Assembly Manual

[72tutone]

Just bought some side molding for my truck. Can anyone decipher what the numbers mean for the distance in the pic?

In the pic for ex: What does 41.37 mean in the length? Inches/fractions. This is all over the manual with the numbers as such.

How about the other numbers listed? Any clue?

[rustytruck50]

I'm gonna say 41.37 inches and .62 inch gap between the door & fender...I can't say I remember seeing that type of decimal measure in these pictures before.

[72tutone]

Yes but how does one measure 41.37 inches with a tape? Assuming .375 is 3/8 41" 3/8 I think. I'm quite dumb with math lol

[notsolo]

10 th's of an inch is a mind twister. 41.37 ...41 and 3/8" is very close... Fortunately the clips can move. If your doing the rear trim it gets more frustrating.

[72tutone]

Yea thankfully not doing those. I would like to know how to hang the tailgate band on the smooth plain tailgate as well. It looks like it's installed right under the gap or whatever it's called.
Disappointed that the kit I bought for the molding only includes the clips and not the stick on as well. I apparently need both

[Steeveedee]

Indeed, 41.37 is 41-3/8 (less .005"). Why they rounded down is beyond me, but there you have it. These things got put together with a minutes or less in each cell, so the numbers are there, but the moldings would be adjusted real-time to "match" up. .62 would be 5/8", (.625 rounded down). In this kind of business, the third decimal place would be dropped...they're not building aircraft or spacecraft to ANSI or ASME specs. I've designed spacecraft parts that were held to +/- .0003 inch. You can put a truck together with a rubber mallet; spacecraft are a bit different.

[BigBird05]

I would be less worried about the placement front to back (.005" ) and more worried about getting the height right. I didn't see any dimension for that in the drawing you posted. By the way, that .062 measurement looks like it is forward of the wheel well opening.

[sick472]

Use the dimensions as a reference and don't be afraid of adjusting them slightly.

I found that some of the manual's dimensions would not be ideal and moved some of the holes just a bit to accommodate slight interferences. IIRC, I moved the holes on the door trim at the front a rear so that the speed nuts were more centered on the backside (in the jam area).

I also recall that a few of the holes on the ends of the bedside trim needed to be moved inward so that the clips would not have to be ground down due to being maxed out in the trim.

The details of my build are a bit hard to explain without pics and could be different from truck to truck, but my point is those dimensions may not be exactly correct for all trucks. I placed tape near the hole locations, marked where the manual said that the holes should be, and then installed clips into the trim and eyeballed everything to make sure it looked good (on the inside and back behind). Some adjustments in hole markings can be made at this point (before drilling). And, drilling smaller holes in areas of concern help to verify that the backside lands where you want/need. These smaller holes are easier to shift if necessary by using a die grinding bit so that the hole ends up where you want and is the correct diameter.

The holes of greater concern are the ones at the ends of trim pieces. This is mostly due to differences in reproduction parts from the originals and OEM factory tolerances.

[Accelo]

After you drill the holes de-burr them and use some grease on the clips where they go through the hole. I was amazed the difference it made in how easy it was to install the clips. Especially the aftermarket ones.

[72tutone]

Originally Posted by Accelo

After you drill the holes de-burr them and use some grease on the clips where they go through the hole. I was amazed the difference it made in how easy it was to install the clips. Especially the aftermarket ones.

Awesome, thanks for the tip. Did you put any silicone on them at all for the holes as well?

[Accelo]

No silicone. I did paint the steel where it was exposed by drilling.

[SBLars]

Yeah…rounded to two places…make yourself a table of decimal equivalents and then round up and groom down. Easier to take some off than add some.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Steeveedee

You can put a truck together with a rubber mallet;

And we did, too.

Originally Posted by sick472

Use the dimensions as a reference and don't be afraid of adjusting them slightly.

I found that some of the manual's dimensions would not be ideal and moved some of the holes just a bit to accommodate slight interferences. IIRC, I moved the holes on the door trim at the front a rear so that the speed nuts were more centered on the backside (in the jam area).

I also recall that a few of the holes on the ends of the bedside trim needed to be moved inward so that the clips would not have to be ground down due to being maxed out in the trim.

