My dad worked at the Rouge... In the glass plant for 42 years... He started at Highland Park in 1926... I especially like watching the glass being made and wishing I could see my dad working there
Well then your father worked with my grandfather at both Highland and RR plants. So like the guy asked, are you ninety?. I'm seventy and my grandfather has been dead for almost 40 years. In 1964 I took this tour of River Rouge
@@plantfeeder6677 My dad worked for the EJ&E RR, they were owned by United States Steel. I remember taking a tour of the Gary Works back in the seventies when I was kid. That River Rouge tour must have been great.
@@danielstadden1149 I'm almost 70 . I don't date women I have to hold a mirror up to their mouth to see if there's any life left . Is this perhaps your great grand daughter ? Give me her number ?
I worked at Rouge Steel for a couple months as a contractor. Inside was hell on earth. We parked near the cooling slabs and in the middle of January the car would be toasty warm at the end of a hard day.
We had a '73 growing up in the 80's. My Dad called it the "B-73," his friend called it the "stinkin' Lincoln." We lived in a house with a 1/4 long dirt driveway. We'd put the tailgate down to take out the trash up to the main road, with barrels three across. My brother and I would ride on each side, with our feet on the bumper & tailgate, while holding onto the roof rack, while Dad drove. We always felt like Firemen from back in the day. Dad would always bomb the wagon back to the house on the return trip, with a huge cloud of dust and the family dog barking and chasing along. Finally sold it in 1996, right before a move. The AC still blew ice cold.
Before he became defense secretary, for JFK, Robert McNamara was recruited to work for Ford in an executive job. When he visited the Rouge plant, his jaw dropped, in reaction to the sheer size and scope of that plant.
When you see that tower with the elevators for the cars while they await their place back in the line, you can really see where carvana got the idea for their car vending machine.
In 1964 my family flew from California to Detroit to 1. Visit the place my mother was born and raised and 2. To pick up a brand new Pontiac GP. While there we took the tour of River Rouge were my grandfather had worked. He was a Ford employee since 1921 and we were honoring him by taking the tour. What an amazing tour it was starting with raw ore and turning it into an automobile was the highlight of the trip. Never forget how hot it was in the smelter. I thought working there would be horrible. I only foundout when I got home that that is where my grandfather worked.😳
My family and I did a tour through that plant at that time 67-68. It was absolutely amazing with the stamping Mills and all of the assembly line. But the guys taking those cars off to park them didn't play with them they were peeling out like nobody's business!! Thanks so much for posting this.
@@Buckseednot only there buddy worked. Metuchen NJ plant built mustangs they wood beat the snot lay rubber. Donuts on hi po mustangs then send back for more repairs....then they made Pintos. Ugggggh
As a new car make ready man at a Ford dealer in 72 I can tell you those window inspection stickers took a lot of work to remove. Great video my Dad had a 69 T bird, mostly the same except for the amazing 429 Thunderjet V8, very well made car.
Very cool movie. I lived less than 7 miles from this plant in Dearborn. You could see the smoke stacks on a clear day. My father bought a new 1968 four door Thunderbird. I remember the day he brought it home. I can remember seeing acres of new cars in the storage lots between Rotunda Dr and Oakwood Blvd behind Stout Jr. High. Most of the time it was Mustangs in those lots. It was a great place to grow up in the 1960’s. So much of all my old neighborhood has changed in Dearborn. I have many fond memories living in Dearborn.
Watching this from Nova Scotia Canada. These cars sold far and wide. Not just in the US. I marvel at the prices, even in the mid to late 1970's a Thunderbird or Torino represented great value for the dollar. SUV's and Mini Vans are so dull looking with uninspiring styling. I'd love to see the return of the personal luxury car. My favorite from the personal luxury era was the 1977-79 T-Bird and Cougar XR-7. 🙂
As someone who started working for GM in 1970 in a GM engine plant,what amazed me is how many old men there are still working..I think it was the contract in 1973 where they achieved 30years and out for your full pension..The older guys left..Thank you for downloading this..
I too started at G.M. , but at Rochester Products in 1968 - 1998 . Great to be retired for so long , but I do miss a lot of good people that worked there .
