Wishes on Wheels - Chrysler Forward Look

I'll bet I walk 15 miles a day I do walk 15 miles a day see I'm in charge of courtesy here courtesy now isn't that a day word for a place like this but the meanings alright you see I'm the person who introduces our company to all our visitors these visitors come from all walks of life VIPs Boy Scouts businessmen mechanics all sorts of people and our main job here our only job is building people's individual wishes on wheels it's always kind of fun to guess from the name in the place just whose wishes you're looking at says Indianapolis maybe a family car and mother probably said when it comes to color bright red blue I think with the ivory top blue with the I every top but it's gonna have power steering with power steering and the big radio and heater in white sidewall tires and v8 engine yes and a v8 engine if you let your imagination run little you will really have lots of fun with these wishes here's one for the wide open space I don't care how long it is long as it's more however color is the choice that's easiest to see red there's some other color I want a little old green one black well maybe it's not quite like that but we don't just make a car for anybody we make ours for somebody from the time a car is only a frame it has some and it takes thousands of smart people and Lomb buddy wishes it and ordered it let me show you where it starts it's a spot right in the center of the factory called production control all the details of every order go out in code from this master tell autograph to 38 other tell autographs on the floor of the plant we'll pick out one order say number 642 for today now let's go find the car over in another plant we're already building the body for 642 but we start at the head of the assembly line notice the telautograph yes same order and that's her frame yes sir eight million pounds of stuff you know materials part eight million pounds come flying in here every day and they go out ready to drive between here and the end of the line better than 13,000 separate things get assemble to make a car you know it takes 27 miles of Mayers to feed the stuff to this assembly line just right yes sir I'm loaded with statistics so many parts lines people machinery an automobile factory is mighty confusing to a stranger I'll try to make it easy to understand so come along you know the assembly line is like a big river what keeps it flowing are all the smaller streams that feed into it along the way some parts we buy some of them we make ourselves isn't that pretty so coil-spring we build them right from the raw stock it's a big job all by itself they start off like rods real long and straight those things are gonna be Springs now you watch first we grind the tips to make them square then we heat the tip so we can flatten them out when the springs all finish take a good look at it and you'll see why the ends gotta be flattened next we put him in a bar furnace full length remember this stuff is some of the best steel money can buy we've got to give it a permanent way boy listen alright now it's red hot and ready for the big twist now watch this just like that horse there's more to it for example you think they're hot enough now okay we heat treat him that's the equalising Prince just so long at just the right temperature that's important gives them strength now we quench them in oil actually I'll hold their shape and temper the coil spring should be exactly right but we squeeze every one of them a measure it straight right to a whisker before we Oh can't and start it off the assembly line now you see we're back where the springs join up with the mainstream and by the way we don't stick just any spring on any car there are a lot of different types of bodies some weigh more than others we make different Springs for each one the leaf springs come in on another feeder and it's a very same thing here that white tickets the order there are different kinds of leaf springs for different bodies these Springs match up with order 642 now here's an important part it's the rear axle and it's not just a part it's a lot of parts it's a complicated sub assembly and it's one of the things that delivers engine power to the rear wheels skillful people and marvelous tools and all tools don't have to be big to be marvelous take this there's a nut on the brake fluid line that's hard to reach and this young lady tightens it with a clever little rasp light tricky huh what are these main assembly lines is a single line it's true but it has different names at different places like having different addresses on a road that's a mile long until the wheels go on it's called the frame line then it's the chassis line until the body of the car meets it and after that it's the final assembly line here's another one of those feeder streams coming in you got to go clear across the plan to the thing we call the merry-go-round to chase this one back no brass rings on this merry-go-round rubber rings used to be another rubber ring hasn't been so long ago these things have inner tubes now they're tubeless how about that now here's another feeder stream coming in number 642 has a blue steering column main thing is what's inside the steering column manual steering or power steering we call it coaxial steering it's in and adjusted and the line keeps right on moving yes he's on a roll now riding on her own four wheels but there's the baby that gives her the life the v8 engine when you trace the engine line back to its start you'll find some pretty rugged chunks of metal this is the engine division and here we start with rough castings cylinder blocks lot is going to happen to those blocks before they get under the hoods of cars to begin with things like this