The 1963 Corvette Sting Ray being assembled at the St. Louis Plant

[@mjdart54]

I couldn’t have worked there watching them go together and not brought one home. I have a 64 and 67 Coupe and every time I open that garage door it puts a smile on my face!

[@mjdart54]

You got that right, what a temptation.

[@joenemchik6006]

Anybody, anytime, who has a Corvette, any year, who does not have a smile on their face when driving up the road in their Corvette is not a real human being. All Corvette owners know about this little secret!

[@popartcity3397]

i had a Pantera that definitely put a smile on mine....

[@jasmith1867]

I've never owned an older corvette. But the image of that body style has a permanent photo in my brain. And I can bring it up when ever I want. And I get a smile too.

[@FINfinFINfinFINfin]

'63 SWC is the most beautiful car ever made IMO.

[@lotsaluck721]

Na….Chevy Vega is….

[@NeverTalkToCops1]

Jaguar XKE.

[@SuperFrank6666]

My cub scout troop toured that plant in 57. We got to ride to the parking area with the drivers. They would burp the tires for us. For a 7 year old that was awesome.

[@jasmith1867]

That is a great memory.

[@broganmoffet7173]

I have a 67. Neat to see where it was made

[@mdogg1604]

A fellow here in town still has the '63 that he bought new. The story is he had to sleep in it for a while till he could afford a place to live.

[@mjdart54]

That's the commitment it takes to make that work. Life gets in the way of doing that so often, its almost impossible to accomplish.

[@jasmith1867]

If I owned that car I would worry about it all day and all night. But I don't have one and I don't worry about my old beater one bit. I guess I can claim I'm lucky I can't afford one.

[@mdogg1604]

@@jasmith1867 Yep; I'd at least be paying through the nose for one helluva insurance policy.

[@brendas.1374]

I love my 1967 Corvette L79 Coupe. It’s my dream car… And I’ll NEVER part with it.

[@phoenixblack1220]

Awesome video! But my heart breaks for those poor guys in the paint shop painting for 8+ hours a day with no respirator.

[@johndavey72]

To be fair , the spray rooms would have had extremely powerful extraction . Did you notice the spray dust was being forced down . But it would have had risks no doubt. .

[@1967davethewave]

@@johndavey72 I own a down draft paint booth. It's better than painting in your garage but the chemicals still pose a major risk.

[@johndavey72]

@@1967davethewave Hi Dave . I had one too, De Villbis and l used an air fed mask . Certainly with the modern 2 packs the risks are much higher . I had a friend who would not wear any protection and he was using Glasurit in a booth with very primitive extraction. He paid the penalty , heart attack ,lungs knackered at 53 .end of ! In the '50's /'60's it was still Nitro-cellulose ....now that smell still gives me a Buzz !!

[@JustFunandGames]

The were allowed to go outside for a cigarette every half hour.

[@jasmith1867]

That confused me. Why didn't they buy one? I'm sure they had some issues early in their career. Hocking up the paint color the next morning.

[@TheJagjr4450]

I love the rotary sander... in my NCRS judged original paint Corvette you can make out the rotary sanding marks if you get it in the correct light.

[@bluesharp59]

The love for the automobile used to be done with craftmanship and hand skills. Today its only numbers built by robots without a soul.

[@mattmccain8492]

When I worked professionally as a restorer, I practically hand striped 4 paint jobs off and sculpted a 65 with a 67 stinger hood. It was a wrecked ex-drag car we restored back to stock. Had wheel flares that had to be removed and the center hump put back in the hood. Watching these guys lower the body on the frame..yep, done that too..it had a 327 with 4 speed..neat car to drive when it was finished. But that car broke me from ever body working another fiberglass car again.

[@texasbasementbuilds4543]

wow. practically coach built.

[@christinewoodruff255]

These people did not make easy money back then, much respect.

[@mjdart54]

Lots of heath hazards for sure and the work was hard.

[@raylord6246]

Must have pre-dated any kind of rudimentary PPE....amazing how far things have come. And I wonder what these guys would think if they could see the prices these cars are attracting at today's auctions like the Barrett Jackson?

[@iluvucuzjesus5347]

Anybody else notice these poor guys are spraying without masks, bet they didn't have long lives. glad we care more now for our workers health

[@ianleckie922]

Painting back hand was impressive.

[@FRITZI999]

I knew a Guy who did this his entire life.... he died at the Age of 89. The overspray gets sucked away towards the Floor.... you don´t breathe any of it. Get some Knowledge before writing. ;-)

[@darthjarjarbinks8953]

@@FRITZI999 My friend owns a body shop and he doesn’t wear a mask either because the fumes get sucked out of the room.

[@FRITZI999]

@@darthjarjarbinks8953 EXACTLY !!!! :-)

[@sprayguy67]

Crazy isn’t it I wear a fresh air hood and a paint suit

[@jetsons101]

Till this video I had no idea the Sting Ray body was so complex to assemble.

[@mjdart54]

After looking into I too was amazed how much hand labor is needed.

