Clue It Was GM employee car new

[paulsstuff]

Had the front and back glass installed in my car yesterday. The glass guy said it was probably purchased new by a GM emplyee, because the studs that hold the clips for the stainless moulding were about 3 inches apart around both window channels. He said it was common for an employee to follow the car through the plant and get the guys to include extra studs. Never heard of this and think it might be someone's imagination. Anyone?

[x77-69z28]

news to me!

[KurtS]

Everyone has a story.
But why would anyone ask this or even think to ask?

[jacmac]

I can think of a million other things Id be asking for besides extra" window moulding studs" !? Thats sounds like total BS to me!

[paulsstuff]

I agree. Not sure why the guy even brought it up. I would have gotten my 6 cylinder powerglide upgraded to a V-8 with muncie 4 speed back in the day.

[Gilly]

Interesting relating story in regards to this, which may sort of support what was said:
My brother in law worked at the GM plant in Janesville WI (now closed but on stand-by status, but no one in Janesville is really truly expecting it to reopen, although it is still part of "THE NEW GM", yippee.
Back in the 80s they built the Cavalier and the infamous Caddy Cimmaron. So his sister (my sister in law) ordered a new Cavalier, and as the guy stated to paulsstuff, he walked the car down the line making sure everyone knew it was his sisters car. She ordered a sunroof for example and a Cimmaron sunroof was installed instead of the cheaper Chevy one (I don't know what the difference was, I'm sure it wasn't a case of power glass vs manual though). The noise insulation panels were way better on a Cimmaron and those were used, and better radio speakers, all for example. I'm sure the seats and so forth were the Chevy seats, it's not like they changed a bunch of things, but yes some better stuff ended up in that car.
Gilly

[69Z28-RS]

I really doubt anyone other than perhaps a plant manager or someone very high in mgt, could implement something like that... especially for a 'cavalier'....  .
I've heard of examples of 'special built' cars, assembled on the line;  the most famous I know of is the 50 Millionth GM car (a selected '55 Chevy BelAir HT which was painted 'gold' color, and also had many parts actually plated in gold (even the shocks, etc were gold plated).  There was also the special Corvette built for Zora Duntov's retirement, and special cars for Bill Mitchell...  but for all those 'special car', the planning had all the parts available on the line at the right place and right time (and we can imagine the $cost of doing something like that)..

It would be very interesting to hear any stories John Z might have to shed more light on such circumstances . 

[jacmac]

Im not disounting that employees my have walked the line with their car to get some extra goodies,but the glass guy seems to think it was some what common  to want more glass moulding studs Who would think of something like that

[Gilly]

69Z28-RS, well it really did happen that way and I'm sure not the only one. Again it wasn't like the car was drastically modified, like the sunroof hole being different. Not saying it was a weird sort of one-off car or that most people would even notice the changes. Not saying it had Cadillac wheel or anything obvious. But yeah back then an employee could escort the car down the line. I don't know about the other manufacturers, but the way GM was back then, yeah all it took was a fellow employee escorting a car down the line to get a few extras; "Hey Charlie, put the fancier sunroof glass in my sisters car wouldya?".
The glass moulding studs (or I would think clips?), yeah who would think of that, as jacmac pointed out.
Another thing about identifying the car as an employee car is i believe the window sticker would have this noted if I remember correctly, although I don't think the window sticker is in place until late in production. But if anyone still has the window sticker it is probably noted on it, somewhere near where the selling dealer is located.

[paulsstuff]

 Having worked 26 years at a Chrysler assembly plant, I can verify that employees would follow their ordered car down the line and add some "extras". It was common when I was installing wheels and tires for employees to ask for a better tire/rim combo. That was in the 80's and 90's. Now cars are audited when they roll off the line, and then again checked by a seperate quality/security company before going to the shipping yard.

 True story. When we first started making Intrepids a emplyee ordered a base model, followed it down the line, getting all the power options added on. The problem was he never thought to have the proper wiring harnesses installed. When the car reached the end of the final line, the operator doing the electrical test flagged the car as none of the power options worked. Long story short, car was audited, guy got fired, and rehired 6 months later.

 I also remember a guy who worked at GM, and did the same thing. Ordered a base car with few options, then had it fully loaded going down the line. The car made it down the line and to the dealership. Problem was the salesman at the dealership realized that base car was now fully loaded, and the dealership was only charged for the base model. The dealership sold the car at a price that reflected the options on the car, and reordered the employees base model.

[Gilly]

I asked my wife what details she remembered (her brother who worked there passed on a year or two ago and the car I am sure is long since crushed, so there is no real harm in discussing it). She say her brother actually asked the guy on the line installing the sunroofs if he could instal it himself, which the other worker agreed to. My brother in law was a floater and had done the installation before. Was a simple matter of picking up "this" sunroof over "that" one. And they were both flip-up roofs, the Caddy one was probably a darker tint or something.
She does know the radio installed wasn't suppose to be in a Cavalier, although it fit the hole fine, the old "ETR2000" radios were all interchangeable. my wife doesn't know what was different about it, I am thinking possibly it had a built-in graphic equalizer? I think this would have been before CD players were out. Anyways, she also knows it had Caddy speakers, to which I asked if they were Bose speakers and she thought that sounded right.
The car also ended up being delivered to the wrong dealer, I guess in order to order a car you had to pick a dealer to order it from. It would seem way easier for the employee to just take it from the factory but it doesn't work that way. I guess I can sort of understand why, the car has to be prepped and all that and a plant is probably just not set up to process the sale. So he had to track down where the car was, it wasn't very far away at all. Personally I don't think the wrong dealer could have legally even sold it, they wouldn't have had the MSO to get it even registered to a new owner. But anyways the car carrier company had to pick it up and take it to the correct dealer.

[JohnZ]

I spent 37 years in GM and Chrysler assembly plants, from assembler to repairman to utilityman and through the ranks from foreman to Plant Manager, and 99% of the "stories" you hear about "walking the line with your car" are figments of the imagination and tales that have been embellished as they've been passed along through the years by folks who simply don't understand how the production system operates. They make great conversation over a few beers, but that's about all; don't believe them.