will not clean as a whistle and with great precision to that block is tough cast iron mind you when it's finally an engine the fuel mixture is going to explode inside it thousands of times every mile it has to be tough and a cut tough metal you have to use something even tougher like this tunnel broach it's 90 feet long those teeth are made to cut a lot of metal at once they cut the block down close to its final dimensions you know something about machine shops you will find this operation boring this is drilling drilling lots of holes at once with multiple spindle drills the block needs lots of holes water and oil and for setting studs if the holes are for stud suppose they have to be threaded too it's a pretty sight to watch all the holes we drill must be made to ultra close tolerance particularly the biggest holes of all the cylinder bores we finish the cylinders on these giant owning machines they give the last little bit of perfection to the dimensions and the surface of the cylinder walls but the final honing is really just the beginning for these engine blocks but you saw start out as a rough casting is going to wind up with the power of a herd of horses now watch it grow there goes the clutch housing that's one part depending on what you count as a part there are about 700 more to go on before this becomes an engine watch almost any one here and you'll find his job looks easy but try it there's skill up and down every line and the skill is backed up with machine muscles now here's a boring job and we can do it six at a time it makes the pilot hole in the clutch housing accurate in size and alignment remember now we're still on the engine life the feeder line that delivers engines to the main assembly line but even the feeders have tributaries of their own one of them is the crankshaft line it starts with a billet of white-hot steel and you don't need words to describe what happens there they are crudely finished but very very rugged in every important way they're accurate but there's still a lot to be done to them a lot of machining polishing and delicate balancing because you see a crankshaft has to be both tough and delicate in its lifetime billions of explosions inside the cylinders were pound against it and it'll have to turn each explosion into a twist on the drive shaft but at the same time we have to balance it so delicately it'll spin like a top at high speed and now on the engine line again we lock the finished crankshaft into the place where she'll do her spinning bearings front and back and three places in between here come the muscles aha the Pistons are the muscles that do the pushing they're carefully calibrated and matched by numbers to the very cylinder bores where they'll be installed and a specific set is sent off to meet a specific engine and into the engine they go another housing and then comes the oil town the tallest part of it is the deep reservoir where the oil intake floats you see we're still assembling her upside down but that's all we have to do from the bottom so over she goes this mechanical alley-oop is a very handy thing makes an engine as light as a feather from this point forward the engine grows quickly because it's now an assembly job the machining is done and finished parts are ready to be attached these are head gaskets they make the heat proof explosion-proof seals between the cylinder heads and the block and this is one of the cylinder heads where the overhead barrels and spark plugs do their work and here are the rocker arms they make the valves go up and down every part in order and on time this is the intake manifold there's something exhilarating about the last bit of the assembly job on a car or an engine after it gets to looking like what it's finally going to be this is an automatic transmission when she's done this one's going to be able to ship for herself that's it one engine headed for its final examination here's where we find out how well we've made them this is the dynamometer rule engines lined up waiting for the big test we give them a good run in and the dials of the dynamometer say yes or no don't look for these gadgets under the hood of an automobile they're just temporary covers to protect the open parts while baby gets her beauty treatment that familiar protective coat of aluminum hate and this is the end of the line engine meets chassis that's the driveshaft it goes on just before the engine lands this lady right here is the pilot who eases the engine down the speed of the engine line is matched to the speed of the chassis line so they'll come together just right and remember certain engines are meeting certain chassis you've got to feel the timing of this in your bones and you've got to stay on the ball if you do it's easy easy aspire when you know how and you got the tools and there's the thing that takes plenty of know-how and some real big tools have you ever seen a body plant I guess big jewels is a big understatement why they've got presses 50 ton even some 1800 tons presses that slam out parts of the body you know tops bottom sides doors in one whack and they can take two pieces of the floor pan and put them in this gang welder before you know it they're put together with a metal seam all happens at once all this is the way a body gets started the body line is the biggest and the longest of all the feeders that bring parts to final assembly line and there's some marvelous tools here you take the conveyors that bring the panel's to the place where they're assembled and the big welding fixture that you put the floor pan on the sides into it holds them just exactly right so the welders can get inside and out and stitch them together an actor reaps spot-welded the sides to the floor we put the