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Chrysler Retirees Talk About The Old Days: #2825469
09/26/20 10:29 PM
09/26/20 10:29 PM
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 8,390
Highland, MI.
Sunroofcuda Offline OP
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Sunroofcuda  Offline OP
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Highland, MI.
Man, I just have to share these with you. A couple older buddies of mine keep me in the email loop & sometimes they really get a good volley going, the following is no exception so I want to share this with you. I find their stories fascinating. Most of these guys became pretty high-up engineers & they had great careers with Chrysler. I'll protect their privacy here by not revealing names - I'll start with the first email & then go through the progression - enjoy.

Lead-off email:

Subject: Dodge Main
>
> An interesting history (and images) of the late, great Dodge Main (aka Hamtramck Assembly Plant). For some of us, it was quite significant. I recall going over there on my first assignment in 1969/70 to measure clutch pedal load/travel on cars out in the yard like Hemi 'Cudas and such. Several years later, I was assigned to in-plant Product Engineering and did that from early '76 into '77. Then I was promoted to an assignment in the front building in Car Assembly Group (CAG). There, we worked between Engineering and all the plants. Left that and returned to Highland Park in late '78.
>
> It was quite an experience working there. The 4 or 5 product engineers had to alternate/take turns covering the entire plant on second shift. I was responsible for powertrain, chassis, and emissions and got a LOT of calls at home when those issues came up on the line and a "body or trim guy" was covering 2nd. shift. When I did it, I knew enough to pretty much "wing it" with any required decisions until the whole staff was there in the morning. There were 2 complete assembly lines and I seem to recall peak output was something like 1800 cars per day! It was quite a daunting place with a million stories over the years.

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/20...medium=email&utm_campaign=2020-09-23

__________________________________________________________

I grew up in Detroit from the 1940's to 1960's. I lived 3 blocks from Lynch Road Assembly (Plymouth plant), about a 1/2 mile from Dodge Main in Hamtramck and about 4 blocks from the Packard Plant. It was an everyday event to see car haulers going up and down the local streets. Around 1957 when I turned 13 me and my friends would ride our bikes down to the loading docks and watch all the cars being loaded on the car haulers and the trains for shipment. We would pick out our favorite cars which we would buy if we were old enough and just have a great time. It was really cool to see the new cars before they hit the showrooms. Most of my neighbors worked at one of these plants and the streets were filled with Mopars. I eventually ended up working at the Chrysler Tech Centers in Highland Park and Auburn Hills Michigan for 42 years in the Motorsports department. Awesome times in the auto industry.

_________________________________________________________

Never got into the plant
>
> - BUT had a few Business Lunches at the little Polish Restaurant across the street
>
> - AND watched the wrecking ball TRY to take down those mushroom concrete columns!!
>
> Sad ending to a well built building!!
_____________________________________________________________

It could be a toss-up whether Dodge Main built more cars or generated more stories. Too close to call.

I became the Chassis, Power Train, Emission Engineer (like T) replacing Nick T in 1978 and till it closed in early 1980.
One of my personal favorite stories came well after the closing. But it had a sad beginning.

The day after the last F-body rolled out of Final, I came into work through the main gate.
I was heart broken to see that the proud, intertwined triangle DB logo had been torched out of that massive black, iron gate.
I figured some memento thief stole it for their home collection of stolen goods. And nobody seemed to know its whereabouts.
Years later it turned up, polished like a general’s brass in the W P Chrysler Museum - HORRAY!
But the real punch line was that it wasn’t just the logo that was brass. That ‘black’ gate wasn’t iron (as you might expect from the stolid Dodge Brothers) - - whole dern gate was solid brass!!!
Imagine what it looked like back in its heyday.

______________________________________________________________

Hi All,

Here's a Dodge Main story - I had a student assignment in the R.E. Dept during the build out of the A-Body (Dart, Valiant) and before the F-Body launched. Shortly after the start of my assignment, I was given the task of chasing down the origin(s) of a mysterious sheet metal ding that would randomly appear in the same place on the cowl panel. My search began in the connected 8-story Body Shop building on the top (8th) floor, where the major panels were welded together, and I worked my way down the floors and followed the builds through Side Framing, the Solder Booth, etc. There was the biggest, meanest looking operator soldering the roof to C-Pillar joint with a torch that had a flame on it that was 3 feet long. He also was a cigar smoker and would re-light the 2" stub of that stogie with a swipe from his torch while staring at me as I walked past on "dingus patrol." Anyway, not having success that 1st day of searching out the source of that ding, I attempted to return to the 2nd floor of the 6-story Chassis/Assembly building where the R.E. office was located. I say "attempted" because I couldn't find my way back. The buildings were connected corner to corner but no matter what floor I was on in the Body Assy building, I seemed to run into a dead end trying to get into the Chassis/Assy building so I would go up or down a couple of floors and try again. I could see the damn Chassis/Assy building through the windows but couldn't get into it. After an hour of this, and being stared at by that torch wielding behemoth in the Solder Booth way too many times, I eventually stumbled my way back to the R.E. office where Nick T calmly told me, "Oh, did I forget to mention the Body Shop is connected to the Chassis/Assy building only on the even numbered floors?"

_______________________________________________________________

(me jumping in here): So, did you ever determine the culprit of the ding? Also, how did you guys ever handle waves/distortions in panels after door handle depressions or fuel door stampings were made? These days with the much thinner sheetmetal, I’m seeing many more panel distortions in general when looking down the sides of vehicles.