Seeing some of these older gentlemen in this video, I wonder if they started at Ford when they were still making the Model T. This video is made around 67 based on the models of cars and Ford came our with the Model A in 1927. So, I suppose it's possible.
In 1968, our family lived in St. Paul, Minnesota and my dad bought my mom her first brand new car. It was a 1968 Ford Falcon Futura Sports Coupe. It was made in Canada!
It always fascinates me to watch cars being built from raw iron ore and seeing the finished car. I've loved automobiles ever since I was 2 years old. It was great seeing the beautiful Thunderbird, Lincoln, Mustang, and Cougar of 1968-1969 being finished and built. I sure wish they would have filmed this in color! I am sure everyone watching noticed that none of the workers wore any type of breathing protection or ear protection. If some of the younger ones are still alive today, they probably are deaf or got cancer from the carcinogens in the paint and breathing the lethal fumes of molten metal. I doubt any of them enjoyed a long retirement, sadly. I will never forget my school field trip visit in 1972 to the Arlington, Texas GM assembly plant. I was 11 years old. My best friend and I begged to lag behind the group so we could watch every process from arriving engines at one end, to hearing the cars fire up to life and being driven to the transport lot. I have never forgotten that trip. Beautiful Cutlasses, Monte Carlos, Skylarks, and Grand Prix.
Thanks for posting this. I grew up in the motor city where my dad worked for Chrysler and all my friends had a job at the big three. By the time I was leaving high school, all the jobs had evaporated and plants were closing, 1979.
1979 was peak year for the UAW and all manufacturing jobs in the U.S. The quality control in the U.S. auto industry declined in the 1970s. Customers were tired of haphazardly assembled American cars.
@@SpockvsMcCoy I had a neighbor who worked at the Ford truck plant in Fremont California in the late 70's. He was drunk ALL the time. He told me job was putting the head light rings on the pickup trucks. Unlike the men in this video, he didn't care about the quality of his work one iota and told me so. Those vehicles had horrible quality control issues. Today, Teslas are made at the nearby old GM plant....
@@curtgomes My father's cousin was white-collar at GM's Fremont Assembly (either an engineer or administrator). He took our family on a private tour at night. I think the Buick Regal and Chevrolet Monte Carlo were built there at that time (Thanksgiving 1978).
@@postal_the_clown All three, Mustang, Thunderbird, and Cougars were beautifully designed. Our family had a 1972 4 door Mercury Montego Brougham before the government came up with ugly mandated bumpers. We had the car 15 years, give anything to get my hands on one now.
I can't believe how bad some of the safety standards are for the late 60s. For one, amazing that those paint sprayers have no facial protection. I once had to work on the line there for a day repairing Hurst shifter threading. I was amazed at all the new parts on the floor. I wanted to take it all home. They just have a guy with a machine picking up the floors and throwing all that new stuff away.
And a lot of workers smoking as they work! Between the painters and the workers smoking, you wonder how many lives were cut short! Good film! Like being there on the line back in the day!
Line worker to company doctor..."Doc...I can't breathe anymore...I work in the paint dept." Doc says "young man you just have industrial disease, it's nothing, you're cleared to get back to work".
If you think working conditions were bad in this video....my dad used to work on an assembly line in the '30s. He genuinely was afraid to ask for permission to use the toilet. The supervisors were Nazis on the line.
Good video, but incorrect/missing locations: 20:31 shows a glimpse of a Thunderbird being built. Wixom Assembly was the sole assembly plant for T-birds until the 70's. 20:34 with the Ford being lowered down the tower is the St. Thomas assembly when it was very new.
I was just at the Ford museum so this is interesting to me. It felt sort of peculiar driving a Kia Soul rental car to Detroit. I had to leave the C-MAX at home ... I kept wondering if my car was gonna have tires the next day 😜
My dad worked here back when my grandfather was 12. We used to help assemble the cars. We didn't do a very good job and often times the cars would fall apart but the workers would laugh and give us suckers. This was in 1902.
Back when we were self sufficient and did not have to rely on China or Europe for a damn thing. Sad to see its all gone. Our country is a mere shell of what it used to be. Sad very sad
The rich sent those jobs overseas to be done for peanuts so they could get better return on investment and live on the coast . Took money out of the working man's billfold.
