C2 St. Louis Factory Assembly Line Question

[Gary C.]

Anyone know the time it took from start to finish to produce a 1965 Corvette?

Am specially interested in the length of time from chassis build to completion.

Thanks,

Gary
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[Duke W.]

Re: C2 St. Louis Factory Assembly Line Question

John Hinckley can give a more accurate answer than me, but based on my experience (getting hazier with time) as a Pontiac production engineer...St. Louis was running two shifts at that time, and it would have probably taken the body from building the bird cage to final inspection more than one shift to be ready to drop on the chassis, depending on how much rework, if any, was required by the paint shop for it to pass inspection.The final assembly operation - from the time the frame was set on the fixture upside down to mount the suspension components to the time it was driven to the shipping lot (assuming no rework required) was certainly less than one shift - like a couple of hours.Duke

[Loren L.]

Re: C2 St. Louis Factory Assembly Line Question

You need a H_ of a lot more information than you provide - there was a national strike in the Fall of 1964, complicated by a localized strike in St Louis at the assembly plant.

[Gary C.]

Re: C2 St. Louis Factory Assembly Line Question

Mr. Lundberg,

Am asking about generically, what's the amount of time/number of days on an average that it took to produce a '65 during spring of '65.

Thank you,

Gary
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[Harry S.]

Re: C2 St. Louis Factory Assembly Line Question

I'm sure Snake will chime in soon!

[John H.]

Re: C2 St. Louis Factory Assembly Line Question

I'm sure Snake will chime in soon!

Snake reporting in!

I'd have to dig out my plant layout drawings, which I put away the last time we moved 20 years ago, to do an accurate jobs-in-system count. However, as a rough count, the total system at Corvette was less than 200 units, and producing 112 units per day on 2 shifts, it would have taken about a day and a quarter to go through the system from the Body Shop to the Shipping Gate. If I can find my plant layout drawings, I'll break it down in more detail and post back.

[Gary J.]

Re: C2 St. Louis Factory Assembly Line Question

John, glad to see you reporting in.

[Mark F.]

Re: C2 St. Louis Factory Assembly Line Question

Snake reporting in!

I'd have to dig out my plant layout drawings, which I put away the last time we moved 20 years ago, to do an accurate jobs-in-system count. However, as a rough count, the total system at Corvette was less than 200 units, and producing 112 units per day on 2 shifts, it would have taken about a day and a quarter to go through the system from the Body Shop to the Shipping Gate. If I can find my plant layout drawings, I'll break it down in more detail and post back.

Hi John,

Is the link below the St. L. Plant layout you were referring to?

St Louis Corvette Plant layout from 2011 NCRS National Convention.pdf

I extracted it from an NCRS National Convention Presentation you did July 20, 2011 on the 1963-1967 Corvette Assembly Process...thx, Mark

[Gary C.]

Re: C2 St. Louis Factory Assembly Line Question

Mark,

Good find! Appreciate your posting. Thanks,

Gary
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[Mark F.]

Re: C2 St. Louis Factory Assembly Line Question

Good deal, Gary...thx

FYI to all your readers of this post, Rich Mozetta's STICKY POST of NCRS Restoration Documents has links to 3 documents John wrote (and presented) on the C2 Assembly Process. All well-worth a full read - very informative!

C2 Assembly Process	C2	C2 Assembly Process Part 1 - John Hinkley.pdf
C2 Assembly Process	C2	C2 Assembly Process Part 2
C2 Assembly Process	C2	C2 Assembly Process Part 3

[Gary C.]

Re: C2 St. Louis Factory Assembly Line Question

Duke,

Thank you for sharing your experience @ Pontiac.

Gary
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[Gary C.]

Re: C2 St. Louis Factory Assembly Line Question

Mark, Part 2 & Part 3 are moved - get new links from: https://www.ncrsmac.org/Tech-Library Gary....

[John H.]

Re: C2 St. Louis Factory Assembly Line Question

Hi John,

Is the link below the St. L. Plant layout you were referring to?

[ATTACH]101292[/ATTACH]

I extracted it from an NCRS National Convention Presentation you did July 20, 2011 on the 1963-1967 Corvette Assembly Process...thx, Mark

Mark -
That one gives an overall layout, but without any detail or scale; if I can find it, I have the detail process layouts with workstation and product measurements. May take a while to find them.

[Mark F.]

Re: C2 St. Louis Factory Assembly Line Question

John, Understood and thanks much - that would really be cool if you can dig them up!

[Roy S.]

Re: C2 St. Louis Factory Assembly Line Question

Interesting John says a day and a quarter 30 hrs. The C6 was 36 hrs. Appears it has not changed much in the last 40 plus years.