A.O. Smith C2 Body Panel Manufacturing Start Date?

[James W.]

When did A.O. Smith begin manufacturing C2 body panels... or did that begin for C3 production?

Thanks,

James

[Harry S.]

Bodies, James, if my memory serves me correctly, January 1964.

[James W.]

James, if my memory serves me correctly, January 1964.

Harry,

I am aware that A.O. Smith began building 1964 Corvette bodies in January of 1964 sometime after VIN 09678.

It was my understanding that all C2 Corvette body panels at that time were produced by one manufacturing plant in Ohio and shipped to St. Louis and Ionia, Michigan for assembly.

Did this change in 1966-1967 or did that happen beginning with the C3 production?


Thanks,

James

[Mark F.]

James and Harry,

Molded Fiber Glass (MFG) was the supplier in Ashtabula, Ohio.
History is at the link below...
They also produced the Avanti panels

Still in business today
Earl Carley was PPG Fiber Glass Research Center's Tech Rep to MFG...he was in the office right next to mine ('81-'83)...what a character he was !

https://mfgcwp.com/about-mfg/history/

[James W.]

James and Harry,

Molded Fiber Glass (MFG) was the supplier in Ashtabula, Ohio.
History is at the link below...
They also produced the Avanti panels

Still in business today
Earl Carley was PPG Fiber Glass Research Center's Tech Rep to MFG...he was in the office right next to mine ('81-'83)...what a character he was !

https://mfgcwp.com/about-mfg/history/

Mark,

So MFG was the only supplier of fiberglass body panels for C1 and C2 Corvette production? A.O. Smith never manufactured body panels for C2 and C3 Corvette production???

Thanks for your reply.

James

[Mark F.]

Mark, So MFG was the only supplier of fiberglass body panels for C1 and C2 Corvette production? A.O. Smith never supplied body panels for C2 and C3 Corvette production??? Thanks for your reply. James

James,

My bad...I should have said Molded Fiber Glass (MFG) was a supplier in Ashtabula, Ohio.

I'm not sure when (or for what generations) AOS (DowSmith) made Corvette body panels...

Corvette forum had at least one post (John Hinckley's) that said they did...
Larry Galloway would know for sure - he was there (St. Louis AND Ionia) August 1962 to some time in 1967

[David H.]

FYI: Link to John Hinckley's CF post "JohnZ"


https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...fiberglas.html



FYI Web Manager/Moderator: I only copied link to JohnZ's CF post. As I look at my link just now, it is ONLY link information. When I press save and look at my post, it has a lot of verbiage from CF post. On our old Tech Board, a link was just a link - no extraneous text. Thanks

[Mark F.]

James, My bad...I should have said Molded Fiber Glass (MFG) was a supplier in Ashtabula, Ohio. I'm not sure when (or for what generations) AOS (DowSmith) made Corvette body panels... Corvette forum had at least one post (John Hinckley's) that said they did...Larry Galloway would know for sure - he was there (St. Louis AND Ionia) August 1962 to some time in 1967

Hi James,

I was researching something else today and happened upon this 2005 thread from the Corvette Forum. I remembered you asking about body panel fabrication (not just body assembly). I found John’s responses interesting and informative.

I have extracted his 6 responses in that thread below.

Hope this helps with more detailed answers from John to your original questions…

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...ith-plant.html

❶ To clarify - there were two A.O. Smith plants that supplied the Corvette plant. One, in Ionia, Michigan, molded body panels and built 50% of the Corvette bodies from January '64 through the end of '67 production; this plant was originally owned by the Mitchell-Bentley Co., and was sold to A.O. Smith in late 1963, and became known as the "Dow-Smith" division of the A.O. Smith corporation. It later went through several other owners (Rockwell, General Tire, and others) as the fiberglass industry consolidated, and continued as the major supplier of Corvette body panels through 1982.

The other one was the A.O. Smith - Granite City, Illinois plant, which made Corvette frames from 1963-1967. 1954-1962 and 1968-1982 Corvette frames were made by a different A.O. Smith plant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

❷ St. Louis-Corvette didn't manufacture ANY fiberglass body panels - they welded the birdcage together in the basement, primed it, sent it upstairs to the Body Shop, and bonded the body together around it, using fiberglass body panels molded, trimmed, and prepped for bonding by outside suppliers. Almost ALL the body panels were molded by A.O. Smith in Ionia, Michigan, with some smaller panels molded by others. There was only one set of molds for body panels, and the panels were used both at A.O. Smith on their body assembly line and at St. Louis on their body assembly line.

A.O. Smith-built bodies were assembled, painted, and partially trimmed (glass, exterior moldings and hardware, and interior garnish moldings and internal door hardware - just enough to make the body water-tight), and were shipped to St. Louis on tri-level rail cars; all interior soft trim, seats, carpets, pedals, heater/AC, and complete instrument panel assemblies were installed at St. Louis.

A.O. Smith built 50% of the Corvette bodies - the St. Louis Body and Paint Shops only ran on one shift, but assembly ran on two shifts. All orders for N14 Sidepipe cars (which required a unique birdcage) were allocated to St. Louis - no bodies for sidepipe cars were ever built at A.O. Smith.

It's possible for A.O. Smith bodies to have the same body number on the trim tag as a St. Louis body (ignoring the "A" or "S" prefix); both plants had separate (but similar) body numbering schemes, and coupes and convertibles had separate number sequences as well at both plants. For example, body number A-3407 on a convertible would be the 3407th convertible body built at A.O. Smith, and there would also be a convertible body number S-3407 for the 3407th convertible body built at St. Louis (same situation for coupes at both plants, which had number sequences starting from "0" just for coupes).

❸ The rocker molding support brackets weren't welded on, and both the sill and sill reinforcement were "notched" locally before they were welded to provide installation clearance for the "U"-nuts for the outer cover attaching screws.

❹ The A.O. Smith complex in Ionia, Michigan had both a molding
plant (where the body panels were molded and then shipped next door to their body assembly plant and to St. Louis), and a body assembly plant where bodies were built, painted, partially-trimmed, and sent to St. Louis for final assembly. Here's a photo of the A.O. Smith shipping yard with a load of Corvette bodies on tri-level rail cars ready for shipment to St. Louis for final assembly. (photo was not still there)

❺ Soft-top-only cars were shipped from A.O. Smith with a protective cover over the top so it didn't get damaged or soiled in shipment.

❻ Jim, there was competition right off the bat starting in 1964 between A.O. Smith and St. Louis in terms of body quality, and you can bet there were some animated discussions at St. Louis during the daily completed vehicle quality audits when a St. Louis bodied-car and an A.O. Smith-bodied car were compared in detail side-by-side. A.O. Smith documented the assembly process very thoroughly operation-by-operation in their planning and used the same assembly tooling, jigs, and fixtures St. Louis did (a duplicate set was built and supplied to A.O. Smith), and they continuously improved their processes and the tooling as the years went by. They were paid a negotiated contractual price for each body (depending on style and options), so any productivity improvements they made put more margin in their pocket.

I think the competition was healthy, and there's no question that St. Louis bodies got better and better through the '64-'67 model years as the "friendly competition" with A.O. Smith intensified; St. Louis certainly didn't want to take second place to an outside contractor in building "their" body.

[James W.]

Mark,

Thanks for the replay and information.

James