I new car leaves the assembly line every 3 and 1/2 seconds 24 Hrs. a day 365 days a year. That was in 1968. How many a day are being built now? How long before there are more cars than people? Will we ever get enough?
Ford's 1968 US and Canada car and light truck assembly plants and their products: Dearborn, Michigan (Mustang, Cougar) Wayne, Michigan (Wayne Stamping & Assembly) (Ford, Mercury) Wayne, Michigan (Michigan Truck) (F series, Bronco) Wixom, Michigan (Lincoln, Thunderbird) Chicago, Illinois (Ford) Lorain, Ohio (Fairlane, Ranchero, Montego) _(there were technically no 1968 vans, but the '69 E series was made from mid-'68)_ St. Paul, Minnesota (Twin Cities Assembly) (Ford, F series) Louisville, Kentucky (Ford) St. Louis, Missouri (Mercury) Kansas City, Missouri (Falcon, Fairlane, F series) Mahwah, New Jersey (Ford, F series) Metuchen, New Jersey (Mustang) Norfolk, Virginia (Ford, F series) Atlanta, Georgia (Fairlane, Ranchero) Dallas, Texas (Ford, F series) San Jose, California (Mustang, Cougar, F series) Pico Rivera, California (Ford, Thunderbird) St. Thomas, Ontario (Falcon) Oakville, Ontario (Oakville Assembly) (Ford and Canadian-market Meteor) Oakville, Ontario (Ontario Truck) (F series)
-- Back prior to the 1980s, not only was smoking on the job normal, it was normal for guys to have an ice chest with beer in it next to a workbench or on the end of a machine like a lathe... though that often did depend on who you worked for. - Max Giganteum
I guarantee every long term employee in that manual floorpan welding area would suffer hearing loss. I wore earplugs *and* earmuffs and went home with a headache each night. Luckily I was only in such a section for a week! Not all automation is bad - some of it got rid of crappy, unhealthy jobs.
I drive a '60's car...and a '70's truck..I don't want one of these gawd-ugly blobs they make now that you can't see out of, with all the nanny features and gadgets....
I worked for Libbey-Owens-Ford Glass Company at a float and automotive plant in Lathrop and in Ohio. Fascinating stuff was going on in the automotive industry during the mid 90s..but a lot of shutdowns too. I was glad to see this manufacturing face on. 😀
It's interesting seeing the company that developed the industry at a mid-point in automotive history. I guess paint respirators hadn't been invented in 1968. Geez.
with all the "visual inspections" you can clearly understand why we were always taught to check the manufacture date - you didn't want a "Monday car" with all the hangovers and less than clear vision
Back then manufacturing knew the hazards of 8 hours of exposure to sprayed solvents, loud percussive noises, metal particles from grinders, welders, etc. But it was a different era, and men were seen as expendable.
Ford must have passed on the water blast test on my old Ford van. I bought it new, in fact, ordered it. Every time it would rain, I'd have water pouring in everywhere. Ford didn't really seem to care.
My dad worked there. Not sure what his job was. Safety was horrible then. As we can see by this video. He lost part of his index finger. Not sure on how he did it. I was to young at the time. And you didn’t call an attorney back then.
The voice of the narrator is so 60's as well. Did they select people with such a voice or did they learn people to talk with such a grumpy burbling voice? Nevertheless, it's very interesting to see how it went in those days. Around the year 2000 I was at a steel production plant, but even close to the furnaces it was clean and with fresh air.
Amazing technology then, now cars are getting 200 plus miles. Fuel injection and better oils are a big part of why on the motors. My father was a mechanic, he taught me that carburetors would allow so much gas in the motor and oil, it would actually eat at the metal. Fuel injection is so precise there is hardly any that goes in the motor what's not used is recycled back to the tank. Cars are also a lot safer today. As beautiful as vintage cars are, they were death traps....
When you could actually order a car, and not settle for the limited choices the manufacturer now offers, and which now comes from a larger market dealership instead of the manufacturing plants. Today, choice is illusion and at that, limited.
Seems so strange to not see the safety equipment that would be so commonplace today. The painters spraying away with no respirators or eye protection? Yikes!
The overhead camshaft isn’t inherently more efficient, though it does facilitate more efficient runner designs for moving air through the cylinder heads. And it certainly isn’t simpler.
