I can remember years ago of auto buyers who insisted they not buy a vehicle that was built on a Monday or a Friday because it may not have had the attention to detail that it should have. Have you ever heard of cars that may have had a bad day on the assembly line or that may have been built when workers knew of an impending lay-off in the days to come?
Click here to read about one such vehicle that I worked on years ago that suffered all of the above.
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Indeed I have and having worked in a Michigan Ford assembly plant from ‘71 through the ‘81 model year it was a fact of life then.
Absenteeism on Mon, Fri and days preceding and after holidays were on average 15% higher than normal. As a result people were placed in positions that had less skill performing the functions assigned.
In addition were those the started their weekend early and did what was called Assembly Line Last Call.
Last call before the week was over and the opportunity to use as much alcohol and pot as possible and still be able to make it home to the wife and kids.
In the early 90’s when I worked at a domestic store, we came across all sorts of things inside panels. Empties, beer caps, pens, a half smoked joint….
Did that joint happen to have a roach clip with a blue mother of pearl clasp and some black feathers by any chance. It wasn’t mine, I just read about one somewhere.
In 1970 I helped my boss look for a rattle on a Dodge pickup that only made noise after hitting things like speed bumps or potholes and such. The customer was the original owner and had taken it to two dealerships and several shops trying to locate the noise but nobody could find it. Before the customer left for Europe for holiday he instructed my boss to do whatever it took to find that rattle. We shook, bumped, removed parts, test drove again until we finally removed the pickup cab entirely off the frame. What we found was a large spool of thick wire with about 50 large nuts and washers and a packing slip attached that read, “BET YOU PLAYED HELL FINDING THIS.” The frame on that pickup was U-shape and allowed the noise maker to lay inside without being able to see it.
The boss had a notary come by and witness the photos which he took (long before digital) and you could see from the rust and wear marks that it had sat inside that frame for a long time. As I recall the customer was reimbursed for the entire cost by Dodge.
I have a friend who found a role of film under the back seat with a note attached saying “Develop this to see who built your car.” Sure enough after the film was developed there were about 20 people at an assembly line all smiling for the camera. This is now a common practice during the assembly of some Vipers and it is given to the original buyer.
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