Is it just me or was Chrysler really sloppy with Charger broadcast sheets?

[bull]

Seems to me like there's a lot of mixing and matching with these boradcast sheets from the factory. How is it there can be so many of these sheets found in the wrong cars? How were they handled at the factory? Was there a pile of them on a table and the seat guys just grabbed off the top and stuck them in the seats without really looking at them? I'm just curious how this process was handled. Granted these cars weren't meant to last 40+ years and even until the past 15-20 years this info wasn't a priority to many people but based on what we're seeing now it doesn't seem like it was much of a priority at the factory when they were being built.

[Troy]

I believe there was more than one sheet per car. Parts were basically pre-staged for the cars coming down the line and needed some identification in order to match them up. The sheets were supposed to be removed after the car left the area. I ran across this link last week and it's pretty informative:
http://www.deadnutson.com/building_a_mopar.html

Troy

[bull]

I believe there was more than one sheet per car. Parts were basically pre-staged for the cars coming down the line and needed some identification in order to match them up. The sheets were supposed to be removed after the car left the area. I ran across this link last week and it's pretty informative:
http://www.deadnutson.com/building_a_mopar.html

Troy

Excellent link with lots of info. It'll take me some time to sort through it all but I can see how convoluted the process was.

[rustafarian]

"Ready sets of four tires, plus the correct spare, are dropped down metal tubes to each side of the Trim Line installation point. Assembly line boredom combined with the desire for efficiency apparently has motivated workers here to learn how to land the spare tire of each and every car with one bounce into the trunk! They will find this trick tougher on the SuperBird; its deck lid opens a limited amount, to prevent it from hitting the fastback panel"   

---Now THAT'S cool info!

[whitehatspecial]

I'm sure in the days of the late 60's, the last thing on the mind of the assembly line worker was that some car restorer/ enthusiast 40+ years later would be that interested in what those sheets said.

They made 100's of thousands of these things and no one could have looked into their crystal ball to see the fervor that surrounds these cars today.

[bull]

I'm sure in the days of the late 60's, the last thing on the mind of the assembly line worker was that some car restorer/ enthusiast 40+ years later would be that interested in what those sheets said.

They made 100's of thousands of these things and no one could have looked into their crystal ball to see the fervor that surrounds these cars today.

I understand that but it was still part of doing the job.

[Ghoste]

They were doing their job.  The sheet was to provide information to them and that's it.  I'd almost bet that the only reason there are any in some cars at all was because they knew they could get away with leaving them in a car as opposed to throwing them away.
I've worked in auto assembly and there is so much damned paper stuck on a vehicle that you just wouldn't believe it.  It was never ever meant to be placed in the correct vehicle as some sort of permanent record.  The second that car left your area, the sheet was just waste paper.  Each sub assembly requires paperwork and if there are 10 cars in a row that take the same black seat, you don't check the seat to see that they are matching the paperwork to the correct VIN.

[89MOPAR]

  3 of the chargers i owned all had their correct broadcast sheets,  the 4th i never looked.
    So it is 100% , A+ in my experience ....

[resq302]

I think it was in a newsletter from the Winged Warriors / National B-body owners association that interviewed former assembly line workers.  According to that article, I think it said that they were supposed to be thrown away.  Being that the line workers didn't care where the broadcast sheets ended up, they put then in any location of the car.  For the most part, there were found behind seats, under the front seats, taped to the glove boxes, under carpets.   Sometimes, they were actually thrown out giving your car no broadcast sheet at all. 

[Ghoste]

That's what I'm saying, be glad if they are there at all because they were supposed to get tossed.  Different sub assemblies would have paperwork for that area and that is why there are multiple locations.  Guys weren't hiding them behind the glovebox.  There was a sheet taped to the dash assembly and sometimes they didn't bother to rip it off and throw it away.  Same with the seats, it would be stuffed in there as the seat was being assembled and that was my point about different ones being found in seats.  Ones found under the carpet would have been tossed there.  Sheets would be taped to various sub assemblies or even the complete vehicle and sometimes they would get torn off so somebody could read it more closely or even just by accident.  Sometimes it went back in the right place on the right car and sometimes it didn't.

[8WHEELER]

From my experience, all the 68 Chargers I have had, or worked on, had a good sheet behind
the back seat springs, and were allway correct. My wife's 68 had two tossed under the drivers
seat, to bad they were basically laminated to the floor board. I think the problems started from 69
and up for the most part ''from everything I have seen''.

Dan

[bull]

I didn't know they weren't supposed to be there. Seems odd to me that something that's not supposed to be there got put there so frequently. So really, if they were supposed to toss them they really weren't doing their jobs by leaving them in. This is getting weird.

[tan top]

I didn't know they weren't supposed to be there. Seems odd to me that something that's not supposed to be there got put there so frequently. So really, if they were supposed to toss them they really weren't doing their jobs by leaving them in. This is getting weird.

yeah never knew this intresting !! found mine behind the rear seat back

[resq302]

Thats why a lot of times you hear people find build sheets for cars other than theirs either one or two ahead or behind their cars VIN.  Hell, I wish I had my build sheet.  Actually, I am lucky I have my fender tag.  Some cars don't even have them still.

[Ghoste]

As far as being surprised at them being left there, I can't say for sure that in the late 60's they were supposed to dispose of them.  It's very possible that there was no thought paid to it at all.  I do know that when I was on the line in more recent times, someone was paid to dispose of paperwork.  Understand that in an assembly plant, your work is broken down into cycle times.  I don't know cycle times for 1969 but today it is not uncommon for autoworkers to have 60 second cycle times.  This means that every 60 seconds a new car or sub assembly unit enters your area and your repeat your tasks.  Fighting the boredom often becomes thinking of ways to beat your cycle time.  If you can find 10 seconds between vehicles, that can mean the difference between having a sip of coffee or not.  At the same time, the industrial engineering people (aka time study) are watching and if you consistently beat your cycle by the same amount they look at this as an opportunity to increase your efficiency by adding 10 seconds of work to you.  That 10 second job may be throwing the paperwork in the trash bin.  Now ask yourself, what if you just throw the paperwork under the carpet and have your sip of coffee?  The line never went down, the quality of the vehicle was not affected in any way, the paperwork is still gone so the foreman is satisfied, the guy emptying the trash bins is happier, time study is happy, and you get your sip of coffee.  And that my friends, is exactly how it happens.
It may be a little simplified there but I think you get the general idea.

[twodko]

Thanks for the insight Ghoste. For the many of us who've never worked an auto assembly line your "behind the scene" observations are a slice of savory history to us gearheads. We were lucky because we found 2 broadcast sheets in our 69 - one behind the back seat and one under the carpet. BOTH of which are in great shape. It seems to be a crap shoot whether you got one, two or none.

Tom

[bull]

Very interesting. The more pieces of paper you hide the smaller your throw-away stack later. It's all starting to make sense now.