Can't believe not a single painter wearing a respirator and all the guys on the engine line installing the valve trains had ciggys dangling from their lips, it seems alien to me now that people could smoke cigarettes at work
![Ford: Technique for Tomorrow, Cleveland, Brook Park [1954]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/PdIVK3R7JDI/mqdefault.jpg)
![Ford: Technique for Tomorrow, Cleveland, Brook Park [1954]](/img/tr.png)
My dad worked at the Rouge... In the glass plant for 42 years... He started at Highland Park in 1926... I especially like watching the glass being made and wishing I could see my dad working there
Are you like 90?
@@jacknasty6940 She was a retirement gift from her mother who was quite younger than her father 😂
Well then your father worked with my grandfather at both Highland and RR plants. So like the guy asked, are you ninety?. I'm seventy and my grandfather has been dead for almost 40 years.
In 1964 I took this tour of River Rouge
@@plantfeeder6677 My dad worked for the EJ&E RR, they were owned by United States Steel. I remember taking a tour of the Gary Works back in the seventies when I was kid. That River Rouge tour must have been great.
@@danielstadden1149 I'm almost 70 . I don't date women I have to hold a mirror up to their mouth to see if there's any life left . Is this perhaps your great grand daughter ? Give me her number ?
Love that smoking while working, and no respirator while painting…☺️
Makes you wonder how they survived at all under those conditions. How could then even breathe in those factories. How things have changed.
@@bradlebosse7998neighbor worked GM plant since new 1938. He was number 98hire. Retired in early 1973. Could not hear and he was having bad lungs
I worked at Rouge Steel for a couple months as a contractor. Inside was hell on earth. We parked near the cooling slabs and in the middle of January the car would be toasty warm at the end of a hard day.
The young well dressed man at 4:42, no earrings, no tattoos, no nose rings or big holes in his ear lobes. No long uncombed hair. Very respectful.
Dad bought a 72 Country Squire in Dark Green Metallic with green interior. Had that car 16 years and a Great family hauler.
We had a '73 growing up in the 80's. My Dad called it the "B-73," his friend called it the "stinkin' Lincoln."
We lived in a house with a 1/4 long dirt driveway. We'd put the tailgate down to take out the trash up to the main road, with barrels three across. My brother and I would ride on each side, with our feet on the bumper & tailgate, while holding onto the roof rack, while Dad drove. We always felt like Firemen from back in the day.
Dad would always bomb the wagon back to the house on the return trip, with a huge cloud of dust and the family dog barking and chasing along.
Finally sold it in 1996, right before a move. The AC still blew ice cold.
We had one just like that. Traded it for a new 78 in pastel yellow.
Was your name Rusty Griswald back then?
Truly amazing. Up the road in Flint, my uncle was a tool & die maker for Buick.
Something cool about working on the car and seeing it years later on the street knowing “I probably worked on that one” 😎
Like a City within a City. The Rouge is a beautiful complex.
Before he became defense secretary, for JFK, Robert McNamara was recruited to work for Ford in an executive job. When he visited the Rouge plant, his jaw dropped, in reaction to the sheer size and scope of that plant.
When you see that tower with the elevators for the cars while they await their place back in the line, you can really see where carvana got the idea for their car vending machine.
In 1964 my family flew from California to Detroit to 1. Visit the place my mother was born and raised and 2. To pick up a brand new Pontiac GP. While there we took the tour of River Rouge were my grandfather had worked. He was a Ford employee since 1921 and we were honoring him by taking the tour. What an amazing tour it was starting with raw ore and turning it into an automobile was the highlight of the trip. Never forget how hot it was in the smelter. I thought working there would be horrible. I only foundout when I got home that that is where my grandfather worked.😳
The whole process is AMAZING!
For 1968
Watching them paint with no respirator is insane.
Wixom Assembly (since demolished) was where these 1968 Thunderbirds and Lincolns were built. Quality control was first rate at that time.
My family and I did a tour through that plant at that time 67-68. It was absolutely amazing with the stamping Mills and all of the assembly line. But the guys taking those cars off to park them didn't play with them they were peeling out like nobody's business!! Thanks so much for posting this.
