St Louis Plant Visits...Late 70's

[Tom R.]

Over the last few years, I've been collecting information on the yellow spare tire rim used on 78 models from August 77 through the end of March. From what I've gathered, after April 1st, black rims were used on Pace Cars...regular production Corvettes were not produced in April.

So my question to those familiar with plant operations during that mid-to late 70's period "Where was spare tire rim installed?" The pit? Chassis line or final trim & shipping?

Also, were rims in crates and workers simply pulled out of the parts bin? And I'm assuming rims where shipped with tires already installed. But if you will and can recollect, describe this process...thanks.

[John H.]

Re: St Louis Plant Visits...Late 70's

Tom -

I don't recall exactly where the spare tire itself was installed, but the tub and tray were installed on the frame upside-down line. The road tires and wheels were received separately (in rail-car loads) and were mounted and balanced off-line, then installed after Body Drop just before the chassis conveyor lowered the car onto the Final Line flat-top conveyor. The C3 mini-spare was different; they were received as a completed, inflated assembly and were taken out of the shipping rack and installed.

[Michael H.]

Re: St Louis Plant Visits...Late 70's

John,

When I first read Tom's post earlier today, I was hoping you would post the answer because I couldn't remember where on the line the spare was installed. Amazing how just a few years can erase details in the memory. My best guess would be just as you stated. Just after the car first landed on it's feet at the end of the chassis line. Hope that's correct.

[Tom R.]

Re: St Louis Plant Visits...Late 70's

John:

Was the shipping rack similar to what we see today as a tire rack? Do you recall if these racks had rows and their length. So for example, a rack had four rows and was about ten feet long?

If so, is it plausible that as the inventory diminished on the rack, a second rack was started and those from the first rack would have been transferred to the second rack. Or were there two workers each working from a rack?

What I find is that yellow and black rims were installed simultaneously in about a ten day window. Before that point...all rims were yellow and after that window...all rims were black.

[John H.]

Re: St Louis Plant Visits...Late 70's

Most standard shipping racks were eight feet long, so they'd fit crosswise in a rail car or trailer with no wasted space; depth varied based on the contents. For a continuous operation with bulky items like spare tires, there were normally two racks of stock on the line so the empty could be pulled and replaced with a full rack without disturbing the operator's cycle with having to shuffle parts from one rack to another or by making him wait until a full rack was placed.