"Work is the Pits!"

There was this one guy who was a problem for every foremen he ever worked for. You know the type, he hated to work, and avoided it at all costs. The decision was made to give him the worst job in his area, the "Pit" they called it. In hopes he would quit. The pit was just that. A pit like you would see at a quick oil change service location. Only in this one, the car body shells would pass over you. The job required spraying primer underneath the car. This guy was also was a heavy drinker; unknown to management at that time.

One day he came to work and entered the pit as usual. Waiting for the line to start up. He was ready to go. By ready I mean, he had also brought a bottle of Jim Beam with him. I guess it helped him to face the work day. In the pit it's very important where you stand, as the pit had backdraft over spray situations. All the over spray would be pulled toward one end, and then out of the pit up in to the spray booth ventilation system. There were steps at one end of the pit, so the operator could walk down in to it. That was the end that all the over spray was drawn to.

One day over 100+ car bodies came out of the oven with no primer underneath them? When the foreman went to check on this guy, there he was, passed out cold. He decided, unwisely, to lay on the steps in the pit. Lay there drinking his booze as the bodies passed overhead, spraying them at the same time. We weren't sure if he passed out from the booze, or breathing all that over spray? Or a maybe a combination of both. He was so covered, in prime over spray, all you could see was his eyes and teeth. And him holding the bottle in his arms while passed out.

They had a medical electric cart, along with plant security, come and load him on a stretcher and take him away. Needless to say, he was fired. It must've taken him hours, or even days, to get his skin clean. He was only in his late teens, but all that primer made him look like he had aged to 110. You couldn't tell where his coveralls ended, and he began. Apparently he was fine, and returned to work the next day to clear out his locker and be discharged. For months it was talked about all over the plant; a running joke about the strange things that happen in the plant.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: IPC 93,

Thats amazing stuff.. I for one never think that crazy stuff like that could happen in such a professional corporate establishment.. But lately I've been hearing just that...

Keep em coming Ron... If you don't tell these stories know one will ever know them

There are so many stories over the years. An assembly plant is like a small city in itself. And what ever can happen out in the real world, can happen indoors. At times the assembly line process lends itself to some situations not even possible out in the real world.

I'll post a new story every one once in a while. As long as my memory recall holds out.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: IPC 93,

"The heat of passion"

To set the scene of this one incident, I'll have to give a little info on what the area is like. In the spray booths there used to be, when humans painted the cars, five gallon containers of thinner next to each operator. Each painter had a hose to plug in to the gun that had straight lacquer thinner in it, (in those days all cars were painted with lacquer). The thinner line was used to run through the gun to clean it out internally, if it acted up. The operators could also use it to fill their thinner containers. The containers were used to soak the spray guns during lunch breaks, between shifts, and overnight. To keep them from drying out, and the excess paint in them from hardening.

In the locker room in the paint department, as in every department then, was a circular trough wash up basin. It was for large numbers of employees to wash up at one time. Around the base of the trough was a bar that anyone could step on to activate the water. Above the trough was mounted several soap dispensers. Of course, to have access to soap, water, and hands free cleaning.

Now you have the setting, let's get to the story:

There was this guy who considered himself a ladies man. He was single, not that it would matter to him. And he would hit on and date as many women as he had the opportunity to. He bragged about it all the time. "You won't believe what I scored last night...", etc. Blah, blah, blah. After a while we all got tired of hearing it. Now, we know a lot of what he said was true. Because after they started hiring women, some of them told of encounters they had with him. Most were unflattering. A lot of women were as frank with topics as the men were.

One Monday this guy came to work. It seems he had been drinking all weekend and bar hopping. On late Sunday night he had met this woman in a bar and picked her up and took her back to his place. She spent the night with him. However, when he came to work on Monday morning he was telling some guys in the locker room, as usual. One of the guys heard the woman's name, and yelled to him across the locker room, "Who?!" When he said the woman's name again, the guy busted up laughing. He told him that he had heard of that women, as he frequented the same bar. He told him she had been giving guys STDs. Obviously, this really panicked him. The more he thought about it, the more he got worried.



While we all were on the first break of the day, we were sitting around the tables in the break area. Here comes this same guy running by yelling to the top of his lungs, holding his crotch area. A couple of guys followed him into the locker room to see what was wrong. They thought maybe their was a fire in the spray booth, and he caught on fire somehow. In the restroom they found him standing in the trough, with his pants down to his knees, yelling for someone to step on the bar to dispense the water. There he stood, trying to water down his whole crotch area. This fool was so worried over getting a STD from this woman, he went in to the spray booth and had stuck his penis in lacquer thinner.



Needless to say, the pain was excruciating. He was okay, but walked bow legged for a few days.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: IPC 93,

Not that I'm admitting any wrongdoing here.. ( purely innocent ) But high grade lacquer thinner had made its way through my pants once ( long story..using it as a parts cleaner ) but I can attest to one thing.. once that stuff hits sensitive skin all the water in the world won't help... you gotta let that stuff air dry!

