Poor quality control, factory freaks, or mistakes?

[rpmcarter]

Poor quality control, factory freaks, or mistakes?

We are talking about us, the forum members here, right????

NOTHING but NET!!!!!

 

[73vertproject]

:whistling:

 

[mrmach1]

My uncle Skip worked for Ford from the early 60s through the 80s and he told me they had a saying that good enough was good enough. Quality was not job one especially during the 70s. Panel alignment was nowhere near what it is today. It is very true about dealerships robbing Peter to pay Paul to sell a particular car. That was commonplace and installing front spoilers on MACH1 to make a sale or make a customer happy happened quite often.

 

[Flatback72]

There's a small metal bracket that attaches to the car body at the inner bottom of the quarter window opening, the purpose of which is to hold in place the top of the plastic arm rest panel.

One side was missing this bracket so I assumed it had got lost somewhere in the last forty years. When it came time for me to spruce up my floors, I peeled up the factory-installed floor insulation and found the missing bracket on the back floor pressed into the underneath of the insulation.

Well that solved the whereabouts of the missing bracket, but when I went to install it I found the hole in the body where it screws onto was malformed from when the panel was pressed (the hole was there but it hadn't broken through), and there was no way to screw the bracket on until I "completed" the hole by drilling it out.

So the bracket hadn't been installed at the factory at all - I surmise that the vehicle assembler went to screw it on, found he didn't have a hole to screw it in to, so piffed the bracket onto the rear floor for me to find forty years on! Quite thoughtful of him really.....

 

[computercarguy]

Surprised nobody has mentioned delivery "accidents", sales person demo "boo boos" or any other damage from test drives that a dealer repairs before the vehicle is sold to the original owner. Having worked in dealerships, I've seen it many times.

.

.

I can’t believe I forgot three big ones: theft, damage and vandalism just being on the dealership lot. Not much for surveillance back in the day.

 

[luxstang]

There's a small metal bracket that attaches to the car body at the inner bottom of the quarter window opening, the purpose of which is to hold in place the top of the plastic arm rest panel.

One side was missing this bracket so I assumed it had got lost somewhere in the last forty years. When it came time for me to spruce up my floors, I peeled up the factory-installed floor insulation and found the missing bracket on the back floor pressed into the underneath of the insulation.

Well that solved the whereabouts of the missing bracket, but when I went to install it I found the hole in the body where it screws onto was malformed from when the panel was pressed (the hole was there but it hadn't broken through), and there was no way to screw the bracket on until I "completed" the hole by drilling it out.

So the bracket hadn't been installed at the factory at all - I surmise that the vehicle assembler went to screw it on, found he didn't have a hole to screw it in to, so piffed the bracket onto the rear floor for me to find forty years on! Quite thoughtful of him really.....

So now your car is no longer factory correct.

 

[Flatback72]

There's a small metal bracket that attaches to the car body at the inner bottom of the quarter window opening, the purpose of which is to hold in place the top of the plastic arm rest panel.

One side was missing this bracket so I assumed it had got lost somewhere in the last forty years. When it came time for me to spruce up my floors, I peeled up the factory-installed floor insulation and found the missing bracket on the back floor pressed into the underneath of the insulation.

Well that solved the whereabouts of the missing bracket, but when I went to install it I found the hole in the body where it screws onto was malformed from when the panel was pressed (the hole was there but it hadn't broken through), and there was no way to screw the bracket on until I "completed" the hole by drilling it out.

So the bracket hadn't been installed at the factory at all - I surmise that the vehicle assembler went to screw it on, found he didn't have a hole to screw it in to, so piffed the bracket onto the rear floor for me to find forty years on! Quite thoughtful of him really.....

So now your car is no longer factory correct.

