A BIG barn find

[John H.]

http://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoram...160911547.html And they just keep popping up every so often.

[Mark D.]

Re: A BIG barn find

I'm going to this one!

[Dick W.]

Re: A BIG barn find

Vanderbrink will do a good job with that auction

[Paul D.]

Re: A BIG barn find

I think a bigger story would be WHY? Just saying that they were "...cars that didn't sell..." seems a little off. I don't think they could have stayed in business as long as they did if they were unable to sell any of those vehicles. Not meaning to be criticle, just curious as to the real reason for the collection. Chip.

[John H.]

Re: A BIG barn find

I think a bigger story would be WHY? Just saying that they were "...cars that didn't sell..." seems a little off. I don't think they could have stayed in business as long as they did if they were unable to sell any of those vehicles. Not meaning to be criticle, just curious as to the real reason for the collection. Chip.

On one of the other forums it was noted that he closed the Chevy store and opened a Ford dealership down the road.

[Dick W.]

Re: A BIG barn find

Story on Vanderbrink's website http://bit.ly/19oPRRe

[James W.]

Re: A BIG barn find

Being that this is in my home state I'm planning to attend the auction empty trailer and all.

James West
Omaha, NE.

[Ron R.]

Re: A BIG barn find

Very interesting story, they mention cars were delivered to them from Janesville,Wisconsin, was their a GM plant located in Janesville?

[John H.]

Re: A BIG barn find

Very interesting story, they mention cars were delivered to them from Janesville,Wisconsin, was their a GM plant located in Janesville?

Ron -

Until it closed (officially, "idled") several years ago, the Janesville plant was one of the oldest assembly plants in GM; they built full-size cars and trucks there for about 75 years.

[Ron R.]

Re: A BIG barn find

Just curious, the reason I asked was that I learned that my '63 was delivered from a chev dealer named Harrison Chevrolet Company in Janesville.

[Rich G.]

Re: A BIG barn find

Curiosity question: What would one expect the condition of the internals of these motors to look like? I guess all hoses belts and fluids would be changed before anybody attempted to start one, but would you even expect the motor to turn?

I suppose some will be bought by people who would never try, just put it/them in a museum setting.

Rich

[Terry M.]

Re: A BIG barn find

Very interesting story, they mention cars were delivered to them from Janesville,Wisconsin, was their a GM plant located in Janesville?

The Janesville GM plant became a point of contention in the last presidential contest. George Romney's vice-presidential candidate is from Janesville and whether that plant closed (was idled) under Bush or Obama became quite a battle. I am kind of surprised the whole world doesn't know of it. Maybe I became more involved because of my shirt with the plant logo on it.

Back when they were open the retirees association had a small, but well done historic display in a corner of the plant. Most industrial plants don't give a hoot for their history. It was nice to see that some workers took an interest in the history of the plant. I have to wonder where those items went when the plant closed.

[Ray G.]

Re: A BIG barn find

Back when they were open the retirees association had a small, but well done historic display in a corner of the plant. Most industrial plants don't give a hoot for their history. It was nice to see that some workers took an interest in the history of the plant. I have to wonder where those items went when the plant closed.

We had friends who worked there. The Plant being close to Chicago and Milwaukee and the product pride taken by the employees is what kept Janesville open as long as it was.
Occasionally as a Milwaukee Chevrolet dealer we would go to Janesville to pick up current components for warranty vehicles.

[John H.]

Re: A BIG barn find

From a Chevrolet Production executive's perspective, getting transferred to Janesville back in the 60's-70's was akin to "dying and going to heaven"; the predominantly rural employees had an outstanding work ethic, they came to work every day and did their job, they built top quality with excellent productivity, they didn't have any labor problems to speak of, and they were simply "good people" to work with.

I remember when we were in the middle of the "War At Lordstown" in 1971 (another wonderful 6-year hunk of my Production career), and GMAD (GM Assembly Division, who had just absorbed the previously Fisher Body/Chevrolet plant) sent in Charlie Coffey, who had been the Production Manager at Janesville for many years, to be the GMAD Production Manager at Lordstown. I was the Trim-Chassis-Final Superintendent, and spent most of Charlie's first day walking him through every line, where he was met with all manner of yelling and catcalls from the rabble-rousers who knew he was the "new GMAD guy".

I was in Charlie's office about dinnertime, when Joe Godfrey (GM VP and General Manager of GMAD) called from Detroit and asked Charlie how his first day went and what he thought about Lordstown; Charlie said, "Jeezus, Joe, do I get combat pay for this assignment? These people are all nuts! Never realized how good I had it at Janesville!"

[Jim S.]

Re: A BIG barn find

Joe Godfrey originally started in the ranks at Saginaw and worked his way to the General Manager of Saginaw Steering Gear Division. I remember that he had difficulties with having to wear a suit coat all day, every day when he was made a VP and moved to Central Office from Saginaw, Michigan. I think that he and Ellis Ivey were the last two general managers that actually resided in Saginaw. After Ellis there were "caretaker" managers that commuted to Saginaw. Later, Saginaw Division was spun off from GM as part of Delphi Automotive.

Jim