Fit Repairs at Factory

[lakeholme]

I've read John's Assembly Process article carefully...  Are there any statistics on how many repairs had to be made on the line (or pulled off the line) at Fisher Body or Chevrolet Assembly concerning fit for first gen Camaros?  How were tolerances checked?

[JohnZ]

I don't think there are any statistics available. Door and deck lid fits were inspected and corrected as required on-line in the Body Shop prior to paint, and front sheet metal fits (fender-to-door and hood fits) were inspected and corrected as required on the Chevrolet side. Inspectors and repairmen generally used nylon spacer checking tools. Once the body shell was delivered to Chevrolet, there was no such thing as "pulling a car off the line" - it was locked in sequence on the conveyor until it was driven off the end of the Final Line.

[lakeholme]

Thanks, John.  I figured there was some sort of tool to check spacing.  As much trouble as it is to line up doors once they get a little out of line, I just wondered how much trouble that was at the factory...

[JohnZ]

The hinges were bolted to the doors in an off-line fixture that located the hinges cross-car relative to the outer skin, and the pre-hinged doors were loaded to the body using a fixture that spaced the rear edge of the door fore-aft to the quarter and spaced the bottom edge of the door to the rocker, with the rear upper corner of the door set about 3/16" high to the quarter panel. Later on in the Trim Shop the added weight of the door hardware and glass brought the rear upper corner of the door flush to the quarter panel. Door hanging, as with every other operation, was done at 65 cars per hour (about a 55-second cycle time).