The details of my build are a bit hard to explain without pics and could be different from truck to truck, but my point is those dimensions may not be exactly correct for all trucks. I placed tape near the hole locations, marked where the manual said that the holes should be, and then installed clips into the trim and eyeballed everything to make sure it looked good (on the inside and back behind). Some adjustments in hole markings can be made at this point (before drilling). And, drilling smaller holes in areas of concern help to verify that the backside lands where you want/need. These smaller holes are easier to shift if necessary by using a die grinding bit so that the hole ends up where you want and is the correct diameter.

The holes of greater concern are the ones at the ends of trim pieces. This is mostly due to differences in reproduction parts from the originals and OEM factory tolerances.

This is correct.

We built to "trends", that is, we got it pretty close and then ran every truck exactly that way, whether it needed it or not, until the repair foreman out back would call and demand we make another adjustment.

See this discussion on the shim packs for front end sheetmetal fit:

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

What we used to do for fender shims is tape a packet together, like 3 shims, and we would run those all day whether the truck we were currently building needed it or not.

Eventually the final repair supervisor would call back and say something encouraging, like "SEYMORE!! YOU IDIOT!! WTH ARE YOU THINKING?!?! ALL THESE FENDERS ARE RUNNING HIGH!! ARE YOU EVEN LOOKING AT THESE TRUCKS?!? TAKE A SHIM OUT BEFORE I COME BACK THERE AND SHOW YOU HOW TO DO THIS!!" I can just imagine the spittle flying into the phone mouthpiece.

So we would start running a new shim pack, like 2 shims, until he called again with his latest observation.

Basically it was to address "macro trends". You had about 45 seconds to complete the truck in front of you and move to the next one; that's not enough time to fit and re-fit each individual truck.

K

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Yes - this technique would get you close on the majority of vehicles.

There was a repair station at the end of my area. There was also a short moving repair line (two, actually) at the end of final line. If they could fix them there while on the move then they would; otherwise it would be out to a stationary repair stall in "heavy repair" for the really bad ones.

I should add that some of the repairs did not consist of removing the bolt or adding/deleting shims. Often the repair consisted of bending, twisting or hammering while the line was moving.

K

[Keith Seymore]

One other thought: the individual assemblers did not have access to the assembly manual. That was above their pay grade.

There were several complete sets of manuals in the plant: one for each production office (body shop, trim, final line) and one in the inspection office.

If the assembler had a question, he would ask his supervisor, who would then research it in the production office or inspection office, consulting with the various experts, and then get back with the guy that had the question.

Similarly, setting up tooling or fixtures was done by the various skilled tradesmen, not the assembler. If you needed an adjustment you would put the request in (or blow the breakdown whistle) and they would come by when they were good and ready. If the assembler, production foreman or his quality man did in fact make a change it had to be done in such a way that the skilled tradesman wouldn't know or couldn't find out about it. Otherwise they would write you up with a formal grievance, which would then have to be bargained between GM management and the UAW representatives.

K

[Steeveedee]

^^^ So true! My dad was in final inspection, but after a botched surgery in '74 (wrong medication administered), he developed phlebitis in his legs and they put him on the alignment area, prescribing shim packs (where he could sit down). Of course, the prescriptions are all a little different, but he had to develop an "average". He had a computer to input the rolling average of shim packs into, but if it crashed, he had to "cheat"- literally, edit in a series of shim packs to get the average going again. At a minute a vehicle, it's a bit tough to make each one perfect. Like I pointed out elsewhere here, we can take a ton of time to install an engine, but those guys on the line have less than 60 seconds to drop it and install the fasteners. At least the air wrenches were calibrated to the right torque, to save ratcheting down to final torque.

It being a union shop, somebody with higher seniority would invariably bump him, and he'd end up on his feet for some amount of time, and then back out on disability. This is one of the gripes I have with unions. He could have sued for malpractice, but he was an independent cuss, and wouldn't do that. He should have but ended up poor as hell for the rest of his life, except for what us adult children could provide.

[notsolo]

Not sure I used any of the stick on clips, I found the replacement clips did not hold well. I bought extra bolt on clips and drilled holes to mount. Also not too clear how high the tailgate band is from bottom edge. Maybe there is a better assembly photo from later year?

[notsolo]

This had the mounting holes for the Tailgate band.