top on notice the way we lift that top and you got to realize that this isn't an any old side any old top business every single thing is scheduled to arrive on time particular top for such-and-such a body according to the orders that's your car number 642 getting welded up right there the last piece of the body window before we paint is the trunk lid around here we call it the rear deck we mount it and reset the hinges and the latch and about the same time we adjust the hanging of the doors you know something hanging doors is one of the trickiest jobs on this line this is about the last you'll see of white metal because here comes paint order a car blue red green or yellow or what have you it's gonna be this color underneath the metal is bond rised that rust proves it then comes the prime coat the underside gets it too it's kind of pretty but the color is still the same here they go off to the paint lines for the final color coats the colors that have been ordered on these two-tone jobs we do the tops first this is your number 6 42 and she's getting an ivory top next you'll go to the oven and we'll bake that ivory dry before we give her the blue below and you know the paint is scheduled all along the line just like parts of the chassis or the engine certain body certain paint what the orders say that's what we spray they come out of the oven looking pretty easy stir eggs and they get even prettier now and in a hurry to cuss from here on we attach the things and make them look like cars wraparound windshields chrome moldings things like that but believe you me nothing in the whole factory is any prettier these days than the spot where paint and upholstery get together and pretty soon they're all dressed up and ready to be trucked away to the second part of the body line and the one where the body goes off to meet the chassis again it's the tail autograph that starts the right body out for the right chassis ah we run two lines over here you see odd numbers on one even on - the main thing is to keep them rolling right along now let's try to find the body for car number 642 it may be way up the line by now on its way to the body drop oops you'll notice all along that is the tail autograph that gets everything together right keeps the right numbers on the right cars body hardware makes the body grow fast those are the brackets that will hold the wood in this man's installing the control for the handbrake here's the mount for the heater it goes on the face of the firewall and some of the chrome still goes on here too now here's something that looks simpler than it is this is the instrument panel for 6:42 color and equipment are just as they were already and it arrives on a conveyor line at just the right time to meet the body and be installed just the way the body will soon meet the chassis down at the final assembly line to me it's like the body as a date yes sir and the telautograph machine makes sure the body gets dressed right for that date and we make sure it gets there on time Wyatt it'd be awful after all this if the chassis were stood up and we never let that happen you'd be surprised how many different things are still to be done when the bodies this far along wiring and trim and all sorts of things and up there they're ready ready to meet the chassis yes sir they've got a big date coming up like a big date coming up the little lady said and it is it's a big rendezvous toward which all the planning working and the timing have been desired and whether you witness this meeting four times or four thousand times it's always magic it's magic by people who can work on the same car and make it exactly the way it was ordered even though they do their work at different times and in different places and this is the big moment body meeting chassis he controls the speed of the drop and down they come you've got to be ready and you've got to be there and you've got to keep cool it won't be long now guide rods to line up the body in the frame you and she's down I've seen it more times than I care to count and each time there's something in it that's new and that's almost all there is to it the things that remain don't take long do you know something the odds of two identical cars identical in type color and trim and every item of equipment moving down one of these assembly lines together are about one in six million the end of the assembly life we give her her first gasoline and she's ready to take off on her own power there's still a lot of testing to do and there are a few things to check right here the now as many as 190 cars they come off these lines in a single hour and the drivers never miss their target at the rule test now let's see Radio check horn check front seat check headlights check turn signal check engine plane selected how about it well that's the story blue I think with the ivory top I don't care how long it is it's a wall I want a little ol green one read into some other color black courtesy wishes

Channel: King Rose Archives

Views: 464,410

Keywords: Chrysler, Virgil Exner, auto designers, car design, fins, tail fins, the 50s, cars, autos

Id: b6L0ykX9lPU

Length: 26min 27sec (1587 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 26 2013

Reddit Comments

[u/Bamfor07]

It’s always cool to see the way things used to be done.

[u/Exuberentfool]

This is really similar to my favorite engine production and overall car production videos on youtube.

[u/smarterthandog]

Fascinating. I wonder how they prevented cross threading those assembly bolts.

[u/GiddeeeUp]

Thanks for posting awesome video. Noticed that other than the painters, workers PPE seemed to be nonexistent. Funny at the end I see the cars that drive off were full to the brim with body roll. Lol