Ha, I guess you are right Mike. However I do class the found bracket as a never-used original Ford "New Old Stock" part... :dodgy:

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

I worked in the automotive stamping business for most of my life and tool & die maker before going into engineering. I laugh about people concerned over the gaps. It does not make the car run better, get better mileage or a safety issue. It is a vanity thing. Give me the quality of the 70's with those prices and I will be in heaven. I could buy 10 new cars for the price of one.

We stamped parts for BMW, Toyota, Ford, Nissan, Mercedes, Chevy, Dodge and others. We also made parts for lawn mowers on the very same equipment with the same quality standards. I have seen new BMW's with horrible alignment between the front fender body lines and the door. When they first made their X5 the bodies would stretch when pulling a trailer and the battery box would drop down in the rear. A quick application of some band aids fixed the issue.

An automobile is not a piece of art or a thing of perfection it is a form of transportation. So if you want perfect you will have to pay someone probably $75,000 to take you car and weld up gaps and massage everything to as good as they can get it but I bet I can still find something not perfect. It probably would not bring half that to sell it. No such thing as a perfect car.

Great discussion get to understand what makes members tick.

David

 

[mrmach1]

I worked in the automotive stamping business for most of my life and tool & die maker before going into engineering. I laugh about people concerned over the gaps. It does not make the car run better, get better mileage or a safety issue. It is a vanity thing. Give me the quality of the 70's with those prices and I will be in heaven. I could buy 10 new cars for the price of one.

We stamped parts for BMW, Toyota, Ford, Nissan, Mercedes, Chevy, Dodge and others. We also made parts for lawn mowers on the very same equipment with the same quality standards. I have seen new BMW's with horrible alignment between the front fender body lines and the door. When they first made their X5 the bodies would stretch when pulling a trailer and the battery box would drop down in the rear. A quick application of some band aids fixed the issue.

An automobile is not a piece of art or a thing of perfection it is a form of transportation. So if you want perfect you will have to pay someone probably $75,000 to take you car and weld up gaps and massage everything to as good as they can get it but I bet I can still find something not perfect. It probably would not bring half that to sell it. No such thing as a perfect car.

Great discussion get to understand what makes members tick.

David

I look at these cars as a piece of history and laugh at people trying to make them perfect as you say. Cars of this era were never perfect or even close to perfect and for guys doing restorations with that goal in mind I feel they are taking from the historical value of the car. I love our cars and cars of the 60s and 70s in general with all of their faults and imperfections. Same goes with paint work 3stage super paint jobs almost look out of place on cars of this era. My car has a single stage urethane paint that has held up well considering I painted it myself in 1992.

 

[Boss1Ray]

The following thread really adds to this one...

Lots of good stuff including the interview from a Ford Assembly line worker who worked around 1972.

Really interesting.

http://www.7173mustangs.com/thread-early-70-s-ford-production

Ray

 

[Don65Stang]

There's a small metal bracket that attaches to the car body at the inner bottom of the quarter window opening, the purpose of which is to hold in place the top of the plastic arm rest panel.

One side was missing this bracket so I assumed it had got lost somewhere in the last forty years. When it came time for me to spruce up my floors, I peeled up the factory-installed floor insulation and found the missing bracket on the back floor pressed into the underneath of the insulation.

Well that solved the whereabouts of the missing bracket, but when I went to install it I found the hole in the body where it screws onto was malformed from when the panel was pressed (the hole was there but it hadn't broken through), and there was no way to screw the bracket on until I "completed" the hole by drilling it out.

So the bracket hadn't been installed at the factory at all - I surmise that the vehicle assembler went to screw it on, found he didn't have a hole to screw it in to, so piffed the bracket onto the rear floor for me to find forty years on! Quite thoughtful of him really.....

So now your car is no longer factory correct.

Probably is missing one of the factory rattles too.

 

[judge]

Painted my son's 96 Ranger last year due to thick flaking paint and heavy cracking of the hood paint. He was the original owner, nothing ever done except a clutch install. It had nine coats of teal body color with nine alternating coats of grey primer on the hood and roof. No wonder it was flaking and cracking.