Quote:

.Transformed by Hurst-No.
May i ask how you came by this info, did you work on the line when they where installed?



No, I did not work on the line but I was selling Dodges NEW in 1969.

The history I cited above is pretty common knowledge amongst big block A body historical guys. Also, there is little difference in the 383 and 440 A body cars other than one of the exhaust manifolds so why would you think they would have to send the cars to Hurst for completion?

The factory completed the majority of the special package cars on the regular assembly line in what were called "holes" on the sides of the lines. you may want to read the following as it refers to them in this interview.

Winged Warriors/National B-Body Owners Association

LYNCH ROAD ASSEMBLY LINE
OPERATING DESIGN
Building the Road Runner SuperBird

By David J. Patik


Few Mopar enthusiasts have ever seen an automotive assembly line. Fewer still
saw the assembly of Mopar muscle cars. Almost no enthusiasts active today in
the hobby worked at Chrysler those many years ago.

Imagine the wealth of memories a Chrysler Engineer of that time period could
share with us today! Gil Cunningham from late 1969 to 1974 was a Product
Engineer at Chrysler's Lynch Road Assembly Plant, specializing in Body Sealing and
Paint. This job entailed keeping his area of the assembly process running
smoothly, and production testing of proposed changes in materials and/or their
method of application and installation. Before and after Lynch Road service, Gil
held several engineering positions at other Chrysler facilities, in both the
car and truck divisions.

Today Engineer Gil is Dr. Gilbert Cunningham, chiropractor in private
practice in Tallahassee, Florida. After a total of nineteen years at Chrysler, Gil
eventually fulfilled his desire "to do something completely different than
engineering, and work for himself." He is very much an enthusiast of Chrysler
special cars, being Vice President of the Chrysler 300 Club International, and is
the owner of a rare 1962 300H convertible, as well as other Letter Series
Chryslers.

The article that follows is based on several interviews with Dr. Cunningham.
It also contains information from interviews with former Chrysler Production
Scheduling Programmer Walter Redmond, and long-time Chrysler Facilities
Engineer Bob Badyna. In addition, Chrysler special body program information was
derived from a presentation by NASCAR Program Design Engineers Larry Rathgeb, Gary
Romberg, and John Pointer at the Winged Warrior National Meet in 1977.

Let's make a tour of Lynch Road in December of 1969, and follow the building
of a SuperBird. But first, this imagination exercise: to get a good idea of
the size of this facility, think of your local K-Mart store. It's about the size
of a one-stall garage compared to the Lynch Road Plant! Built in the late
1930s, Lynch Road began building Plymouths after WWII. During the Muscle Car era,
it employed 5,000-6,000 people. Only one story in design for the most part,
ranging from eleven to fourteen feet tall, Lynch Road measures 660' wide by
2500' long. In 1969, it is considered quite modern and efficient, although the
low ceiling height causes considerable difficulty in moving equipment into place.

Cars actually begin their life in the Production Scheduling Department.
There, computer programmers perform tasks that are listed here in simplified form:

Highland Park (main office) decides which plant will build the car, based on
distance from dealer, workload, and parts availability.
If the car has been ordered by a customer through a dealer (Sold Car), insure
that the sales personnel have ordered options and equipment possible for that
model of car. The Vehicle Order Number that will appear on the car's fender
tag and broadcast sheet is preprinted on the dealer's order form (except
Special Order Cars).
If the car is a dealer supply (Sales Bank) car, insure that this order
information is correct.
If a Special Order Car (S.O.C.) is to be built, (SuperBirds are S.O.C.)
program in code "Y39" special building instructions on the broadcast sheet.
Schedule the car's build date. Nightly meetings of Production Control
personnel determine which cars will be built three days in advance, based on the
in-stock supply of necessary parts.
Assign a Production Sequence Number, used for tracking the car through the
assembly process, and coordinating parts and sub-assemblies for the car.
Assign a Vehicle Identification Number (V.I.N.) to the car.
The scheduling of production requires some explanation of a basic goal of an
automotive assembly line. That is, cars were scheduled for assembly in the
ultimate mixed up order. Models were mixed (Belvederes and Coronets), bodies were
mixed (station wagons, sedans, etc.), engines-transmissions-options were
mixed. Why?

There were two reasons for this mixing. Bearing in mind that the line never
stopped moving (except for disasters!), almost one car per minute left the
final assembly line as a finished machine. Therefore, there were very real limits
on the available manpower and space to physically get the exact needed parts
where needed, as needed. The second reason for mixing models and options was
the actual assembly time required. Some options were very common, some rare. A
person on the line may have been responsible for installing more than one item
on each car. Several people were needed to install some items.

