precise full-size drawings.

The original text from the inside of the cover for the General Motors Styling Section promotional slide set follows:

“The Styling Buildings at the General Motors Technical Center in Warren, Michigan, house the world’s foremost design organization in pleasant surroundings conducive to creative activity. Three main units comprise the Styling group: Administration Building, Studio-Shop Building, and Viewing Auditorium.”

• The Styling Color Studio is surrounded by floor-to-ceiling windows for optimum light balance. Designers select colors from 4,000 choices displayed at left.

“Pre-assembled steel curtain walls are combined with colored ceramic bricks and expansive windows in a pattern of functional beauty. Completely air-conditioned throughout, every studio, office and shop offers an inspiring atmosphere for artistic endeavor.”

• The interior of the Styling Auditorium has a viewing dais around the main floor. A self-supporting roof structure eliminates all pillars, posts and other viewing obstructions.

“Here, 1200 specialists, including 150 designers, plus experts in engineering, glass, plastics, paint, colors, and clay models, work to create designs for all Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick and Cadillac automobiles. Chevrolet and GMC trucks and buses, Euclid earth movers, Electo-Motive locomotives and rail vehicles, Frigidaire household appliances, and military and experimental vehicles. In addition, industrial shows, World’s Fairs, exhibits and graphic displays of all sorts are designed by these Styling experts, who also provide a variety of other industrial design services to General Motors staff and divisions.”

• Surrounding the Styling Color Studio is an outdoor roof garden. Artificial heat warms the soil and melts snow in the wintertime.

• The office of the Styling Vice President has fluted cherry wood walls capped with aluminum. Recessed ceiling lights are clustered over work and conference areas.

So, what do you think? Do the images live up to the promotional hype of the descriptions and captions, which you have read? Would they have “inspired” you to pursue your dream of becoming a car designer? Let us know your thoughts.
-Courtesy of The Old Motor.

 

That pic of the 'Corvettes' outside, is the near one the 'Mako Shark?' sure looks different with the roof on it. I love the story of Bunkie Knudson wanting the Mako Shark painted like the Mako he caught on a vacation, but every time Larry Shinoda and his gang painted it, Knudson was never satisfied. So when Knudson left town on another vacation, Shinoda's gang broke into Knudson's home, and 'borrowed' the mounted Mako. They took it back to the studio, where Shinoda repainted it to match the car! Right after Knudson got back from vacation, he took his Mako to work, compared the two, and declared that Shinoda and company finally had the car painted correctly!

 

Here is another set of interesting pictures by photographers who were employed by the Ford Motor Company. The lead photo of the armature assembly line dating to 1934 was taken by George Ebling, who was the chief photographer responsible for the photo-murals on display in the Ford Pavilion at the Century of Progress Exhibition.

Learn more about the River Rouge Complex at The Henry Ford, the source of the photos in this series.

• Ford workers repairing fragile 1937 grilles damaged during the manufacturing process.

• Four banks of engine testing and running in machines February 1, 1936. The oil pressure is monitored by a gauge visible between the transmissions and the electric motors.

• Ford bought decommissioned ships and broke them up for scrap which was recycled in the steel furnaces at the Companies Steel Mill at the Rouge. This image from November of 1927 shows a steam engine being removed from a vessel.

* of note, a reader added these comments regarding the ship having it's steam engine removed:
Based on the tonnage, the ship appears to be the SS Lake Farge, which is the only ship I can find in the Inquiry Into the Operations of the United States Shipping Board with a gross tonnage of 2624 and net tonnage of 1628. It wasn’t being scrapped, but was having its engines removed.

Ford had bought 199 ships for $1,697,470 in early 1925. All were to be scrapped, with any that were restored to service incurring an additional payment of $16,470 per ship.

They ended up scrapping 189 (for a total of 216,532 tons of steel), converting 7 to unpowered barges, and restoring 3 for shipping parts. The Lake Farge was one of the seven barges and was used to move supplies to Fordlandia, with the restored Lake Ormoc serving as the plantation’s headquarters until the shore facilities were established.

