Assembly line process ?? for JohnZ..or anyone else who may know

[Flowjoe]

When the body moved down the line and the firewall needed to be pierced for things like wiring looms (on AC or ZL2 equipped cars - for example) or other things (like Muncie Speedo cables) was that done by robot or by a line worker?  Does the process change over the three years of 1st gen production?  If it was by hand, when did GM move to an automated system of achieving piercings in the body?   If automated, when did that process start? (and was it mark wide? - that is all car models in production)

[dab67]

I can only speak for how it was done at American Motors ( remember them!!!!!!!!!) when they were in buisness, I would think (IMO), it was the same for all car manufacturers. The firewall and any and all holes or openings were pierced at time of stamping. Any of these holes or openings not required, were then covered at the operation stage in the building of the car. If for example there was a opening required for wire looms that were not being used, they were plugged at that particular work station. The non-required holes were covered before the paint process at American Motors. This information was read off the broadcast sheet.

Dave

[Flowjoe]

That is my assumption...that standard holes common to all cars (e.g. heater core opening, steering column opening, etc) were stamped out and that optional holes were marked out with "dimples" and then specified in the AIM as to application and size.  This leads me to believe that it was pierced by hand by a line worked and not an automted process at a given workstation. 

the reason I ask is it came up in a discussion of '70 Camaros on NastyZ28..this lead me to think about the process for all Camaros starting with 1st gen...and asking myself at what point did this sort of piercing become automated...my uneducated guess is the '80s at some point and that prior to that it was a manual process...again, for optional piercings as noted above int he exampels and not for the standard, common to all cars sort of holes.

[JohnZ]

There were no robots in 1969. There were two part numbers of dash panels (firewalls) in 1969 from the stamping plant - one for heater cars, and one for A/C cars - the only difference was the shape of the opening for the heater or A/C box. All holes related to option condtions were manually drilled on-line, and all are called out in the Assembly Manual - most of the option-related firewall holes are identified in the illustration in UPC 0.

[Flowjoe]

Thanks John, that clarifies the issue.  do you know at what point it ceases to be a manual operation on the line?  Am I righ to assume that sort of thing was way off into the 80's?

[JohnZ]

The 80's saw A/C become standard equipment on most cars, and there were fewer individual options; most became part of "packages", which reduced drastically the complexity of dealing with options. Some option holes are still drilled manually.

[Flowjoe]

Thanks again John