a funny thing happened at work one day

an old mopar employee, 70,71
well, here is what i saw. and some funny chry secrets:

1. did not care if the car made it to 15k miles, warranty ran out about 12k
2. when we made a top and it has a small pin holes in it, usually on one of the corners from dirt in the mold, we wrote V T on it. when it got to the end of the line it was placed in another rack for the vinyl top line. we did not paint them much so the glue would stick quicker and not have to wait for the paint to dry. ..really...
3. i think i invented the duster front half top single handed. also that why the landau top was used. no use to waste the whole vinyl sheet. just call it something else and put a 1ft wide strip. ... really. REALLY

4. the duster quarter panel weighs the same as the dart 2 door quarter, the dart was thinner.
5. the doors were made at another plant cause they were too hard for us mashers and crushers press operators.
6. when we ran the metal into the die, we would hear a ping, thump. then a "special" piece would come through and make a bump, thump thud sound, and weight was about 40percent more. we wondered why and after checking, these were the "special"cars that the brass were buying, AND the ones they sent to the feds to test! REALLY!. i bet those cars are still setting in a yard with no rust through. the end product weight was approx 900 lbs. more than the standard car. (they were told it was the higher options, like air, radio, light package, chrome, rally wheels, etc. *man that radio was 120 lbs i bet
7. dont try to fix one made on friday or until noon on monday. they usually were the 4dr mom and pops. and dull colors. (friday to get the production number in and cut out for home, mon for all the hangovers, it was the 70's you know) we had a special lot for them to have them double checked. had a bumper fall off when pushing it from the line when it wouldn't start. not me! i was making the fenders.
8. i was on the line that usually got all the 'fun' items. i punched so many shaker hoods, wonder where they all are now. production was 300/hr for the one line i was on most of the time. thats 3 times a day, 24/7 for a year. thats a lot of shaker hoods.
9. what scraps? the parts that we cut off were used in other parts, like hood hinges, trunk supports, hood latch area, inner fenders sometimes. i would spend one day cutting them out and the next day spot welding the two back together to make a piece big enough for the heater door
(that spot welder was a terrible job, for some reason that machine would break down often for hours, usually due to someone putting 3 parts thick under the die and that really made a mess. ha ha) hey, it was 125 degrees in there and the welder was so hot you had to have special shoes to keep from melting. walk a mile in my melted shoes!

anyone else wonders what went on when your car was made, let me have your question and if i was around, i will tell you what i know. bottom line, i really can't beleive what those things are selling for right now! p.s. the best, highest quality small car made during that time, was....are you ready..... the 1970 duster.. slant 6! that was the one they hung their hat on. the best i seen was, and this is a factory orginal, i know that, forget your trim plates. we made a run of dusters that were plum, black vT, black 340 stripe, white interior some buckets, some bench, and ALL of them were 6 bangers, auto, std brakes, power stearing, rally wheels. find that on your build sheets! don't know where the boss was that day, a meeting i think. but i know at least 50 ran off. that happened often. o well, just some fun facts. i dont know it all, just some things where i was that day. i seen the sheet metal stampings, and at another place they were shipped to, i got the see the finished, or almost finished product. i worked a short time in the oven for the dashboards and worked with my cousin hanging doors (sorry for the scratches) i was young and strong and did most of the heavy work, and watched the line get brought over 50 of the 6slants inserts after the 340's bodies were complete and then come back around for the rest of the job. cousin larry had a sence of humor. no last names, i think they are still looking for us!

I worked in a front-end alignment pit at the end of the line for 17 years,some of the stuff and things that happened would either scare you or make you piss yourself laughing!Still there but inspecting cars in Final now(my backs f%$ked from working overhead)10-12 hour days,6-7 days a week for years.I,m regretting it now!

Absolutly delightful read! Which plant were you at and from when?

Man, that is good stuff. Did you see any Superbirds go through?

Thank you for sharing and building these cars.

This is too cool, so YOU'RE the reason why we have so many of those "my car has REALLY strange options" threads

Those of us that have been pretty far into our cars have seen some strange things buried under vinyl tops and behind sheet metal that should have never seen the light of day ( from weld whiskers to support panels that are 3/8 off ) . I think it's neat to hear some of this stuff, and that there is some truth behind the phrase "Don't buy cars built on Monday or Friday"

sterling stamping, in sterling heights mich. and im not telling the dates or last names! then i was a loaner over to the assb plant on the other side of detroit for a few weeks. never saw superbirds. they were a hand made deal and over pretty much before me prob. i had not thought about it for ever due to having a ss chevelle, then ss camaro, 65 impala ss, and gto's sky larks etc. mostly GM stuff for years. then i got this little 72 dart and the guy said it was a 318 and the build sheet said so. then a guy looked it up and said a 340, so im staying with the last guess!. ha ha. but when i was sandng on the fender, i found a pair of special made vice grips still holding on. and i remembered that i lost a dozen of them myself and sat down and laughed till i had to go. we would put things (harmless) in cars to look for if we ever bought one just to see if we made it. like a piece of metal under the seat with our "special" name on it. could not risk a super finding our name. there were, squirt, country, gomer(that was mine cause i was from KY), pops, willie love, and lots of numbers that meant something. the build sheet, had a grease pencil mark when done, but if you were not down that far you would put a item somewhere. had shoe string when broken from our boots, tied in a funny knott on the seat frame. a piece of paper in the dome light lens. a Big BITE ME under the V/T, and lots of political sayings lots of laugh-in sayings, anti war crap, etc. if you see gomer on one let me know. ill add more as the brain cells gets freed up from other things. i really would love to have that 340 duster six banger. it was sharp.

wow cool to hear about some of the stuff that went on

mikess68: Great stories. Glad someone finally shed some light on the actual assembly line. Good and funny stuff. Thanks.

Man, you should write a book! The stories are priceless, and it is said that everyone has a book in them but not everyone has one that I would by. I'd buy yours!!!!!!!!!!!Fantastic!!!!!!!

immmmmm, baaacccckkk. thought I bring up this old conversation so some of the newbee's could read it. anyway, finally getting the dart painted shortly, then hope I can remember where I put all those parts, especially after 2 moves.

very cool and interesting. so some dusters were shipped with the stripe and 340 numbers and had slant 6 engines? I can here a salesman slinging bullshit explaining that! what do u say was the common spot for the build sheet on a 1970 Hamtramck duster?

under the carpet around the hump, over the glove box, in the springs of the rear seat back(behind the backer board), and under the drivers seat in the wires of the seat.(bench seat) they had one over the gas tank but that was probably gone on the first rainy day.