Don't know how common this picture is but I had never seen it and found it interesting.



http://ford-y-block.com 

20 miles east of San Diego, 20 miles north of Mexico

That is a great photo John. I wonder how many more we would have today if the Rotunda up in there in Michigan had not burned down to the ground... hard to say how much documentation like this was in there. What is also interesting to me is that you have a Tbird being assembled on the line right behind a passenger car.... Call me dumb, but I never knew that they did the Thunderbird that way. I wonder how interesting that made parts acquisition and the same guys on the line putting all the parts together for all the series of models. Shows a lot to the testimony of FoMoCo workers I'd say.

Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

Great post, John. T'birds came down the Dearborn line intermixed with the Cars, but only at that plant. I think it was Dave T. from the CTCI who first found this photo a while back. WJ

Love the picture. I have seen it before but only in black and white. Got any more?

Thanks John!, I've never seen that in color either. It's no wonder the doors never fit, open or close consistently on most 55's!
Kind of a miracle those FORD guys could switch from passenger car to the bird back and forth. I've seen some very early 55's that were beat on with whatever to get the hood to fit from the factory. Wonder what else went on?

       A  L  A  N   F  R  A  K  E  S   ~  Tulsa, OK    

I wonder if there are more assembly line photos of that era around somewhere?
Great photo.

~DJ~ AKA "Bleach"
1956 Ford Fairlane Town Sedan 30K original miles

According to CTCI not only were the Birds assembled on the same production line as the pass cars, the serial numbers are consecutive for the production line. So the Bird SN's are not consecutive since there are pass cars in between, as can be clearly seen in the picture. So much for the rumor that Birds were assembled with extra care!

Doug T

The Highlands, Louisville, Ky.

Same thing at Wixom with the early 60's Lincoln Continentals and the "bullet birds"... intermixed on the line... shared some basic parts and fasteners... the ROT sheets and color coded parts bins helped to keep things straight... it's a common story over on VTCI and LCOC about finding the ROT sheets of each others marques under the seat springs or behind door panels, etc.

Brian

Cylinder Index = 84

Current Experiment = `57 Tbird, Grand Rapids, Michigan

Same method was used here in Australia, the production line had 56 customline followed by british zephyr, consul, how they kept track of necessary parts amazed me.

  AussieBill            YYYY    Forever Y Block     YYYY

 Down Under, Australia

I would love to see some assembly line pics of the Louisville plant where my 55 was assembled.

Butchering up everything I can get my hands on in Dayton Ohio