So, the last thing that Lynch Road assembly supervisors and workers wanted
was a relatively small order of very special cars. Imagine the massive increase
in the order shuffling system that was required to integrate a SuperBird
sub-model that required many special parts! This was to be a run of about
two-thousand cars, scheduled for late 1969, with a required completion date of January
1, 1970 (to meet the NASCAR homologation deadline).

Chrysler management decided to have Lynch Road build running, completed
SuperBirds, minus the wing and the nose cone assemblies. The cars would then be
transported to the nearby Clairpointe Pre-Production facility for completion.
Most special SuperBird parts were to be supplied by the custom-specialty firm
Creative Industries, which either made these parts or purchased them from outside
vendors.

Well, now that we understand the basics of SuperBird production planning,
let's get to work building one!

The Lynch Road Plant consists of six major areas of assembly, each of which
functions as a nearly-independent mini-factory.

Metal Shop = Body-in-White (BIW): assembly of complete bare body.
Paint Shop: metal preparation, painting.
Chassis Department: Engine "dress," mating of engine-transmission-rear end
assemblies.
Trim Line: Installation of body mechanical and electrical parts and
sub-assemblies.
Final Line: Glass, interior, final details.
Car conditioning: Repair of completed vehicles, misc. tasks.
It will take two day's construction from Metal Shop to loading a running car
on a transport truck! The very long assembly lines move slowly and steadily.

We will begin our tour in the Metal Shop, where a few codes on a fender tag
and a broadcast sheet guide the production of a complete, bare metal body.
These two all important "blueprints" for each car result from the work of the
Production Scheduling Department.

Lynch Road in the 1970 model year builds ("frames") sixteen different body
types:

R = Belvedere W = Coronet
Coupe
21 Hardtop
23 4-Door
Sedan 41 Wagons
45/46 Coupe
21 Hardtop
23 4-Door
Sedan 41 Wagons
45/46
Non A/C X X X X X X X X
With A/C X X X X X X X X

Assembly of the body shell begins by laying the sub-assembled passenger
compartment floor and forward frame rails and the sub-assembled trunk floor and
frame rails onto a moving floor-level "truck" fixture. To either side of this
floor pan fixture are secured (a short distance later) massive, hanging, moving
fixtures called "sidegates." They locate to the floor pan assemblies the body
side components: lower sills, cowl sides, "A" pillars, roof rails, and quarter
panels.

Body parts are manually welded. Several hundred huge, pincher-type spot
welders and their many cooling lines hang from the ceiling in the Metal Shop,
giving it the appearance of an industrial rain forest. The high heat of the welders
is dissipated by piped-in water to each unit, and their bulk is made more
maneuverable by using their transformers as counterbalances.

In essence, every part of the body that will be color-coated is permanently
attached in Body-in-White. Mating surfaces are coated with a grey, zinc-rich
weld-through primer prior to spot weld assembly (in corrosion-prone areas). To
prevent rust-out of bolted-on mated areas like door hinges-to-cowl, and
fenders-to-inner fenders, a dark green zinc chromate primer is manually brushed onto
each of these mating surfaces before body assembly.

Whether a car has air-conditioning is vital to Metal Shop because the dash
panel (firewall) is a much different stamping for air conditioned cars than
non-air cars. What about other options that require special body holes and studs?
Nearly every body hole required for these options is dimpled into the metal
stamping. The Metal Shop line is very long, with ample time to use its many
hole-drilling fixtures and weld-stud fixtures. This avoids the plant complexity of
too many different stampings, (regarding ordering and storage), and it's cost
effective.

If a run of special bodies is planned, as with the SuperBirds, Metal Shop
builds up from the stamping plant a "bank" of the special parts before assembly
of the cars begins. These special runs of cars are never sent en-masse down the
assembly line, but are sent in small clumps. (SuperBird records on file today
reflect exactly this procedure).

Hemi-powered cars merit special mention. Their rear frame reinforcement
plates are welded on to the frame rails at the stamping plant, creating a special
trunk floor sub-assembly to be stored and then used at Lynch Road.
Approximately one Hemi-car per shift is assembled (two shifts per day; the third shift is
for plant maintenance).

