Need info on E-Body "Rock" signed cars

Hey Guys,

I have a friend with a 70 340 Challenger that is signed by Rock on the rear wheelhouse. Does anyone have any info on the history of Rock signed cars? I know he signed a lot of cars.

Thanks!
Randy

my memory only remembers signed B-bodys (Coronet/Belvedere) so he must have been at the Lynch Road plant for a while

Carsten

It's only found on 1970 E bodies from Hamtramck as far as I know.
I have owned quite a few myself and have personally seen hundreds .
We used to comment on the 'Rock' signature way back 25 years ago .
I am sure lots of research has been attempted, and even a magazine article or two has been written about it, but I don't think anybody has gotton to the bottom of that story (?) as to who Rock was .

Greg

I think "Rock" is the DB Cooper of the Mopar world.

Greg

My car had Rock on inner fender wells. E body built 4 30 70 .I don't think this s a persons name .I think its simple nobody would spend time to just do something they were not told to do. I think it just stands for Rear Operators Checked. That they rolled the rear windows up and down and they worked. Just my opinion. We will never know unless the guy comes forward to tell us. Inspection marks make more sense than a worker wanting to sign his work of art

1970 Hemi Cuda, SPD is December 15th 1969

Rock, Dickie, Mickey, etc., etc, it was very common for people to sign these cars in different places.

Photos at http://www.hamtramck-historical.com/photos-p2.shtml

Thanks for the info Guys!

my T/A has Rock on the inner fender, believe it's only Hamtramck built cars.

Barry, Are we sure that it was signed or maybe info to install Rocker trim. I have Rock signed on left side and R on right side. 70 cuda with rockers fish trim.
What do we think?
Bob

ROCK shows up on a whole lotta cars without rocker trim.

Has he signed both Dodges and Plymouths?

He signed Dodges & Plymouths, A & E-bodies.

Ok, got it thanks Bob

Were any wheelhouses on convertibles signed?

My 70 Cuda convertible 340-4 speed had ROCK here...

Was that a common practice to switch lines between makes and body styles?

to help determine if this is a single individual .....

any been seen other than HAMTRAMCK?
any been seen other than HAMTRAMCK assembly line #1? (EN1 on fender tag) the smaller line at the plant)

all year long? SPDs?

Line #1 at HAMTRAMCK 1970 model year produced Barracudas, Valiants (incl. Dusters), Challengers & maybe Darts (BW, any Darts on LINE #1?)

any of the above, all lined up bumper-to-bumper in any order

I have a 71 Demon SPD 603 from line #1. It is a cool car with good options and colors V8 powered with 904.

Yes, they were all mixed up & at times, cars with VINs over 30,000 apart were actually very close on the lines.

Wow, thinking about the required logistical management to have the right parts at the right time for that particular car must have been tough! Not to mention training of the employees on assembling different cars.

Their system worked, with over 1000 cars built a day on average.

It's not that hard.

They had an order that the cars were going to go through. The sections would line up parts in that order.

The line worker has very few tasks. Grab the part presented in order and install part. The variation from car to car is not that great. There was probably a verification step for more complicated assemblies like steering columns.

My 1970 'Cuda with a late June SPD had "Repair" written on the interior passenger rear wheel well.

At first I thought it said "Rock" because the R was very similar, and it was sort of hard to read, but when I really got to looking at it, it definitely said "Repair".

Everything looked fine to me, so I'm not sure what needed repair.
I suppose they already fixed whatever it was?

Not sure if I have pics. (at least not good ones)

Tav

I have had so many E body cars with Rock on them. Some had Rock with a star drawn on it. Rock Star I get it. I think he played in a band and worked on the line and did it as a joke just before the rear qtr. Interior panels were installed or he did put them on and signed it just before he put them on. If a supervisor or foreman seen that it would not be good for Rock. It seems he signed cool cars. I had a Real 1970 Challenger R/T Ragtop 383 Loaded Panther Pink Ragtop now in Minn. He signed that car all over. When I was 16 years old I worked for a in ground pool co in 1975. I was in charge of putting all the pool parts in boxes to go to the installers. I would right funny stuff on the boxes with the owners name. Well one day an owner seen it and came unglued. That was the end of my Rock Star signings LOL. I did not get fired but was reamed a new one. My foreman thought it was funny. The owner of the co. did not.

Now a Word REPAIR but in rock hand proves my point its an inspection mark He was checking the rear operators. Please post a picture mystery would be solved.

OK, but you said;



If not a name, what kind of inspection mark is 'Dickie' if it is not a name?

If you missed it, I posted a link to photos of other names from cars on the assembly lines earlier in the thread.

This practice still goes on today. Many new Challengers get signed [usually under the fuse box cover] BB with a happy face. BB has been identified as Brampton Builder which is quite active on the new Challenger forums.

Yes, they were all mixed up & at times, cars with VINs over 30,000 apart were actually very close on the lines. [/quote]

Wow, thinking about the required logistical management to have the right parts at the right time for that particular car must have been tough! Not to mention training of the employees on assembling different cars. [/quote]

This is why the Sequence number is easy to see at the top left of a broad cast sheet that drives the production of Vehicles, not the Vehicle Identification Number, VIN. Not sure why ROCK was put on any vehicle, an inspector would have a punch either that would put his assigned number punched into a broad cast or work sheet or and ink stamp punch. You see some of these ink inspection stamps on cars that have been stamped with OK in the engine compartment usually on or near the radiator cradle. Also there are other production sheets all over the plant that never make it into any vehicle telling the workers about what to sub assemble, the sequence number is the order on which the worker uses to build, not the VIN.

Rock was the one who threw the chicken bones inside the doors before the panel was installed. ROCK Cornish Game Hen.

Trying to show whoever wrote ROCK wrote REPAIR. So whoever did write both times different things but with one objective checking the rear windows. Unless his name was Repair because he was dropped as an infant.

I have seen Rock on a number of ebodies. When I took out the back seat and panels on my 70 A66 Challenger, I found the name "AL". Anyone ever seen this one before?

ROCK....we here on Moparts, demand that you make your presence known...come hither!

The belief is that "Rock" is no longer with us....

Sorry for the delay, I've been overly busy with other things, and am just getting back to working on cars again.
I'm surprised that I had a pic which was even this good.
The "Re" is difficult to see in this pic, but you can see the "pair" fairly well.




I really miss the old days when Moparts had its own image uploader. It had size restrictions, but it worked pretty well.
Photobucket is a big POS!
What do you guys use for image hosting so that you can post pics here?

it's pretty easy once you get a tutorial

I have to use "Snagit" to cut-down the size of all the photos I upload. Most pictures I take with my phone exceed the file size allowed (2MB) for upload directly.

Wow, That's probably EXACTLY what I needed!!

That will make life so much easier!

Thanks, I think the old file size limit was 1.5 MB.
I have photoshop now, so resizing pictures is WAY easier for me than it used to be.