FYI - 59 production rate in Nov. 58

[vernz]

I shot some pictures of 5 junk yard Squarebirds that I will post soon. I included pictures of the data plates and found that the VIN number on one of the 59's is only 383 higher than mine. The date code on mine is 10L (a Tuesday), and the date code on the junk yard car is 13L (a Friday). So that's 383 cars produced in 3-4 days.

Vern

[JohnG]

sounds reasonable... I believe there were about 38,000 58 TBirds made (rounded off) and if I assume that there are about 250 work days in a year, then that comes out to about 150 cars produced per day.

150 brand new Squarebirds out the door every day...just imagine!!!

John

[Penelope]

John, I wonder what the numbers are like now - how much have we progressed? Then you could go futher, how many staff back then compared to now, and the ultimate question how many cars per day per staff member?

I bet the results would be startling, and a little bit frightening......

[Anders]

150 brand new Squarebirds out the door every day...just imagine!!!

John

[bcomo]

I see something very interesting in that photo.

Look at the slanted headlights on car behind the T-Bird --- is that a Lincoln.

If so, would that be a photo of the Wixom assembly plant where they assembled the T-Birds with the 430 engines?

[fomoco59]

Yes, that's a '60 Lincoln. All TBirds and Lincolns were built at the same plant in Wixom.
Looks like they're assembling the bumpers.

[tbird430]

Wouldn't u like to time travel back to when/where that picture was taken Bart? Just image what we could find in a few of those parts boxes in the background.... LOL!!!

[bcomo]

Don't you know that when they closed down that Wixom plant, there HAD to have been some old stuff laying around in the old inventory that got trashed.

I restored a 64 Corvair and went around to these little town dealerships with my parts book, and they would come up with these old dusty boxes from the back room with NOS stuff.

[LuckyJay]

I notice a couple of things. First, look at the similarity of the downward swoop design in the side of both the bird and the lincoln. I had not recalled that detail til now. Also, there appears to be 2 more birds on line after the Lincoln. All of them are light colored. If that shot is from Aug 13 1960, one of them could be our Tami T-Bird.

[vernz]

Speaking of parts laying around, my father was an auto mechanic. He had his own shop and did a lot of work on antiques. One day he asked me to help him pick up some old parts at a salvage yard where he knew the owner well. The salvage yard had a building that stored rebuilt parts and he was going to scrap all the old stuff, so he was giving my father in law anything he wanted. This was in the early 70's. We filled the back of his pickup truck with rebuilt fuel pumps, alternators and carburetors and could have made two more trips if he wanted to. There was a pile of stuff from the 50's. I have no idea what ever happened to it all.

Vern

[Anders]

More nostalgia

Film from the plant 1963

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ0LN...eature=related

Every year a winner ( GREAT one!! )
Just wonder if we realy are the target group for this car....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ec9RY...eature=related

The stainless steel Thunderbird ( on the line July 11, 1960 )
I was 4 years and 2 days then....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAxrC...eature=related

1960 commercial ( Funny, the people in the Ads looks quite rich and luxuious, but the price suppose to be fair. Hmmm.... Have that ever attaratced the rich? )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyi3N...eature=related

Bonus: Chevrolet! "Thrill Drivers Choice"
Not that the car is worth looking at......or that the suspension impresses, because it dosn´t, ( Springs: Yes, Dampers: No ), it´s just pure nice nostaliga. And the helmet after 4.09 is awesome!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au9I5...eature=related

Pic below: Me pretty much the same week as the Stainless Steel Thunderbird left the Wixom plant.....

[JohnG]

factory photo: that guy with the striped shirt looks suspicious...

Anders - great work!!! You tracked down alot of great stuff!

Productivity: this would be very interesting to track down. The only variable I can think of that might mess it up would be if there were two production lines running in parallel. But this kind of info must be out there somewhere.

I do recall reading that Ford did very well in profit terms on the Squarebirds...The design and tooling had not been too expensive and the assembly was not bad...I have a feeling that $1000 per car was not out of the question.

[Penelope]

Good stuff Anders - great viewing. The 1960 advert in particular looks like the Birds were pitched at the affluent part of society.

Love the helmet, the only thing that would be good for would be somewhere to hold your brain after you pick it up after the accident!

[dgs]

The stainless steel Thunderbird ( on the line July 11, 1960 )

Really? I thought I heard that those stainless birds were the last ones made. Something about the hard stainless destroying the stamping dies.

The reason I ask is that my car was built on July 26th, and I remember checking at the T'bird registry and finding that there were some 10,000 Squarebirds made after mine.

[Hawkrod]

I shot some pictures of 5 junk yard Squarebirds that I will post soon. I included pictures of the data plates and found that the VIN number on one of the 59's is only 383 higher than mine. The date code on mine is 10L (a Tuesday), and the date code on the junk yard car is 13L (a Friday). So that's 383 cars produced in 3-4 days.

Vern

Unfortunately you would be wrong in your assumption. Cars are not built sequentially. A car with a serial number 383 higher than yours could have been built weeks before or after yours. On your build sheet there is a box marked ROT and it has a number in it. The numbers run from 001-999 and then start over. That is the sequence cars are built in. 001 was followed by 002 etc... Cars were batch built based on common features to make the line run faster so they would build a group of say 50 white cars and then 50 red or whatever. If you look at that line picture you will notice that the cars are the same color. I have two 1968 Mercury Cougars, one is 8F93S545119 and the other is 8F93S545139. They are actually twin cars and were built in the same batch but 139 was finished three days before 119. I have also seen 8F93S545117 and it was built 4 days after 139! The serial numbers are no good for figuring out production because the numbers are not related to the assembly process. Hawkrod