[@georgephillips1185]

Thank you great information

[@garylivingston9052]

spraying all that lacquer with no paint suits or masks all day...Lol how times have changed.

[@miker252]

It looks very labor intensive to produce one.

[@mjdart54]

Sure does, lots of heath hazards also.

[@fedex727rj]

Who would have ever known then the high price those split windows bring now.....

[@mjdart54]

They really do and they are the least refined of the 5 years the C2s were produced.

[@johndavey72]

Gosh ! Very labour intensive . Those Corvettes would cost a fortune to build today . The original split rear window is as desirable as any 'e'type coupé. (Well. I live across the pond !)

[@1967davethewave]

Back in the '60's the split window was considered a bastard. Very many were converted to the later style '64/'67 rear window as soon as the first '64 came out. But what made them undesirable in the '60's made them super desirable by the late '70's!

[@johnreitz5676]

I lived in St. Louis most of my life. I would often here about the poor working conditions and dreadful labor relations at the old Corvette plant. Things got so bad that someone from management could not be on the shop floor without security.

[@mjdart54]

When I worked for GM (mid 70's to mid 80's) most of my time working was getting assembly lines up and running again when something failed. I responded and worked as quickly as possible to get the line up and running again which greatly pleased management. They in turn looked the other way when everything was running smoothly and I took a break. Now as your stated the working conditions could be harsh or even dangerous. Today companies look closely at safety, ergonomics, and other factors to improve working conditions which improves production.

[@mjdart54]

I though the sanders were cool as well.

[@MrDjh66]

I wonder how many builders bought there own I love my 66 convertible

[@phyllismontileone5297]

In reality there was very few people at the plant that actually owned a Corvette. There was some but very few. At $3.90 an hour in 1968 it didn't go far. I remember so clearly many conversations among us sayin, who is buying these cars for $5000 +/-, ? You could buy a nice new Impala or a truck for half the cost.

[@jimb3900]

is that the bird cage at 0:30 ?

[@mjdart54]

The "bird cage" is shown starting at 0:12 thru to 0:29. At 0:23 you can clearly see the lower brace of this frame work and the horizontal piece the VIN and Trim Tags were attached to. Starting in 1964 the bodies were not only manufactured at Chevrolet's St. Louis Plant. but also in Ionia Michigan at the A.O. Smith Factory.

[@oldcrowsracing7479]

you know, you really ought to give credit to the retired GM engineer that you sourced all your images from.

[@mjdart54]

Look it’s common knowledge if you search. I put the photos in order and made a slide show so everyone looking can find something historical and interesting. I have no interest in stealing someone’s intellectual property or profiting from it which I don’t. Relax and enjoy history.

[@oldcrowsracing7479]

@@mjdart54 Here's what the presentation's author had to say about it: ...the KZbin poster stole every last byte and image of that, using every photo, in exactly the correct operational sequence from my tediously-compiled PowerPoint presentation on the St. Louis-Corvette Body Shop, Paint Shop, Trim Shop, Chassis, and Final assembly process which I presented at the 2011 NCRS National Convention in Novi and subsequently at several Regionals that same year, with no attribution whatsoever to me as the author and copyright holder.... It just gags me that the guy stole my work, presents it as his, and gives no credit or attribution to me as the author; welcome to the Internet.

[@mjdart54]

@@oldcrowsracing7479 I had though Chevrolet out the material and photos together, that’s why I used the Chevrolet slide as the first to acknowledge them.

[@oldcrowsracing7479]

@@mjdart54 You have been presented with the opportunity to do the right thing and correct an injustice. Whether or not it was intentional matters not; what you did was wrong by titling this presentation as your own, and the person you wronged has said so no uncertain terms as above. You may choose to merely be defensive or brush it off, or you could do the right thing. You need to edit the video and title it with the source's name, which is not Chevrolet. www.corvettemuseum.org/john-hinckley/

[@popartcity3397]

sooo...the glue has to dry before the painting stage????

[@mjdart54]

I just read a paragraph from Larry Galloway's book. He was QC between Corvette and the Ionia MI plant where half of all Corvette bodies were producted between 1964 and 1967. He stated "Bond joints were impossible to hide with paint. Knowing where the joints are makes them fairly easy to detect".

[@mjdart54]

I just put the material out for more to find it.

[@oldcrowsracing7479]

plagiarism: "the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own". For example, taking someone else's presentation and putting one's own name as the author. To correct your foul, you need to replace the title page with one crediting the author of this presentation.

[@lovemypits02]

True professions back when cars are made with craftsmanship... not crap manship...

[@mjdart54]

Yes, the Corvettes were actually very difficult to produce from what I've read. The workers "craftsmen" took a difficult process and made a very nice product with thier skills.

[@caspar0777]

Nearly all men where slim those years...

[@DavidB7474]

I'm gonna call bs on all these 100 point restorations that get overspray on car frames saying they duplicate the factory. According to these pics the body was painted before assembly, the frame was painted black, also separately, the entire drivetrain was added and then they were joined. So all these shops that do these restorations and purposely get body paint overspray on the frame is obviously bs. I don’t know how many times I watched restoration shows and videos and they go out of their way to tell you they paint the car and “purposely get overspray on the frame just like the factory”. This video proves that is wrong.

[@chriscatarcio7534]

Sure they made a vette after 67. But who cares 😃.....

[@NeverTalkToCops1]

There you go. 2020 Corvette looks like some damn nintendo game thing.

[@georgesviderski2469]

The marker light on front is pointing crooked on these cars originally. Thats how a 64 i did was, , 375 horse with a Holley . More rare than fuellie car

[@1967davethewave]

The top engine with a carburetor on the 2nd Gen Corvette was 365hp. It was the exact same engine as the 375hp Fuel injected engine with just an aluminum dual plane intake and a Holley 4bbl on top.

[@johnthonig8832]

@@1967davethewave indeed

[@burtbenz9964]

427 in those pieces of plastic wow. I want to put a f 18 engine in a Cessna. I'm a power freak

[@c50ge]

They had to drink a lot to get over the paint hangover every evening.

[@mrrodgerspoliticalplaytime5663]

the 2 guys in the paint booth.......no masks, no PPE........where was OSHA in 1963?

[@rickprusak9326]

After a few years, those guys in the paint department died of lung lacquer disease. In those days, even a high school dropout could get a good paying job in the auto industry. The auto company's did not care about how intelligent the worker's were, just how strong their arm muscles and backs were. Today, even an Associate's Degree is barely able to secure a job on the Assembly Line. I know this for a fact, I'm a retired skilled tradesmen from the auto industry. New hired people have to pass an assembly line school class before being fully hired to put a vehicle together. Years ago, there were picture images on the buttons of gand held equipment on the line. People were hired who couldn't even read or remember what button to push to fasten a nut or bolt. Just remember what picture icon to push and when after lining up the tool to the fastener. Boy, how times have changed.

[@mjdart54]

I worked at a GM plant in Rochester NY in the mid 70's (Millwright) and I was around many nasty chemicals used for cleaning and plating. There were very few precautions back then and I could only imagine how the early 60's were.

[@rickprusak9326]

@@mjdart54 Hello fellow skilled tradesman. Thanks for your reply. In my comment, I forgot to mention that a fellow skilled tradesman in my department, dropped out of 10th grade because he could not read. Served our country in Vietnam, came home after learning a trade in the Marine's. All hands on, no reading of repair manuals, no reading of newspaper's or magazine's. Came home from the war, opened shop in the family home garage. Had a cousin who was foreman in the auto industry. Cousin got him in the door working in the same department as his cousin and I. Whenever this guy had to use a shop repair manual to do his job in sequence fashion, he had to ask the other guy's in the shop to help him read the printed material. One day I point blank asked him why he needs to have other guys read him what the repair manual sez. He replied: Did you ever see me reading magazines or newspaper's during lunch like the rest of ypu guy's? That's because I can't read, I dropped out of the 10rh grade because I couldn't read. Well guess what? Because of the good old buddy system in the UAW, this guy eventually became my union Committeeman. The guy who would write up and file my grievances, if any. He would be my Union spokes person if the company management had a contractual issue with me, and would write me up. Can you believe that? And all this nonsense occurred during the 1990's . Go figure....

[@mjdart54]

@@rickprusak9326 I miss the guys in the shop, I bet they don't read newspapers anymore like they used to. Rochester Products, where I worked liked hiring Marines, especially for supervisors. I mainly worked production maintenance after finishing my apprenticeship and the supervisors always liked me as I got right after fixing the line when it stopped moving. We had a very large engineering workforce and I always got along with them so GM sent me to take engineering courses, so I could speak their language. I've always been grateful to GM for that as it helped me land a very good job with FPL the utility company at a power plant after GM offered a buyout in 1986. I just retired after 33 years there after 10 with GM. I met alot of guys like you described throughout the years and I wouldn't trade those memories for anything.

[@jeremybettis8446]

What's up with the weird backwards music

[@Schlipperschlopper]

Sadly from 2030 on all combustion cars including classics will be banned from public streets in entire EU and Scandinavia :-( In Germany the Green Peoples Party gave order to shorten fuel supply from 2025 on by reducing all conventional fuel stations to only one state operated central gas station per city or county. Now they even want to slow down all the gas pumps from 20 litre per minute to 2 litre per minute...From 2027 on in the EU certain car spare parts will be banned too....as exhaust systems, turbo chargers and even some engine and gearbox oils...California and New York will do the same from 2027 on.... So no investments should be done in oil burning cars any longer....They even created a new kind of crime here, called emissions and smoke crime. Called Abgasbespaßungsverordnung in German.... :-(

[@mjdart54]

I don't think that type of mandate would be received very well here in the US. I could only imagine a much more violent replay of the the Boston Tea Party might easily arise as a response.

[@jeanmoney8165]

NASA introduce carborated

[@MrDjh66]

Wow to funny

[@reubenj.cogburn8546]

ALL THESE WHITE DUDES ARE THE SAME GUY!!! It's like the stepford wives, except their building vette's.