Before exiting the metal shop fabrication area, every body receives its very
own premade fender tag. It is attached to the left inner fender by its forward
screw only, then pulled up at its rear. This allows inspector's punches to be
impressed on it later, and allows the primers and color coats to be applied
under it. (This is not a universal practice on every car or at all plants;
sometimes the tag is hung inside the car by a paper clip).

Another vital task of the Metal Shop is embossing "secret" portions of the
VIN on at least two pieces of welded-on sheet metal of the car. This is
accomplished with an air or hydraulic embossing tool containing numbers and letters,
manually located and actuated by its operator.

Since we are building a SuperBird, the work of the Metal Shop is still not
finished. Every special part to be welded on and/or color-coated must be
installed in this area. Most of this work will be done in "repair holes," which are
side-tracks off the main assembly line. The major parts to be welded in are the
rear window plug, wing support plates under the quarter panels, trunk floor
brace brackets, and the hood latch tray mounting bracket.

The major bolted-on parts are the modified 1970 Coronet hood and fenders. The
front section replacement work on the hood is done at the Chrysler stamping
plant, while the more minor fender modifications are done at Lynch Road in the
Metal Shop. Many special holes are drilled in the body for the wing, the
1968-69 Charger vacuum headlight system, and the fender scoops. Some usual Road
Runner holes are not drilled, such as those for the metal nameplates on the
quarter panels.

When the special-body modifications are completed on the SuperBird, it
rejoins all other completed bodies in a holding area at the end of Body-In-White.
From here, cars are selected at random for insertion on the Paint Shop line. The
Sequence Number of each car is sent ahead via computer to the Paint Shop.

Every car begins its trip through Paint Shop with a trip through a
seven-part, full-body spray and partial immersion in a series of chemical applications.

Hot chemical cleaner to remove waxy die-drawing compound, dirt, joint-leading
residue.
Hot rinse.
Another hot rinse.
Paint anchoring, metal etching and coating phosphate solution.
Cold rinse.
Conditioning solution.
Dip up to headlamp level in grey water-based primer. Before this has dried,
outer body is hosed off to prevent paint ridges caused by this primer, which
would show through the color coat.
The first six of these steps are the "Bondurite" cleaning and coating
process. The final dip in primer is a Chrysler-invented step in corrosion protection,
begun with the 1960 model year. Through all of these operations, the body is
supported by large hooks, the forward of which pass through the windshield
opening and attach to the dash panel area. The rear hooks attach in the wheel tub
area. The hood and deck lid remain open to avoid large amounts of the
chemicals becoming trapped in them. The many stamped-out large holes in the floor
pans allow the chemicals to drain out. Passage through a dry-off oven dries the
Chrysler Chemical Corp.-manufactured dip primer, and evaporates any water wash
residue.

Now the SuperBird body requires another special step, the application of
heat-curing "Plastisol" one-part filler around the rear window plug. Since the car
will have a vinyl roof (purposely), only shaping and rough sanding of the
joint area is necessary. This avoids the time-consuming (and toxic) joint-leading
process that is performed at the roof-quarter joints on all cars without a
vinyl roof.

Body sealers are now applied to all cars. A black, tar-like sealer is applied
to all passenger compartment floor joints. This same always-soft material was
used in the trunk compartment area until the wife of Chrysler President Lynn
Townsend found that her luggage once was marred by it. That episode resulted
in a corporate switch to the much more expensive, hard-drying Plastisol white
sealer in the trunk! This sealer is also used in the joints around the rear
window panel, and similar outer-body joints. Sound deadener is sprayed on the
inside of the quarter panels as accessible from inside the trunk compartment, and
to the inside of the door skins.

Now it is time to prime the body. All cars, regardless of body color, use a
dark grey primer. Workers in the prime booth spray the door openings, and
under/inside the hood/deck areas. Dummy, recycled 1/4" wire latches keep the doors,
hood, and deck lid shut. Robot guns on curved tracks spray the sides, roof,
hood, and deck lid outer body, their spraying actions programmed according to
the car's body style. The insides of the car, and the underside receive only
overspray.

Booth overspray is collected by water that flows downward all along the sides
of the spray booth and over to its center, where it catches the paint
particles in the downdraft through the open steel gridwork floor.

The "Upper Door Frame" (UDF) color is sprayed on any inside metal of the body
shell that will not be covered by upholstery or metal finish panels. This
colored paint is sprayed on before the primer overspray has dried.

Cars remain in the primer baking oven for approximately twenty-five minutes
at 350-375 degrees. This high heat is intended also to cure the weld primers
and vinyl plastisol sealers, which were applied with a gun to panel joints prior
to being welded together.