You're welcome - my students in Dearborn, MI always loved this film. They sat very quiet and just watched.
Yeah, peeling out to the washing station....what a cool job!
@@Buckseednot only there buddy worked. Metuchen NJ plant built mustangs they wood beat the snot lay rubber. Donuts on hi po mustangs then send back for more repairs....then they made Pintos. Ugggggh
As a new car make ready man at a Ford dealer in 72 I can tell you those window inspection stickers took a lot of work to remove. Great video my Dad had a 69 T bird, mostly the same except for the amazing 429 Thunderjet V8, very well made car.
When I taught in Dearborn, MI, the kids loved this film. They were proud to live in Dearborn after this.
You’re supposed to use a good razor blade with some glass cleaner. Then they come off easily
Very cool movie. I lived less than 7 miles from this plant in Dearborn. You could see the smoke stacks on a clear day. My father bought a new 1968 four door Thunderbird. I remember the day he brought it home. I can remember seeing acres of new cars in the storage lots between Rotunda Dr and Oakwood Blvd behind Stout Jr. High. Most of the time it was Mustangs in those lots. It was a great place to grow up in the 1960’s. So much of all my old neighborhood has changed in Dearborn. I have many fond memories living in Dearborn.
Watching this from Nova Scotia Canada. These cars sold far and wide. Not just in the US. I marvel at the prices, even in the mid to late 1970's a Thunderbird or Torino represented great value for the dollar. SUV's and Mini Vans are so dull looking with uninspiring styling. I'd love to see the return of the personal luxury car. My favorite from the personal luxury era was the 1977-79 T-Bird and Cougar XR-7. 🙂
No, INCREDIBLY CHEESY music or brain dead-looking, happy/smiling actors.
This was a very refreshing, 'commercial' film.
Especially for that era.
☮
This is so amazing and the scale of the operation…
As someone who started working for GM in 1970 in a GM engine plant,what amazed me is how many old men there are still working..I think it was the contract in 1973 where they achieved 30years and out for your full pension..The older guys left..Thank you for downloading this..
I too started at G.M. , but at Rochester Products in 1968 - 1998 . Great to be retired for so long , but I do miss a lot of good people that worked there .
Seeing some of these older gentlemen in this video, I wonder if they started at Ford when they were still making the Model T. This video is made around 67 based on the models of cars and Ford came our with the Model A in 1927. So, I suppose it's possible.
This was filmed during the Vietnam War. The young guys were overseas.
This was filmed during the Vietnam War. The young guys were overseas.
Spray painting [11:57 - 12:16] cars with solvent based paints and no masks or protection!!! UNREAL!
At least there is high vacuum in paintbooth
In 1968, our family lived in St. Paul, Minnesota and my dad bought my mom her first brand new car. It was a 1968 Ford Falcon Futura Sports Coupe. It was made in Canada!
It always fascinates me to watch cars being built from raw iron ore and seeing the finished car. I've loved automobiles ever since I was 2 years old. It was great seeing the beautiful Thunderbird, Lincoln, Mustang, and Cougar of 1968-1969 being finished and built. I sure wish they would have filmed this in color!
I am sure everyone watching noticed that none of the workers wore any type of breathing protection or ear protection. If some of the younger ones are still alive today, they probably are deaf or got cancer from the carcinogens in the paint and breathing the lethal fumes of molten metal. I doubt any of them enjoyed a long retirement, sadly.
I will never forget my school field trip visit in 1972 to the Arlington, Texas GM assembly plant. I was 11 years old. My best friend and I begged to lag behind the group so we could watch every process from arriving engines at one end, to hearing the cars fire up to life and being driven to the transport lot. I have never forgotten that trip. Beautiful Cutlasses, Monte Carlos, Skylarks, and Grand Prix.
raw materials in one end... Finished automobiles out the other. Amazing.
Thanks for posting this. I grew up in the motor city where my dad worked for Chrysler and all my friends had a job at the big three.
By the time I was leaving high school, all the jobs had evaporated and plants were closing, 1979.
The 70s were depressing years for the American auto industry. The glory days were leaving. I grew up in Detroit too.
Same here. Lived in River Rouge. Class of '82. No jobs at the car plants. Went into the Army.