-Courtesy of The Old Motor

 

I'm watching a show right now about laying fiberglass. It's quit interesting. It's neat to see the photo of the split window vette's on the assembly line with the bodies in the roughed in, but not finished out.

 

I wonder how many cases of Mesothelioma they can trace back to the early St. Louis plant days when those guys shaved, and sanded those bodies coming down the line.

 

They were probably shoved under the collective lawsuit against Phillip-Morris rug, blaming it on either direct- or passive smoking

 

1935 Packard

 

More photos from the “Images from the River Rouge” series with another set of interesting pictures by photographers who were employed by the Ford Motor Company.



The lead image taken in July of 1935 contains four workers on the fuel tank assembly line. The two men wearing hoods used to lessen their exposure to the toxic lead-alloy fumes were doing the actual work and it appears each of them had an assistant to hold the torch when needed. It must have been a horrible job due to the combination of the summer heat and having to breathe in the fumes from both the molten lead solder and the soldering flux.


Near the end of the 1936 chassis assembly line before the body drop station.


1940 Mercury engine drop station.


1940 Mercury body drop station on the assembly line.


Installing brake drums on the chassis assembly line September 21, 1937.

Learn more about the River Rouge Complex at The Henry Ford, the source of the photos in this series.
Courtesy of The Old Motor.

 

We return to the Images from the River Rouge series today with a mixed set of photos of vehicles and the Soybean Processing plant at the Ford factory located in Dearborn, MI.

The lead photo contains the twenty-ninth millionth Ford car built at the end of the production line on April 29, 1941. The vehicle, a 1941 Ford fitted with a wooden station wagon body built at the Company’s Iron Mountain Michigan Plant and presented the Red Cross Volunteer Motoring Corps. The Ford Motor Company made it a practice to support the local Dearborn police and fire departments and other agencies by presenting new vehicles to them when needed.





The Ford Motor Company at one point owned a railroad used for shipping parts and supplies to the River Rouge and a locomotive repair and construction building at the plant. This Ford switching locomotive (above) was used on a large network of miles of track in and next to the Factory Complex for moving freight and supplies around and in and out of the property.



One of Henry Ford’s pet projects was to develop the process of using crushed soybeans to make plastic parts. Starting in the early-1930s the use of plastic in Ford vehicles increased and this photo dated to 1940 contains the Company’s Soy Bean (sic) Processing plant at the River Rouge Plant. Some of the soybeans were used to build the Ford Soybean Car in 1941.
-Courtesy of The Old Motor

 

At least, anyone stuck in the middle of nowhere who didn't know how to forage for survival could at least not go hungry, simply by eating the plastic parts.

The one not wearing a hood seems to be enjoying the buzz.

 

Here's more from the “Images from the River Rouge” series. Here we have a mixed set of photos of assembly lines and the Ford tire manufacturing plant at the Ford Plant located in Dearborn, MI.

The lead image is a view of the chassis assembly line at the River Rouge Plant taken late in 1935 of the front fender installation area. One worker is holding and positioning a fender while another man underneath it is installing the bolts that fasten it to the grille shell. At the same time, a third worker is installing a front fender bracket on the second chassis on the line.


Learn more about the River Rouge Complex at The Henry Ford, the source of the photos in this series. View earlier posts about the River Rouge here.



This photo dating to 1937 contains workers on the engine assembly line installing pistons and connecting rods, and the studs that hold on the cylinder heads.



And we finish up here with a November 1942 view of tire manufacturing equipment and Ford tires slated for use on military vehicles for the war effort. Previously Ford passenger car tires were built in this part of the plant.
-Courtesy of The Old Motor

 

I wonder, if they were already using plastic timing gears for the cams, back then. This one looks metalurgically dissimilar to the gear driving it.