Bet cha 50 bucks he never got the VD though

Yep, air is the best remedy. When I used to train new painters I would tell them "If you get paint or thinner in your eyes, don't close your eyes tight! As much as you think it still hurts, blink your eyes quickly until it stops burning". That is the best remedy. I remember this one guy, to this day, he told me "Ron, that's the best advice I've had since I started learning how to paint". He had a paint hose split shooting some paint in his eyes.

As for the guy I told the story about. He was in such pain he didn't know what to do other than get water on it, and quickly. Air drying is best, but pretty difficult to do under the circumstances.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: IPC 93,

"The buck stops where?"

Most of my 30 years in plant I spent in the paint department. But I did transfer for a few years to the inspection department, just to try something different. My first inspection job was in the chassis department. The position I held required me to pressure test the brake system. Two operators, one on each side of the line, would hook up brake fluid bleeders to the brake lines. The machine they hooked up to the system had gauges and switches on it to run the pressure test, which was my job. Once they both yelled out "OK!", or "Go!", they were ready for me to apply pressure to the system. I would watch two gauges, if the indicators kept creeping up, there was a leak somewhere. And I rejected the system. They had to stop perfectly still within the required pressure reading ranges.

Because my job entailed MVSS, (Motor Vehicle Safety Standard), items. If anything was not right, I could reject the brakes. Even something like a clip. On one particular day here came some car chassis' with the wrong make rear brake drums. To substitute parts required the production foreman to get a written/approved parts variance. Which had to be given to my foreman, and a copy to me. Production foreman's could not substitute parts at will on MVSS items. As soon as I started getting the substituted brake drums, I started knocking down every job. Here came the production foreman, and he was hot, to say the least. He ordered me to start passing them. That the parts were interchangeable. I agreed they were, but told him I needed a variance slip. I kept knocking them down. He stormed off mad as hell.

A while later he came back, with my foreman. He backed me up. He told the production foreman the same thing I had told him. Later, the production foreman came back with higher level Management. One from production, and one from the inspection departments. They had the variance request. Jobs were then passed. Along with the department heads came a MVSS auditor. He watched me run tests as they all talked. He stepped over to me and asked "Why didn't you run the low pressure test on that job?" I didn't know what he meant? The production foreman smiled, and thought I was in big trouble. I was trained to do it the way I was doing it. I told my foreman that, and the auditor. They got the trainer who trained me. He did it the same way. They got the foreman who had the area before My foreman, and he did it the same way. It had been done wrong, apparently, for a very long time.

The department heads, the foreman's, the auditors, (who were supposed to make random operation checks), were all on the hot seat. No telling how far back it went to find out where the incorrect method began. One thing for sure, there were a lot more checks being made after that, by everyone responsible for monitoring operations. The whole brake system methods, auditor inspections, and anyone involved with checking the process, were more attuned to what they had to do. Me? I just kept doing my job as I always had, other than also running the low pressure check along with what I had done before. I was the only one untouched by the whole situation. Which irritated the hell out of the production foreman. If he would've gotten the parts substitution variance in the first place, none of it would've come about. Or been known. I never heard back of any adverse affects to any cars which had passed improperly.

What does the low pressure test check for? I assume the high pressure test checked leaks with simulated full pedal pressure?

I asked about that at the time, from the quality control auditor. The way it was explained to me, as well as I can remember it, (it's been many years). The low pressure test makes sure the system has a minimum amount of pressure at all times. If the system falls below a certain amount of pressure at the master cylinder, that will set off the brake warning light on the dashboard. Which would normally mean you have a leak, or are running low on brake fluid.

Somewhere in time someone made the decision to just check with high pressure, and forget the low pressure check. I know the operators bleeding the brakes didn't like it. It took longer to run two checks, and it cut down on the time they had to bleed the brakes. Making 55-60 cars per hour, time is critical. The high pressure test was much higher than you could apply with your foot. If we had anything lose, or not tightened properly, it could shoot brake fluid up to 15 feet.

60's Spray Booth Systems:

In the 60's most of the plants were very, very old. Some built in the 40's. The paint booths were updraft systems. Meaning all the over spray rose up to the top of the booth, where a gap ran down the center of the ceiling, and over spray was sucked out. The problem was that the booths were open on both ends, of course, to let the bodies enter and exit. This brought in dust and dirt from the exteriors. Once drawn in to the booths, the spray paint itself would some times blow it in to the paint finish. Then you had the problem that sand dust, as was often done prior to painting for minor defects, was sitting in cracks and crevices and would be blown in to the finish also.

When newer plants were built, as early as the mid 60's, they had down draft systems. Meaning, of course, all over spray was pulled downward. Instead of being drawn out of the booth though, it was drawn down to water floating under grates that the painters were standing on. There was a large area of water, wall to wall, and the length of the booths. Running under the painters. It was about 4-5 feet deep. The over spray would hit the water and be captured. Over time the muck would build up in the water and maintenance would spend a weekend emptying the water, and shoveling out the muck and refilling the "moat". Down draft was excellent, back then. As there would be no over spray buildup on the painters themselves, that would fall in to the finish. Today systems are extremely better, of course.