The primer is wet-sanded at Lynch Road, using power disc hand-sanders, which
have built-in water sprayers. Only the outside of the body is sanded.
Following a wipe-off of primer residue, the body is cleaned with naphtha, then wiped
with an alcohol-and-water solution. The UDF color is masked off by hand, with
tape and masking paper.

Since our sample SuperBird is basically a 1970 Road Runner, its tail lamp
bezels have been attached to the tail light panel with their purposely-long
studs, while being spaced from the panel with one-inch sleeves. This allows the
bezels to be painted with the car body, and allows painting of the tail-light
panel contact areas, preventing rust. After the paint is baked, the sleeves are
removed, and the bezels are permanently attached.

It is essential to note that a primary goal of assembly line painting of all
cars is to have every part of the car that will be color-coated be permanently
attached to the body before it enters the paint booth. This prevents the
inevitable paint scratching of subsequent painted-parts assembly. Also, parts that
are not to be color-coated are not installed on the car prior to entering the
paint booth, thus avoiding masking off.

The front valance panels present a problem unique to SuperBirds. (They are
the body panels that attach to the fenders forward of the wheels, and are later
bolted to the nose cone supports [bumper brackets]). The valance panels can
not be attached to the fender during painting because they would hang down at
their underbelly end and get caught all along the assembly line. Yet, the
valances are in an area of high rust potential, and must be color-coated.

The solution was to make them of galvanized steel, eliminating the need to
run them through the Bondurite system. For color-coating, the valances are hung
with short wires from the roof rails inside the passenger compartment, and
painted there by the workers while the car was in the color paint booth. (This
was a later standard practice on cars with bolted-on front or rear valance
panels).
The SuperBirds' rear window lower "corner" pot metal trim pieces are another
painting problem, because they cannot be attached to the body during
color-coating. Painting of the underlying sheet metal is necessary to avoid rust, and
the trim pieces are painted body color and flat back. So, they are supplied to
Lynch Road already color-coated for each allowed SuperBird color.

The baking oven for the color coat has a temperature of about 250 degrees,
and baking time is twenty to thirty minutes. If a car comes out of the oven with
paint problems, (usually dirt, sags, or drips) it goes to a Paint Shop repair
hole. There the finish in the problem area is correctly prepared, the
surrounding area is masked off, color-coating is applied, and the car is sent to the
repair area's oven.

Those rare cars (fleet cars, usually) that are to be two-toned (painted metal
roof different than body color), are removed from the exit line of the baking
oven. They are placed on the entrance line to the paint booth, where the
lower body is masked off. In the paint booth the roof color is sprayed, then the
car passes through a baking oven again.

No color coat is applied to the roof of cars that will receive a vinyl roof,
greatly cutting the use of expensive finish paint. Vinyl roofs are installed
in the Paint Shop after a car's exit from the baking oven. This includes our
sample SuperBird, which passes through the adhesive spray booth, then gets its
mandatory black vinyl roof, specially-cut to fit the semi-fastback rear window
plug. They may also apply decorative stripes to other models, particularly if
the stripes are installed before body fittings that cover portions of the
stripes. Station wagon woodgrain decals are applied by Paint Shop workers.

Now is a good time to illustrate one of the assembly line problems caused by
the special-ordered SuperBirds. Our tour guide through time, Engineer Gil,
distinctly remembers one SuperBird that was painted a color not allowed for
SuperBirds.

Every dealer announcement for the SuperBird, and every factory engineering
document for the car states that it would be available in only seven colors:

Blue Fire Metallic EB5
Alpine White EW1
Vitamin "C" Orange EK2
Lemon Twist FY1
Lime Light FJ5
Tor-Red EV2
Corporate Blue 999 (Ditzler DRA 12785)
This problem car got painted FK5; that's Burnt Orange Metallic. The car went
as normal through the baking oven, had it's vinyl roof installed, and had
quite a few of its mechanical parts installed. Someone caught the paint error on
the line in the Trim Shop. The painters had read the fender tag incorrectly, or
the Production Scheduling people coded its color incorrectly, or an
"illegally-ordered" color slipped through from a dealer's order.

