Grease pen markings on firewall behind distributor (8cyl)

[Rg500gamma]

I remember seeing markings on the firewall above trans hump.
I'm curious if anyone has info on what they represented.
For instance GM514 which would be the paint code.
Or, would the markings represent production info ?
I looked in the assembly manual and I don't see anything on the topic

[Keith Seymore]

For your reading enjoyment:

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...light=sequence

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...light=graffiti

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...light=graffiti

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...light=graffiti

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...light=graffiti

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=545345

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s....php?p=6543084


If you search "grease pencil" there may be more.

K

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Rg500gamma

I looked in the assembly manual and I don't see anything on the topic

The markings were not an engineering control, so they would not be included in the assembly manual.

They were more a local "help a brutha out" and therefore would vary plant to plant, shift to shift and even operator to operator.

K

[Rg500gamma]

Wow that is some great info to speculate on
I ended up swapping cabs and fresh paint so I don't have the the original markings any longer.
I guess I can add the tail end of the vin to make it more "original " looking.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Rg500gamma

Wow that is some great info to speculate on
I ended up swapping cabs and fresh paint so I don't have the the original markings any longer.
I guess I can add the tail end of the vin to make it more "original " looking.

Well - by way of clarification:

1 - No speculation here; I wrote a few of those notations myself.

2 - None of those are the VIN proper, or the sequential portion of the VIN.

Any serialized information would be the build sequence number. Nobody cares about the VIN in the assembly plant (other than to get the VIN tag on the right truck, just like an emissions label, SPID, or Mulroney window label).

K

[TKCR]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Well - by way of clarification:

1 - No speculation here; I wrote a few of those notations myself.

2 - None of those are the VIN proper, or the sequential portion of the VIN.

Any serialized information would be the build sequence number. Nobody cares about the VIN in the assembly plant (other than to get the VIN tag on the right truck, just like an emissions label, SPID, or Mulroney window label).

K

I always enjoy reading these posts about all the grease pen markings that are found. People don’t realize for the most part these are not important. It’s more of a “confirmation” thing for your fellow associates online when it traveled down the assembly line. Since I worked at an auto assembly plant, we used grease pens or paint pens for a lot of different things. They frowned on using them for anything outside the purpose they were meant for.
Like one time there was a guy that was installing gas tanks. During some downtime we was using his paint pen to draw a little bumblebee on the fuel tank. It was actually facing the body so it would never be seen again, UNTIL the car needed a repair done while it was still in the factory. The gas tank needed removed and they saw the bumblebee. They were able to trace it back to the guy that was on that job at the time because of the records that were documented. When a certain person was doing that job, we would use our clock numbers. Poor guy got fired over it. They found out he had been doing this for awhile, lol.
So out there in the mass of vehicles that were made during my 30 years of working at the assembly plant, my clock number is most likely on several vehicles out there. Along with other grease pen marking I made. My last 5 years I was in the Vehicle Quality Dept, so I used my grease a lot! We used them to circle defects in the paint, or circle little deforms that we would find. It made it easier for the repair person to see what I saw, and it would get fixed before leaving the plant.

[Louisvillekytruck]

Great information

[Keith Seymore]

In my case I spent two summers building preproduction units down the regular assembly line in the Wentzville plant (I mean, in addition to the other 45 years I've spent launching product).

It was tricky because the front of dash proliferated between gas jobs and diesel, so I was feeding material into two separate lines - and - I had to do it several stations before the vehicle identity was assigned.

So I had to count ahead and predict where my special parts were going to hit.

Add to that the line was relatively slow (around 36 jobs per hour) and there was a lot of starting and stopping. A lot of times you would be aaaalllmooooost there, and then the line would go down (either a breakdown or for an official break) so you had to sit there a wait for a half hour or shift change or whatever to complete what you were going to do. It was enough to make you crazy trying to keep track of where you were.

At any rate - I had a photo of all my special front of dash assemblies lined up on the shop floor, waiting to be fed into the system, and will all my notations, but I think I lost it when I retired.

There are going to be some confused folks in the unlikely event somebody wants to restore one of those G vans.



K

[1970cstblazer]

Keith-

Glad you are on this board to share the insiders view. As with the Pontiac boards, you are an asset to the hobby.

[Keith Seymore]

One other thought I had is that, during these preproduction activities, the bosses usually didn't show up until vehicles were going into trim.

I didn't really appreciate until I had body sheet metal design/responsibility how much magic takes place in the cab shop.

There is a lot of dark hours sticking panels together by firelight before the rest of the regular launch team even arrives.

K

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by 1970cstblazer

Keith-

Glad you are on this board to share the insiders view. As with the Pontiac boards, you are an asset to the hobby.

TY-

K

:awshucks: