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
@@Malibu1515 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.
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.😳
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.
Those 69-72 Ford,and Mercury Station wagons, along with the 65-70 GM fullsize station wagons,and then add the fullsize the 65-8 Chrysler station wagons,some of the coolest cars around,and almost all my friends parents had a station wagon of those makes,and year range.
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.
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.
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.
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.
@@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.
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).
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. 🙂
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!
This makes me want to cry, seeing the men that built our country. A time when industry was booming, world wars Stirring. A race to superiority, god bless all the women and men who came before us, who all had a contributing hand in building the world we live in today. Man o man
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.
Unlike long time ago todays car manufacturing plants are small and more compact. I like the way how steel is printed to form the car frame nowadays instend of being stamped. Its quite the technological innovation in manufacturing.
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.
I got to tour the Minneapolis Ford plant in 1958, our high school senior class went there for skip day. I will never forget watching men set bare frame on the assembly line and follow it along and watch it become a car and see a plant worker drive it off the assembly line. Yes I am an old guy.
Man, if i could go back in time! Nice to see my first car here, 1969 Ford Falcon, green w/black top, 200ci strait 6 engine, 3 speed column automatic. Miss that car.😅
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 😜
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.
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.
In 1986 I bought a squeaky clean 1969 Ford Falcon four door from the original owner. It had 27,000 miles on it, the original spare tire was still untouched in the truck. 200 six cylinder, automatic, AM radio, two-tone paint (white over burnt orange), black vinyl interior, whitewall tires and under dash A/C. It looked like it just rolled off of the showroom floor, was simple, ran like a fine watch. I got home from a gig at three in the morning. I unloaded my drums, carried them in the house and locked up to go to bed. As I was walking across my living room I heard a horrible crash. A drunk in a Chevy pickup barely rounded the bend and hit my Falcon square in the rear. Didn't stop until he dragged it six houses down, hit three more cars on the way. Ten minutes before I was pulling the drum cases out of the trunk and backseat. I'd likely been killed. I loved that car, it was great to similar ones rolling off the line in this video.
-- 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
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)
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?
What shocked me the most is....car production actually hasn't changed that much. Was surprised to see robots which I thought the Japaneese started in the 80's and we copied.....but looks like the Japaneese just took what we already had and fine tuned it
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 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 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.
Can you imagine working around all of that kneadable vinyl? You can see the gas is coming off of it in the black-and-white but all of those people working in close proximity to all of that gas and smoke coming off that vinyl? Can you say multiple different cancers? I would love to know the health history of some of those people that worked in direct contact and near all of that vinyl they're showing I bet there's so many different cancers people are afraid to smell flooring materials and carpet materials these days just think what they had in them back then crazy.!
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.
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.
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.
![Ford: Technique for Tomorrow, Cleveland, Brook Park [1954]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/PdIVK3R7JDI/mqdefault.jpg)
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
@@Malibu1515 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.
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
Or hearing protection.
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” 😎
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.😳
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?
Those 69-72 Ford,and Mercury Station wagons, along with the 65-70 GM fullsize station wagons,and then add the fullsize the 65-8 Chrysler station wagons,some of the coolest cars around,and almost all my friends parents had a station wagon of those makes,and year range.
The whole process is AMAZING!
For 1968
That was very cool, thanks for posting.
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.
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
raw materials in one end... Finished automobiles out the other. Amazing.
This is so amazing and the scale of the operation…
My 68 falcon was an amazing little car. So was my 69 Cougar. reliable and sweet looks both cars had it...🎉
I toured through the River Rouge plant in 1968 or 69; they were building Mavericks, anyway.
Fascinating place.
This was a popular film at my school...
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.
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 them paint with no respirator is insane.
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.
Wixom Assembly (since demolished) was where these 1968 Thunderbirds and Lincolns were built. Quality control was first rate at that time.
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).
awesome video, thanks!
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. 🙂
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!
This makes me want to cry, seeing the men that built our country. A time when industry was booming, world wars Stirring. A race to superiority, god bless all the women and men who came before us, who all had a contributing hand in building the world we live in today. Man o man
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
My dad painted cars like that for 34 years ,died at age82 no lung damage.guess he was lucky
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.
Unlike long time ago todays car manufacturing plants are small and more compact.
I like the way how steel is printed to form the car frame nowadays instend of being stamped. Its quite the technological innovation in manufacturing.
No, INCREDIBLY CHEESY music or brain dead-looking, happy/smiling actors.
This was a very refreshing, 'commercial' film.
Especially for that era.
☮
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.
I got to tour the Minneapolis Ford plant in 1958, our high school senior class went there for skip day. I will never forget watching men set bare frame on the assembly line and follow it along and watch it become a car and see a plant worker drive it off the assembly line. Yes I am an old guy.
Fabulous old films. Such a treasure. Back in the day when America was still capable of doing stuff. And, by the way, this is as old as me.
Man, if i could go back in time! Nice to see my first car here, 1969 Ford Falcon, green w/black top, 200ci strait 6 engine, 3 speed column automatic. Miss that car.😅
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?
I went there back in 1973 on a third grade field trip.
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 😜
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
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.
No fucks to give, lol.
miss these type cars
Gotta love those Fords!
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.
Driving a car up those car carrier ramps had to be scary.
Those were the days when toxic exposure to employees was legal & these folks paid the price with their lives
In 1986 I bought a squeaky clean 1969 Ford Falcon four door from the original owner. It had 27,000 miles on it, the original spare tire was still untouched in the truck. 200 six cylinder, automatic, AM radio, two-tone paint (white over burnt orange), black vinyl interior, whitewall tires and under dash A/C. It looked like it just rolled off of the showroom floor, was simple, ran like a fine watch. I got home from a gig at three in the morning. I unloaded my drums, carried them in the house and locked up to go to bed. As I was walking across my living room I heard a horrible crash. A drunk in a Chevy pickup barely rounded the bend and hit my Falcon square in the rear. Didn't stop until he dragged it six houses down, hit three more cars on the way. Ten minutes before I was pulling the drum cases out of the trunk and backseat. I'd likely been killed. I loved that car, it was great to similar ones rolling off the line in this video.
Sad to hear, i too had a 69, green & black, handed down from my dad. Still miss that car.😅
i wonder how long those painters were able to maintain any semblance of respiratory health.
Back in the day when your new Ford came equipped with a butt or two in the dashboard ashtray.. and a couple more in back.
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
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.
I didn't realise they made 4dr falcon of that model only seen 2dr ones !
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)
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.
How much of this plant is still operating?
Ford Car future ford Car nice old video Assembly great Company beautiful
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
Now you know how HELL looks like.
Ever visited a modern leftist city?
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?
"100,000 miles" Yeah, that's about right for cars of that age :)
23:57 That’s a 1969 Cougar so this must be 1968?
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?
I had many older Fords and I know that rustproofing did absolutely nothing😂
There is a Swedish video similar to this, it's called "A Car is Björn"
@@frankfalupa4572 🤣🤣
Is this proces anything like how cars are born today?
What shocked me the most is....car production actually hasn't changed that much. Was surprised to see robots which I thought the Japaneese started in the 80's and we copied.....but looks like the Japaneese just took what we already had and fine tuned it
MY DAD WORK AT FORD PLANT. STARTED AT $5 A DAY. HE WAS A WELDER WITH OTHER WELDERS.
My grandfather was a tool and die. Man at Rouge plant in 1949 1950
No respirators at the paint line.
True, but the work area was pressurized to remove some fumes.
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....
Красит без респиратора?
Great to the Mk3 in there
And yet, my Dad's 1968 Falcon left the plant with no locking nuts on the engine mounts. Engine eventually fell off its mounts.
Fun to see; I will guess this is model year 1967. Any idea who the narrator was? Subtle and compelling.
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.
Someone should get the tooling for the bodies and make brand new bodies.
Amazing to say the least.
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.
Can you imagine working around all of that kneadable vinyl? You can see the gas is coming off of it in the black-and-white but all of those people working in close proximity to all of that gas and smoke coming off that vinyl? Can you say multiple different cancers? I would love to know the health history of some of those people that worked in direct contact and near all of that vinyl they're showing I bet there's so many different cancers people are afraid to smell flooring materials and carpet materials these days just think what they had in them back then crazy.!
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.
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
Good video! Please reply. Dave...
Wonder what Charlie Sorenson would have thought of this film
I think that’s where Ford produced the Wagon Queen Family Truckster.
Lucky they look as good as Do cars😊
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.
3:25 and they breath on that toxic fume😂
11:56 no masks here either😂
They didn't need safety standards, they were professional back then.
Back when most products were 'Made In America'...😢
Can't believe those painters are not wearing any masks . They must of died horrible deaths .
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!😁
To hell with Disney, I’m going to see doors stamped lol
Back when ford was great making dependable cars
@12:00 holy cow................ talk about a toxic work environment!
Does Ford even produce all these parts anymore?
Not like they used to. Most auto manufacturers source parts from other companies.
Walked passed this every morning, on Miller Rd, to High School
If this doesnt make you appreciate your car, I dont know what will!?
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.
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.