By now the car was much too far assembled to pull it off the Trim Line,
re-insert if on the Paint Line, scuff sand its new paint, reshoot it a correct
color, and run it through the high heat of the baking oven. And, the car was
already built in the Metal Shop as a SuperBird, so it could not easily be converted
to a regular Road Runner, which did allow Burnt Orange Metallic paint. It was
finally decided by Product Planning to finish building the car as a
SuperBird, and send the car to Clairpointe as usual, along with a can of orange paint,
and a note explaining the problem! (If the broadcast sheet and fender tag
paint codes did not match the FK5 color, this car received re-issued
identification). Researchers have so far found three SuperBirds painted the "impossible"
FK5!

Back to the normal assembly line now! The work of the Paint Shop is now
completed; the painted shells gather in the painted body bank before they are
loaded in a mixed-up order of paint and body style onto the track for the next
assembly line area at Lynch Road, the Trim Shop.

Here a wide variety of parts for the car will be installed except the
interior, glass, window chrome, and final details. The Trim Line installs weather
seals, all electrical wiring and its equipment, headlights, and the complete
instrument panel. Here the engine-transmission-rear end will meet the body, the
tires and wheels will be installed; a running car will be produced.

How is it possible for the thousands of parts for each car passing through
Trim Line to be quickly selected for assembly to the correct car? A central
feature of assembly line operation is having the exact needed part awaiting the
exact intended car. Some parts are small, and are used on every car. They are
dispensed from bins and buckets within easy reach. Large parts, such as engine
and transmission are trucked in from their manufacturing and sub-assembly
plants, and placed in plant storage areas.

A basic description of the role of broadcast sheets, also called "track
sheets," in the assembly plant would now be helpful. Cars are sent from one stage
(or department) of assembly to another department without any regard for
keeping them in the numerical order of their Vehicle Identification Numbers. Yet,
the sub-assembly personnel, as well as the car assembly workers, know in what
order the cars will be arriving on the line well before the car actually gets
there. That is because the broadcast sheets in their area are printed in the
order in which the cars will actually arrive using the Sequence Number of each
car for their department re-sequencing; i.e., each "new" department has its own
Sequence Number. There is a broadcast sheet Addressograph Multigraph teletype
at the start of all major departments. A highlighted broadcast sheet four
times the normal size is taped to the front of the hood, which provides ready
reference for assembly workers.

To understand how a major part moves from its sub-assembly plant to
installation in a car, let's suppose the SuperBird we are building is to be
Hemi-powered. We will follow the path of its engine.

The Marysville Engine Plant is located about fifty miles from the Lynch Road
Assembly Plant. All Chrysler street Hemi-engines are assembled there. As is
standard practice with most Chrysler engines, Hemis are assembled as complete
basic engines, including exhaust manifolds, heat tubes, and even the negative
battery cable. The coded assembly markings are stamped into the block's forward
identification pad before the entire assembly is painted Hemi orange. The
black valve covers are installed, then the spark plug tubes, plugs, wires, and the
distributor. Oil and water are added to the engine, and a source of propane
and air is fed into the intake manifold. The engine is test run and checked for
leaks.

No Vehicle Identification Number is stamped onto the block's right lower pad
because at this point the engine is generic; it could be installed in any
body. For the same reason, the carburetors and the oil pressure sender unit are
not installed-different cars use different parts. However, the engines are
designated for manual or automatic transmission, depending on whether the pilot
bushing is installed in the crankshaft.

Like all engines, Hemis are inserted into heavy steel racking that holds six
engines to a rack. These are loaded with a forklift onto a Dodge-powered
Corporate Transportation semi-trailer. Once transported to Lynch Road, the racks of
engines are moved to a production line storage area. Forklifts stack these
racks four to five levels high, creating a formidable-looking skyscraper of
Hemis! When the Engine Dress staging area runs low on its immediate supply of
Hemis, a forklift brings one rack-full. Much more frequent deliveries are required
for 318 and 383 engines! The Engine Dress area is part of the Chassis
Department, which is fed into the moving Trim Line. The idea is to have the completed
assembly of K-member (with mounted steering, brakes, suspension, and engine)
plus transmission-drive shaft-axle meet the waiting body.

Let's backtrack a bit, and look at the process of parts selection for the
Engine Dress and Chassis Line areas. Here are the teletype printers that issue
broadcast sheets well before the car arrives to meet the Chassis Line; in fact,
these broadcasts are printed as soon as the car is loaded onto the Trim Line
from the Paint Shop. Parts are always stocked on line on basis of production
schedule - i.e., what mix of cars are being built. Parts are not "gathered" on
receipt of a particular track sheet (hopefully anyway!).