1979 was peak year for the UAW and all manufacturing jobs in the U.S. The quality control in the U.S. auto industry declined in the 1970s. Customers were tired of haphazardly assembled American cars.
@@SpockvsMcCoy I had a neighbor who worked at the Ford truck plant in Fremont California in the late 70's. He was drunk ALL the time. He told me job was putting the head light rings on the pickup trucks. Unlike the men in this video, he didn't care about the quality of his work one iota and told me so. Those vehicles had horrible quality control issues. Today, Teslas are made at the nearby old GM plant....
@@curtgomes My father's cousin was white-collar at GM's Fremont Assembly (either an engineer or administrator). He took our family on a private tour at night. I think the Buick Regal and Chevrolet Monte Carlo were built there at that time (Thanksgiving 1978).
Love those 68' T-Birds.
Beautiful weren't they - just awesome. It was a proud day when your neighbors saw that in your driveway :)
@@16mmEducationalFilms I'll take the FORDOR Landau.
@23:57 I had the Cougar... was it a luxury Mustang or a sport T-Bird? Not sure if even Ford knew during it's run....
@@postal_the_clown All three, Mustang, Thunderbird, and Cougars were beautifully designed. Our family had a 1972 4 door Mercury Montego Brougham before the government came up with ugly mandated bumpers. We had the car 15 years, give anything to get my hands on one now.
@@Johnnycdrums All the 4 door Thunderbirds were Landau trim. The needed the Landau bars to make the door opening look right.
I can't believe how bad some of the safety standards are for the late 60s. For one, amazing that those paint sprayers have no facial protection. I once had to work on the line there for a day repairing Hurst shifter threading. I was amazed at all the new parts on the floor. I wanted to take it all home. They just have a guy with a machine picking up the floors and throwing all that new stuff away.
And a lot of workers smoking as they work! Between the painters and the workers smoking, you wonder how many lives were cut short! Good film! Like being there on the line back in the day!
@@unclemarksdiyauto Wimp! "My lungs are on fire! I can't work! Help! I litterally can see fire coming out of my mouth!" Suck it up! 😅😅😅🤣🤣🤣😂😂😉🫡😉
Line worker to company doctor..."Doc...I can't breathe anymore...I work in the paint dept." Doc says "young man you just have industrial disease, it's nothing, you're cleared to get back to work".
If you think working conditions were bad in this video....my dad used to work on an assembly line in the '30s. He genuinely was afraid to ask for permission to use the toilet. The supervisors were Nazis on the line.
11:54 Wow, no paint respirator. In the 80s, I painted my Dad's old 1955 Chevy truck with a bad mask and was coughing for 2 days.
Only 2 days? I shot paint in the '80's was high as a kite most of the time!😆
Lead paint too?
How many caught that Lincoln suicide 4 door town car in the beginning ?? those open auto racks are a thing of the past they went away in the early 70s
Good video, but incorrect/missing locations: 20:31 shows a glimpse of a Thunderbird being built. Wixom Assembly was the sole assembly plant for T-birds until the 70's. 20:34 with the Ford being lowered down the tower is the St. Thomas assembly when it was very new.
I was just at the Ford museum so this is interesting to me. It felt sort of peculiar driving a Kia Soul rental car to Detroit. I had to leave the C-MAX at home ... I kept wondering if my car was gonna have tires the next day 😜
miss these type cars
awesome video, thanks!
My dad worked here back when my grandfather was 12. We used to help assemble the cars. We didn't do a very good job and often times the cars would fall apart but the workers would laugh and give us suckers. This was in 1902.
"100,000 miles" Yeah, that's about right for cars of that age :)
I went there back in 1973 on a third grade field trip.
i wonder how long those painters were able to maintain any semblance of respiratory health.
We used to live in Dubuque, Iowa.
Those were the days when toxic exposure to employees was legal & these folks paid the price with their lives
I once heard of a fella who knew a man that didn’t work at a car factory at all.
Betcha that fella drove a car tho
Betcha that fella is still alive without any health issues
Back when we were self sufficient and did not have to rely on China or Europe for a damn thing. Sad to see its all gone. Our country is a mere shell of what it used to be. Sad very sad
The rich sent those jobs overseas to be done for peanuts so they could get better return on investment and live on the coast . Took money out of the working man's billfold.
