Assembly Manual Article

[John H.]

I've written an article on the Assembly Instruction Manual that discusses what it is, what's in it, how to understand and use it, and how it relates to running changes; it's posted at the CRG (Camaro Research Group) site at:

http://www.camaros.org/AIM.shtml

Although it's at the Camaro site, it's equally applicable to the Corvette - all of the Assembly Instruction Manuals were done in exactly the same format.

[Gary C.]

Re: Assembly Manual Article

John, very nicely written and very informative. Question - how were "field initiated changes" or in this case "plant initiated changes" handled? Thanks for sharing the information. Gary....

[D S.]

Re: Assembly Manual Article

Thanks, John, for sharing again.

Scott Sims
Texas Chapter

[Steven B.]

Re: Assembly Manual Article

John, good job and informative. Expanding on Gary's questons; How were S.O.'s and one offs such as for Mitchell, Bunkie, Cole, wives, show cars, engineering, etc. documented? Or were they?

Thanks,

Steve

[John H.]

Re: Assembly Manual Article

John, very nicely written and very informative. Question - how were "field initiated changes" or in this case "plant initiated changes" handled? Thanks for sharing the information. Gary....

Local Deviations were authorized and documented by the plant Resident Engineer (on-site Chevrolet engineer); if they became permanent changes, the responsible release engineer back in Warren wrote an ECR authorizing the change, and it then appeared as a revision to the Assembly Manual.

[John H.]

Re: Assembly Manual Article

John, good job and informative. Expanding on Gary's questons; How were S.O.'s and one offs such as for Mitchell, Bunkie, Cole, wives, show cars, engineering, etc. documented? Or were they?

Thanks,

Steve

Steve -

All of the "S.O." (Shop Order) and other "special" cars were reworked well after they were built, by GM Styling; when they came down the line at St. Louis, they were just another Corvette that got shipped to Detroit.

[Steven B.]

Re: Assembly Manual Article

Steve -

All of the "S.O." (Shop Order) and other "special" cars were reworked well after they were built, by GM Styling; when they came down the line at St. Louis, they were just another Corvette that got shipped to Detroit.

Thanks John. I assume the S.O.'s and others were documented only with the S.O. order or letter of some sort and many of those documents tossed long ago.

Thanks again!

Steve

[Philip C.]

Re: Assembly Manual Article

Hi John could you elaborate on "The date of a revision almost never indicates the date the change actually took place on the line; it just shows when the sheet was revised, which could have been well ahead of or well after the part change occurred in production at the assembly plant." could you give an example Thanks Phil 8063

[Ray G.]

Re: Assembly Manual Article

Thank you John Hinckley.

Ray

[Stephen L.]

Re: Assembly Manual Article

John, great article!!! I had to stumble thru the AIM the hard way....

[George J.]

Re: Assembly Manual Article

John,
are you planning on submitting this for inclusion in a future issue of the Restorer?

George

[Alan S.]

Re: Assembly Manual Article

Hi John,
Thanks very much for your effort in the article.
Since I've spent many years drawing, and working on drawings along with 'other' hands, I've always been amazed how CONSISTENT the 'style' is through out a given year's AIM, and even running through several year's drawings. The drawings themselves are a pleasure for me to look at, beyond the information they offer.
Thanks Again!
Regards,
Alan

[John H.]

Re: Assembly Manual Article

Thanks John. I assume the S.O.'s and others were documented only with the S.O. order or letter of some sort and many of those documents tossed long ago.

Thanks again!

Steve

Steve -

Some of the current owners of the S.O. cars have comprehensive documentation packages, and some don't; I've seen a couple that are 2" thick in binders. Werner Meier has owned and/or restored most of them at one time or another, and did a great job documenting them.

[John H.]

Re: Assembly Manual Article

Hi John could you elaborate on "The date of a revision almost never indicates the date the change actually took place on the line; it just shows when the sheet was revised, which could have been well ahead of or well after the part change occurred in production at the assembly plant." could you give an example Thanks Phil 8063

Phil -

I don't have an example offhand, but the A.I.M. wasn't an official Engineering release document - it was simply a graphic aid for the assembly plant, and it wasn't time-sensitive. When a running change occurred, that process was managed "officially" by the NPC (Notice of Production Change) system between Engineering, Purchasing, and Facilities & Production Planning (in Detroit) and the plant.

In most cases the A.I.M. sheet revision date was prior to actual implementation of the change, but there were many cases where it was later; at the plant level, it didn't really matter - the NPC system managed the actual change on the line, and the A.I.M. just documented it.

[John H.]

Re: Assembly Manual Article

John,
are you planning on submitting this for inclusion in a future issue of the Restorer?

George

George -

Probably not - the "Restorer" has always wanted articles that haven't been published first elsewhere (except in Chapter newsletters), and I published 90% of this one in a feature article ("Understanding The Assembly Manual") in the November, 2005 issue of "Corvette Enthusiast" magazine.