This parts selection is simplified to reduce time and errors by marking the
parts and sub-assemblies with partial part numbers, identification stickers,
tags, and paint-dabbed color codes on the parts. The partial part numbers that
appear in the upper portion of the broadcast sheet guide this entire selection
process for each car. Workers in all plant areas also refer to large, hanging
instructional posters, called "graphic illustrations" for correct car
construction.

As soon as a generic Hemi engine is selected from the supply rack, the
partial VIN of its intended car body is stamped by hand onto the right side pad cast
there for this purpose. An inverted "Y"-shaped hook attached to a one-ton
air-powered hoist grabs an engine by its exhaust manifolds. This transfers it to
an oval track (called the merry-go-round), from which hang large "hooks" on
which the engines are loaded.

A generic Hemi automatic or manual transmission is selected, and mated to the
engine. It becomes specifically built for our SuperBird with the additions of
stamping the car's VIN, and installing the shift linkage and speedometer
pinion. The engine now receives every part to complete it except the air cleaner:
carburetors, fuel lines, pulleys, power steering pump, fan, oil filter, and
throttle linkage. A steel shroud is placed over the right Hemi valve cover to
prevent it being scratched and dented during the tight clearances of
installation.

Adjacent is the moving Chassis Line, which has been busy installing its
correct parts for our SuperBird. Beginning with attaching the special Hemi K-member
to a line fixture, the items installed on it include the steering box and all
linkage, the complete front suspension, and brakes.

A few feet farther back on the line, the correct axle housing and
differential has been installed in a fixture, and includes the rear springs and brakes.
The K-member and axle are spaced apart on the line fixtures exactly as on the
underbody of our SuperBird. Now the engine-transmission unit is lowered onto
the K-member, the propeller shaft is installed, and this completed drivetrain
disappears from view, proceeding under the plant floor.

All the while the engine and chassis are being built-up, the body shell is
being built-up on the Trim Line. Workers on wheeled stools do underbody work
first, installing the gas tank, fuel lines, and brake lines. Undercoating is then
applied.

Shortly after this work is completed, the body lowers toward the floor and
the Chassis Line rises from under the floor to meet it. The chassis assembly is
installed together, upward into the car body. Attaching the entire K-member
assembly is accomplished by installation of the large frame bolts. The upper
A-arms are installed into their body receptacles, the transmission crossmember is
bolted in, the rear spring ends are attached, and all lines and linkages are
connected. The correct torsion bars are selected from crates containing five
hundred bars each, as received from their manufacturing plant. This unibody
chassis mating method is very similar to the old body-drop used with body and
full-frame construction.

There is another area of the Chassis Line whose work is now installed on the
car, the Tire and Wheel section. This area is elevated above the main floor of
the plant. It also has a broadcast teletype printer. Responsibilities here
include providing the Trim Line with mounted, matching, correct sets of tires,
with the correct style of wheels. Tires are mounted on wheels with an
automatic, high speed machine. It blows the correct amount of air into the tire very
quickly between the bead and rim just before mounting is complete. Balancing
follows.

Ready sets of four tires, plus the correct spare, are dropped down metal
tubes to each side of the Trim Line installation point. Assembly line boredom
combined with the desire for efficiency apparently has motivated workers here to
learn how to land the spare tire of each and every car with one bounce into the
trunk! They will find this trick tougher on the SuperBird; its deck lid opens
a limited amount, to prevent it from hitting the fastback panel.

Once all the underneath work is done on the car, it drops onto a "flat top"
moving assembly line, which resembles the tracks of a bulldozer. The car now
sits on its own mounted wheels and tires, but it is guided along the line by the
flat top. The front end is sitting very low because the torsion bars have not
yet been adjusted. This allows easier engine compartment access.

Instrument panel sub-assembly is in a remote area of Lynch Road, and requires
its own broadcast sheet. Whether a car will have air conditioning makes a big
difference to instrument panel parts selection. Nearly each of the car's
electrical options has an instrument panel control or light, all of which must be
installed, together with the correct instrument cluster, all of the panel
wiring, and the crash pad.

Another sub-assembly area of the plant Bondurites and color-coats the small,
Lynch Road-made metal items like the instrument panel frame. This "Small Parts
Painting Department" has its own broadcast sheet for parts selection and
preparation. After Bonduriting, the small parts are not primered. Rather, they are
color-coated electrostatically. An instrument panel frame is connected
electrically to one polarity, while the paint gun and its paint is of the opposite
polarity. Good paint adhesion results, but more important is the even coverage
and paint savings.