Gotta love those Fords!
I can’t imagine working an assembly line performing the exact same mundane task for 8+ hours day after day after day.
It gets old real fast but the pay is great. I just retired after 35 years.
@@careysharp8340 I tip my hat in salute to you because I don’t think I could do that.
I noticed the spray painters were not wearing mask
A lot of the mundane work is being done by robotics, now.
@@danielcobbins8861 Is that why we have so many homeless?
I new car leaves the assembly line every 3 and 1/2 seconds 24 Hrs. a day 365 days a year. That was in 1968.
How many a day are being built now? How long before there are more cars than people? Will we ever get enough?
Ford's 1968 US and Canada car and light truck assembly plants and their products:
Dearborn, Michigan (Mustang, Cougar)
Wayne, Michigan (Wayne Stamping & Assembly) (Ford, Mercury)
Wayne, Michigan (Michigan Truck) (F series, Bronco)
Wixom, Michigan (Lincoln, Thunderbird)
Chicago, Illinois (Ford)
Lorain, Ohio (Fairlane, Ranchero, Montego)
_(there were technically no 1968 vans, but the '69 E series was made from mid-'68)_
St. Paul, Minnesota (Twin Cities Assembly) (Ford, F series)
Louisville, Kentucky (Ford)
St. Louis, Missouri (Mercury)
Kansas City, Missouri (Falcon, Fairlane, F series)
Mahwah, New Jersey (Ford, F series)
Metuchen, New Jersey (Mustang)
Norfolk, Virginia (Ford, F series)
Atlanta, Georgia (Fairlane, Ranchero)
Dallas, Texas (Ford, F series)
San Jose, California (Mustang, Cougar, F series)
Pico Rivera, California (Ford, Thunderbird)
St. Thomas, Ontario (Falcon)
Oakville, Ontario (Oakville Assembly) (Ford and Canadian-market Meteor)
Oakville, Ontario (Ontario Truck) (F series)
There is a Swedish video similar to this, it's called "A Car is Björn"
@@frankfalupa4572 🤣🤣
Now you know how HELL looks like.
Ever visited a modern leftist city?
Love it. Painting by hand with go gear on ????
I like the old guy that started the engines on the hot line - no hearing protection....
@@16mmEducationalFilms and a cigar !
@@pstreetgarage7304 Tough as nails.
Someone should get the tooling for the bodies and make brand new bodies.
Smoking a cigar on the job is priceless should have allowed to have a couple of beers a day as well. 😂🍺🚬
If you think they didn't at lunch you're lieing to yourself!🤗
I worked at Ford and GM. There was plenty of drinking and smoking at lunch.
-- Back prior to the 1980s, not only was smoking on the job normal, it was normal for guys to have an ice chest with beer in it next to a workbench or on the end of a machine like a lathe... though that often did depend on who you worked for.
- Max Giganteum
No respirators at the paint line.
True, but the work area was pressurized to remove some fumes.
MY DAD WORK AT FORD PLANT. STARTED AT $5 A DAY. HE WAS A WELDER WITH OTHER WELDERS.
23:57 That’s a 1969 Cougar so this must be 1968?
My grandfather was a tool and die. Man at Rouge plant in 1949 1950
I think that’s where Ford produced the Wagon Queen Family Truckster.
I guarantee every long term employee in that manual floorpan welding area would suffer hearing loss. I wore earplugs *and* earmuffs and went home with a headache each night. Luckily I was only in such a section for a week! Not all automation is bad - some of it got rid of crappy, unhealthy jobs.
Cars today are SOOOOO much better than in the past. People get tired and make mistakes. Fact of life. I would not want a car made like a 60's car.
I drive a '60's car...and a '70's truck..I don't want one of these gawd-ugly blobs they make now that you can't see out of, with all the nanny features and gadgets....
I worked for Libbey-Owens-Ford Glass Company at a float and automotive plant in Lathrop and in Ohio. Fascinating stuff was going on in the automotive industry during the mid 90s..but a lot of shutdowns too. I was glad to see this manufacturing face on. 😀
It's interesting seeing the company that developed the industry at a mid-point in automotive history. I guess paint respirators hadn't been invented in 1968. Geez.
with all the "visual inspections" you can clearly understand why we were always taught to check the manufacture date - you didn't want a "Monday car" with all the hangovers and less than clear vision
Is this proces anything like how cars are born today?