__________________________________________________________________

Eric,

Yeah, the source of the cowl ding was a guy who carried around a metal tool tray with a portable drill and various drill fixtures for poking the holes in the front fender used to attach body side emblems ("DART", "VALIANT", etc). At times, rather than set the heavy metal tray on the floor, he'd hoist it up and let it flop down on the cowl panel for some reason. That was my only Body assignment during my 4 month temp assignment at Dodge Main. All other tasks were Chassis and P/Train related. I enjoyed this assignment tremendously and learned quite a bit in the process, including where the whorehouse was in the Trim Shop and that nobody ever died in an Assembly Plant -- they always died enroute to the hospital. That included the guy who "fell" down an open elevator shaft, followed by the Hi-Lo that went down on top of him! Our R.E. Mgr at that time was Dick, whom I greatly respected. Dick went on to become Director of Chassis Eng'rg and he remembered me some years later when, as a Gr. 9, I would bring an engineer from my group with his PCN into Dick for his approval/signature. I would tell Dick the truth and he would sign them every time!

_______________________________________________

C, your stories reminded me of a couple more. When I was there, a relatively high level 2nd shift management guy was fired and arrested for being the "pimp" for the gals in the operation you mentioned. Also remember the story of a guy who went through the paint oven on board a car body. He was "well done". When they bricked up an old stairwell, you always wondered if there were any bodies in there.

That place had a million stories!

_______________________________________________


END




Last edited by Sunroofcuda; 09/26/20 10:32 PM.

No Man With A Good Car Needs To Be Justified
Re: Chrysler Retirees Talk About The Old Days: [Re: Sunroofcuda] #2825597
09/27/20 11:46 AM
09/27/20 11:46 AM
Joined: Jan 2011
Posts: 15,713
Central Florida
larrymopar360 Offline
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I love reading (and seeing the old Chrysler pictures) the engineers and workers recall things from 60's and 70's! It's so cool to read how things worked in those times, and the discussions they had, memos that were passed, and just all the internal workings of Chrysler!


Facts are stubborn things.
Re: Chrysler Retirees Talk About The Old Days: [Re: larrymopar360] #2825625
09/27/20 12:44 PM
09/27/20 12:44 PM
Joined: Oct 2003
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Banana Republic
FM3AAR Offline
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Thanks for posting that. Interesting read!


“You’ll own nothing” — And “you’ll be happy about it.”
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Re: Chrysler Retirees Talk About The Old Days: [Re: FM3AAR] #2825657
09/27/20 02:01 PM
09/27/20 02:01 PM
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Blair County,PA
62maxwgn Offline
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Only thing better than that was having Tom Hoover living 40 mi from me,we would see each other often after he retired and came back to PA.

Re: Chrysler Retirees Talk About The Old Days: [Re: 62maxwgn] #2825685
09/27/20 03:42 PM
09/27/20 03:42 PM
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Northern OH
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rapom Offline
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Cool stories.

Re: Chrysler Retirees Talk About The Old Days: [Re: rapom] #2825691
09/27/20 04:03 PM
09/27/20 04:03 PM
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Posts: 20,645
So Near, Yet So Far
topside Offline
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A whorehouse in an assembly plant is a new one for me.
Talk about a quickie...

Re: Chrysler Retirees Talk About The Old Days: [Re: rapom] #2825696
09/27/20 04:09 PM
09/27/20 04:09 PM
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Sobieski Wi
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bee1971 Offline
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Whorehouse and a Piece of Trim connection

Very entertaining 10 minute break

Last edited by bee1971; 09/27/20 04:12 PM.

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2011 Ram Sport 1500 Quad Cab Deep Water Blue Loaded
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Re: Chrysler Retirees Talk About The Old Days: [Re: topside] #2825941
09/28/20 09:22 AM
09/28/20 09:22 AM
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PA
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Originally Posted by topside
A whorehouse in an assembly plant is a new one for me.
Talk about a quickie...

I guess we can't all say we "broke the back seat in" cause it may have already been done!


1969-1/2 A12 LOH Road Runner A4 w/ M6S
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12.95 at 105.94 F.A.S.T. 11/06
Re: Chrysler Retirees Talk About The Old Days: [Re: PLATINUM6BBL] #2825953
09/28/20 09:52 AM
09/28/20 09:52 AM
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Florida
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GMP440 Offline
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I guess a question we can ask the retirees is, who was Rock? That was a name we see written on some of the late 60's, early 70's cars that were being assembled.

Re: Chrysler Retirees Talk About The Old Days: [Re: GMP440] #2826052
09/28/20 02:11 PM
09/28/20 02:11 PM
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 8,390
Highland, MI.
Sunroofcuda Offline OP
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Sunroofcuda  Offline OP
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Originally Posted by GMP440


I guess a question we can ask the retirees is, who was Rock? That was a name we see written on some of the late 60's, early 70's cars that were being assembled.


Cars that were built at Dodge Main I assume? I'll run it by them. Where was this written - what panels?


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Re: Chrysler Retirees Talk About The Old Days: [Re: Sunroofcuda] #2826058
09/28/20 02:20 PM
09/28/20 02:20 PM
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Posts: 1,637
Florida
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It was in various places. Some have been on the rear wheel well, in the interior part of the car.







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