Completed instrument panels are sent according to Sequence Number by overhead
hooks to their installation point on the Trim Line. Sometimes a highlighted
broadcast sheet is taped to the glovebox or is stuffed above it by the
Instrument Panel Department workers. These sheets may remain in place on the
instrument panel when the car leaves the factory.

On the Trim Line, the heater/air conditioner has already been attached to the
dashpanel. All body wiring, lights, and electrical equipment is installed.
The radiator, and all the drive line fluids are added from overhead-mounted
hoses. By now we have reached the rear of the plant after traveling through the
many turns of the Trim Line.

We now have a car that will run and drive. A worker carrying a simple wooden
seat (hand-upholstered with scrap foam!) walks to our waiting SuperBird,
places the seat on the driver's side floor, starts the engine, and drives off!

He is not going far, only to another part of the Trim/Chassis Department,
called the "Rolls." Here are floor-mounted rollers onto which the car's rear
wheels are driven. This allows considerable driveline testing, as well as
providing a complete electrical check under a variety of running conditions. The
object of this testing is to detect any noises, vibrations, leaks, shorts, or
outright failures. If such are discovered, repair holes, manned by line workers
with seniority, are able to fix any problem from minor to disastrous. Cars are
never scrapped as being "unfixable" or "not worth fixing."

When roller testing and any repairs are completed, the car is driven another
short distance in the plant, to the Final Line stage of assembly. This is the
longest line of all, being 1980' in length, extending straight to the front of
the plant.

Final Line work concentrates on body trim and the interior. An early task is
installation of the headliner. For our sample SuperBird, it is a special-cut
piece due to the added rear window area, and it is always black whether the
remainder of the interior is black or white. (This is a singular exception to
color coordination).

Next installed are the door latches, window seals, window regulators, and the
glass. Before any upholstery is installed, every car passes through a water
leak test booth, which is the length of three cars. Highly-pressured water is
directed at the top, bottom, and sides of the car as it travels through the
dark booth. An inspector riding inside the car looks for leaks, using a
flashlight, and notes any problems on a heavy paper inspection form.

Charge-up of the air conditioning system is done on the Final Line. Four cars
at a time can be charged, which is all automatically done. Each car is hooked
to an overhead rail-mounted charging system, which is pulled along by the car
itself as it travels down the line.

Upholstery panels for the doors and quarters, and the seat fabric and foam,
are supplied by a Chrysler subsidiary, or by an outside vendor. Lynch Road
assembles to the seat frame and spring assembly the padding and upholstery in a
remote sub-assembly area. Here is yet another broadcast sheet printer. Often,
this area's sheet is inserted behind the springs of the rear seat vertical
cushion before the group of seats for that car is hooked to the Final Line
installation area. The front seat(s) are covered with clear plastic.

Much of the length of Final Line has a center pit for under-car installation
and adjustment. A major task is complete alignment of the front steering and
suspension. There are many small tasks done on Final Line, such as installation
of the air cleaner, window chrome trim, some mouldings-emblems-stripes, and
all of the many instructional and legally required small decals, dispensed from
overhead rolls. Several owner/operator instruction tags are attached to the
driver's controls. The plastic-wrapped bumper jack is installed in the trunk
and cars with standard-type wheels have their hubcaps placed in the trunk. The
headlights are aimed with special instruments.

When a car reaches the end of the main part of the Final Line, and it
requires minor optional items, the car goes onto short "repair" lines running the
narrow direction of the plant, crosswise of the Final Line. This is the Car
Conditioning Area. Here some of the decorative stripes, and painted-on stripes are
applied. Any final repairs are made. A car that has randomly been selected for
a full-car inspection may spend time here if anything was found amiss. This
inspection will be evidenced by many more inspector's stamps and markings than
found on the usual car, which will have received an inspection only at the end
of each department through which it passes.

A very late, final sequencing task is application of the car's VIN-imprinted
Monroney Label to the rear of the driver's door. As the car goes out the Lynch
Road door, the final operation is spray-on protective waxing.

None of the SuperBirds are completed cars, for they are all missing their
nose cone assembly and wing. These cars were driven onto semi-trailer car haulers
for the five mile trip to the Clairpointe Pre-Production facility. Its
purpose needs to be explained before we complete assembly of our car there. Its
usual function was a training area for assembly of the next-year's models. It was
complete with scaled down versions of every major area of an assembly plant,
so that the new parts and new technologies could be tried under actual
conditions before the "real" cars were assembled. (Clairpointe test cars completed are
"pilot cars"). For example, in May of 1969, perhaps twenty of the
soon-to-be-introduced E-bodies were completely built at Clairpointe. In late 1969, this
facility was not in use because the 1970 models were already in full production
(since August 1, 1969), and the 1971 model pilot assembly had not begun.
Therefore, it was ideally suited for SuperBird final assembly; its close proximity
to Lynch Road was an added bonus.