Wonder what Charlie Sorenson would have thought of this film
Back when ford was great making dependable cars
They didn't need safety standards, they were professional back then.
What does Dearborn look like today.
Bunch of nasty people who don't produce anything. That's who.
There is a fair amount of recognized buildings and schools including most of the suburbs that have not changed since the 1950’s.
Great to the Mk3 in there
Back then manufacturing knew the hazards of 8 hours of exposure to sprayed solvents, loud percussive noises, metal particles from grinders, welders, etc. But it was a different era, and men were seen as expendable.
If they die before they retire you don't have to pay them a pension.
.@@MrSloika Good point, and you’re exactly right.
Good video! Please reply. Dave...
Walked passed this every morning, on Miller Rd, to High School
Back when most products were 'Made In America'...😢
Lucky they look as good as Do cars😊
To hell with Disney, I’m going to see doors stamped lol
Even in the 1960's robots were taking human jobs.
Ford must have passed on the water blast test on my old Ford van. I bought it new, in fact, ordered it. Every time it would rain, I'd have water pouring in everywhere. Ford didn't really seem to care.
I noticed that in mind down by the river!😁
If this doesnt make you appreciate your car, I dont know what will!?
Can't believe those painters are not wearing any masks . They must of died horrible deaths .
My dad worked there. Not sure what his job was. Safety was horrible then. As we can see by this video. He lost part of his index finger. Not sure on how he did it. I was to young at the time. And you didn’t call an attorney back then.
The voice of the narrator is so 60's as well. Did they select people with such a voice or did they learn people to talk with such a grumpy burbling voice?
Nevertheless, it's very interesting to see how it went in those days. Around the year 2000 I was at a steel production plant, but even close to the furnaces it was clean and with fresh air.
Wuss.
Hard work for many, but earned a decent wage to feed their families
Amazing technology then, now cars are getting 200 plus miles. Fuel injection and better oils are a big part of why on the motors. My father was a mechanic, he taught me that carburetors would allow so much gas in the motor and oil, it would actually eat at the metal. Fuel injection is so precise there is hardly any that goes in the motor what's not used is recycled back to the tank. Cars are also a lot safer today. As beautiful as vintage cars are, they were death traps....
Painter without masks, probable all had cancer, so sad
When you could actually order a car, and not settle for the limited choices the manufacturer now offers, and which now comes from a larger market dealership instead of the manufacturing plants. Today, choice is illusion and at that, limited.
What was the life span of a painter in those days? Lucky to make 45 after there lungs hardened up. health safety didn't exist
They all smoked anyway. I bet at least eight percent on production line.
The painters without the masks...OMG?
Pre COVID!!!🤠
Amazing to say the least.
Seems so strange to not see the safety equipment that would be so commonplace today. The painters spraying away with no respirators or eye protection? Yikes!
I had many older Fords and I know that rustproofing did absolutely nothing😂
3:25 and they breath on that toxic fume😂
11:56 no masks here either😂
Does Ford even produce all these parts anymore?
Not like they used to. Most auto manufacturers source parts from other companies.
i guess the much simpler and more efficient overhead camshaft eluded the usa for about 20 more years.
The overhead camshaft isn’t inherently more efficient, though it does facilitate more efficient runner designs for moving air through the cylinder heads. And it certainly isn’t simpler.
1947 American manufactured Crosley automobiles had Overhead camshaft -AND disc brakes.
@12:00 holy cow................ talk about a toxic work environment!
How in the world were these guys spray painting without masks?
now this is what I call in-house production...
When men were men!
When men were men and sheep were scared 😮
Alot of lemons came off of that line.
Why does every QC guy look exactly the same now as they did 60 years ago
Mile long weight of 30 ton ! Roll of steel
Look at all that....employment
Either Carvana ripped off Ford or Ford gave them the right to do what they do today
Can't believe not a single painter wearing a respirator and all the guys on the engine line installing the valve trains had ciggys dangling from their lips, it seems alien to me now that people could smoke cigarettes at work