What can you tell me about this:

Once the car was fully sprayed and ready to be sent through the ovens...how wet or dry was the lacquer? Was it tacky or closer to powder like?.. I've seen plenty of runs in Camaro door jambs so certainly it was wet for some amount of time ..

What insight have you for that?

Oh sorry : I ask this because the older car pics make the paint seem very very dry waiting to be heated and flowed out

After all three coats were applied, usually 3-4 mils of paint, the lacquer sat up very quickly on the surface. While it would've been tacky on the surface, you could touch it very carefully. But you could still press your fingerprint in it with a little pressure. Any sags you see on door jambs, etc, from those years. Were in the paint before it reached the oven. More than likely had already stopped sagging, no matter how bad the sag was.

Depending on what time of the year the cars were being painted. There were several thinners used to mix the paint. Depending on humidity, temperature, etc. Normally, a medium level heat thinner was used, (hot thinner meant very fast drying). Allowing for the paint to flow out, but not take so long as to allow dirt/dust to accumulate in it. During hotter weather retarders were also added to the paint to slow the drying time, and allow the paint to flow out after sprayed. Because thinners alone would not accomplish this. The plants, at least the three I worked in, didn't have AC in the spray booths. Making thinner/retarder/paint mixes very important.

The cars you see on the line in the old pictures are fully painted. The paint did not flow out in the oven in the 60's, it couldn't. It is baked in the oven, that's all. Baking cured deeper level coats, while the top coat was set up very well before reaching the oven. They were hard based chemical lacquers. What you see in that photo is a finished job. After oven baking these finishes had to be fully wheel polished to attain a high gloss smooth finish.

In the 70's GM started using the paints that could flow out. You could wet sand the cars with 400, by hand or wheel. When in the ovens with that type of paint, the paint would actually re-wet itself at over 450+ degrees, (not sure of the exact oven temperature, but it had to be high, *more to follow on that). As if it had just been painted. Miraculous to see that happen.

*Interesting fact: When GM first used the re-flow characteristic paint, the breakdown temperature was chemically set to low. And they had a car carrier train with cars sitting on a track in Nevada in the summer time, and all those cars re-wet ruining the finishes on a few hundred cars. After that the breakdown temperature, naturally, was raised high enough to avoid that.

Right.. I have heard that the older cars needed to full polish routine like the ones pictured above.. I have been under the impression though that the 67 Camaro used the heat and reflow newer system ( is that why they called it Magic Mirror??) because the printed descriptions of paint work for our cars included just minor spot repairs with mineral spirits and fine paper then a rebuff of the offending area.. Can you lock a date down for the switch? I think it could be 1966 or earlier Ron.
I don't recall ecer seeing any factual stuff that shows or describes the process exactly for 67 so me ears and eyes are open

Man, though.. buffing cars all day back then must have sucked

I seriously doubt that the re-flow paint was available if the 60's. At least it wasn't at the Fremont or Van Nuys plants in California. I'm sure GM would've used it in all plants if it were, not just certain ones. As it was a real time saver, and material saver.

Sanding with mineral spirits and 400 grit was normal on the hard based lacquer. Nothing unusual there. Then rebuffed the finish. With the re-flow paint, this what not necessary. As far as saying exactly when they started using it, I can not say with any certainty. But I know it was in the 70's, possibly early 70's. GM changed paints so often, it's hard to remember. They even once tried a water based paint, trying to comply with California's ever growing restrictive air pollution requirements.

The completed cars could not be subjected to the high temperatures needed to re-flow the paint when repaired on the finished cars, naturally. They had what looked like, for want of a better term, a large aluminum vacuum shaped wand. Like you might see at a self serve car wash. Only it had no suction. Instead it had a hose attached to it that fed some sort of thinner based material through it, and the wand itself applied concentrated heat, only on the area the wand was passed over held by the operator. It was amazing to watch. As you passed the hand held wand over the finish you could watch the paint melt. It would go from being sanded and dull to very shiny and you could not see it had been sanded before. It would also become wet where the wand passed over it.

"Magic Mirror"? I've never heard that term before. But then I haven't heard of a lot of things in my lifetime.

As for polishing cars all day on an assembly line. That will definitely make a man of you, or kill you in the process. When I was first hired in at age 18 I tried it, and learned how from some "old timer's". A term used to speak of someone with 15 or more years of service at GM. Wasn't disrespectful, was a respectful term. Anyway, I used to be a painter's helper at the time. Loading parts to be painted for interior trim. The polish line ran close to us. I struck up friendships with anyone in my area. I used to go over and talk to the polish guys, and watched them. Then they taught me how to do it. The polish wheels were supported by balancers and hung from steel cables, the balancers were on a steel rail that allowed movement up and down the line. They supported the weight of the polish wheel, if they were adjusted right. At the old timers knew how to set up everything. Even not supporting the weight of the wheel, polishing cars, even for 20 minutes, worked on your back, arms, legs, wrists. It would strengthen you in all areas, if you could hang in long enough. I got used to it. I would often have a lot of free time, as we got ahead of production in parts. I would go over and give the old timers breaks. They were great guys. Good friends, not just because I gave them breaks either. They always called me "kid". To them I was, being only 18 at the time.