There actually was little assembly required when the cars arrived in no
particular order from Lynch Road. The first car to arrive was RM23?0A149789, on
October 17, 1969. It was completed and shipped out the same day. The last car to
arrive was RM23U0A172609, which arrived on December 17, 1969, and was
completed the next day. (SuperBird VINs themselves range from 149597 to 181274).
Several cars were returned to Lynch Road for repairs, which must have meant major
parts were wrong, such as a 1970 Road Runner front end mistakenly attached, or
the car was seriously damaged in transit. Clairpointe normally could repair
normal parts malfunctions itself.

Nose cones were received from Creative Industries fully assembled. All
internal nose parts (except hardware) and the interior surfaces of the shell itself
had been individually sprayed flat black over bare metal before any assembly.
The outer surface of the nose shell was painted with light grey primer, before
assembly of internal parts.

Almost all internal structural parts of SuperBird noses were borrowed from
the Charger Daytona nose. Despite countless press articles about these cars, the
only fiberglass parts of the nose cones were the headlight doors, which do
interchange between Dodge and Plymouth. Both cars used the complete 1968-69
Charger vacuum headlight system. SuperBirds used nose parking lamps from the 1970
Fury (clear lens version). Both winged cars used the same small nose cone
spoiler, the exact design of which merited more time than any other special part,
due to cooling worries. The SuperBird's inward tilted wing uprights result in
superior air flow compared to the Daytona's straight uprights. However, the
SuperBird's compromised rear window area resulted in an overall slower car.

The primary Clairpointe concern with the nose cones was correct operation of
the headlight doors, and proper parking lamp mounting. Precise federal safety
rules had to be strictly followed after approval for these designs had been
obtained.

Wings and noses were painted in lacquer before installation on the car. The
Clairpointe baking oven could not be used to bake enamel paint because the nose
cones had to be fully assembled before color-coating. Sometimes the
lacquer-colored nose and wing did not precisely match the enamel-colored body of the
car! The nose spoiler was painted body color while off the nose.

All of the decorative decals on the car were installed at Clairpointe. The
assembly guidebook prescribes these combinations concerning the wing decals and
the "Plymouth" quarter panel lettering:

White decals: EB5-EV2-999
Black decals: EW1-EK2-FY1-FJ5

The nose decals were always matt black, using DiNoc material (slightly
textured). Only the left headlight door received a miniature version of a wing decal.

The final items installed on the SuperBird were the trunk-mounted front frame
rail jack and handle, special jack instruction decal under the deck lid, the
loose-shipped nose spoiler, license plate bracket, and the cardboard template
to mount it. For those states requiring front plates, it was to be mounted on
top of the nose shell, between the headlight doors!

Perhaps a postscript is justified here. While about one-half of the
approximately two-thousand SuperBirds found immediate buyers, many of the remainder
were almost unsellable. It was possible to buy a dealer-new SuperBird in some
locations two or more years after their production. Many were converted into Road
Runners by weary dealers. Some of this sad problem was undoubtedly due to the
limited demand for so impractical a car. But in large part it was due to
insurance rates so expensive that some companies instructed their agents to "write
for a quotation."

Selling SuperBirds proved to be of little difficulty for performance-wise
dealers, however. First Avenue Plymouth, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, sold fifteen,
more than any other dealer.

BROADCAST SHEET NOTE: In our tour of Lynch Road, we encountered broadcast
sheets from at least every major area of production. There was no legal reason to
include with the completed car any of the sheets. In fact, in later years
they were actively eliminated because the paper was not in compliance with
government standards of cloth fire resistance.

LYNCH ROAD TODAY: By leveling the Hamtramck Plant, then leaving Lynch Road,
Chrysler ceased to build cars in Detroit itself. City government pressured
Chrysler to sell Lynch Road to the city for one dollar in about 1984, as
compensation for large employee layoffs. Today, the plant still stands, and is used by
several small businesses and city government for storage and light
manufacturing.

RESEARCH ASSISTANCE: Galen Govier, Nigel Mills, and Jim Radke provided
valuable knowledge based on their many years of Chrysler product research.