Topic: Factory Primer Process

[66SevenLitre]

I'm curious what folks know about the factory priming and paint processes on the production lines.  Understand there will likely be more knowledge about the Mustang assembly plants here, but all information is appreciated.  Here's what I've gathered so far:

1) In a 1968 documentary produced by Ford titled "A Car Is Born", the production process of Thunderbirds and Lincolns is shown at the Wixom plant.  When the body shell is contructed and all metalwork is done, it is moved into a 50,000 gallon vat where primer paint is electrically charged for adhesion.  After a second priming coat, the body is sanded and polished in final preparation for paint.  Next, it moves to the “color” paint booth where it is painted.  This process is descrined in the video here:   

2) Meanwhile, a similiar documentary produced by Ford in 1969 describes a different process shown in an unnamed full-size Ford assembly plant.  Once the metalwork is completed, the body is coated with primer before being solor sanded and inspected.  Next, three coats of enamel paint are applied as cars move through a paint booth (with the hood and fenders appearing in temporarily in place).  Assuming once the baking process is done, the painted bodies are then placed on a "truck" and rolled to their place on the “trim” line.  Again, process described here: 

3) Lastly, Ford Motor Company of Canada describe in their May 1966 Mercury Magazine that a "chemically applied phosphate coating prepares the body for painting", then "a protective prime coat is applied" before the car goes to a spray booth where the body "receives multiple coats of long-lasting enamel".  Then the car goes to an oven where the paint is "baked to a hard, bright lustre.  See attached image.

Here's what I'm curious about:

- Was the Wixom plant the only plant to apply the e-Coat electrically charged primer process between 1966-70?  Anyone know what year they started?
- If the e-Coat process wasn't used by the other assembly plants, did they do the chemically-applied phosphate coating prior to primer?  Was primer sprayed by hand?   

Thanks for your help. 

Jeff/Moderators, if this post should be in a different place, please feel free to move.  Thanks.

[67gta289]

In the first (1968) documentary, at 14:39 there was a statement along the lines of "in the five engine plants we make 10,000 to 15,000 blocks per day"  I was thinking about what those engine plants would be:

1. Dearborn (Rouge) FE engines
2. Cleveland
3. Lima
4. Windsor
5. Ensite???

Any corrections to the above?

[J_Speegle]

Sorry moved this twice. After reading the whole post it was apparent that placing it in the other section Body, Paint & Sealers would possibly confuse some members

Believe that the e coating was possibly first used on individual parts that were not welded to the car initially. Don't recall any production applications in the 60's that was published but that does not mean they were not testing and or considering it. Kind of like the mention in the one film you listed of the powder coating parts. It showed that they were testing and is related to e coating but in 69 was only being considered and tested.

We have discussed in the past some of the service replacement parts being possibly e-coated

[66SevenLitre]

In the first (1968) documentary, at 14:39 there was a statement along the lines of "in the five engine plants we make 10,000 to 15,000 blocks per day"  I was thinking about what those engine plants would be:

1. Dearborn (Rouge) FE engines
2. Cleveland
3. Lima
4. Windsor
5. Ensite???

Any corrections to the above?

I'm not sure if this is 100% correct, but here's I learned on engine plants & codes: 

C1=Cleveland Engine Plant #1 -- 215-CID six, 265, 292/312, 352/361 (for Edsel), 221/260/289, 302/Boss and 200/240/300 inline sixes.
C2=Cleveland Engine Plant #2 -- 272/292/312, 223 six, large truck motors (401/477/534) and later 351C/351M/400
D=Dearborn Engine Plant (DEP) -- 332/352/360/390/406/410/427/428 FEs
L=Lima -- 383/410/430 MEL engines and later the 200/250 sixes, then the 385-series motors
E=Ensite (Windsor-based subsidiary) -- established in Canada in 1964 to build 289s and subsequent Windsor engines
W1=Windsor Engine Plant #1 -- 221/260/289, 289 K-Code and later the 302/351W, 351M and 351 Marine
W2=Windsor Engine Plant #2 -- not sure if some or all of the above

If anyone has any literature, videos or sources where I can learn more about the factory production processes back in 1965-70, please let me know. 
 

[J_Speegle]

If anyone has any literature, videos or sources where I can learn more about the factory production processes back in 1965-70, please let me know.

Every so often plant pictures pop up for sale on Ebay. Samples are often posted and though they have watermarks they do often show process and details you can surely learn from. Hopefully they will also have identifiers as to year and plant. The site has purchased a far number of these over the years. Same goes for literature. I've purchased books that cover welding procedure, training ans line usage for example. Also a couple of years back I found a book that covered Fords process of producing a new model year or a change through all the steps. In years past if a book or literature didn't have pictures they didn't have much value to many  and allot of them got tossed. I, like some others picked them up when we could. Of course much of this is not reproduced so you have to search to find them or another we've never seen. 

To bad we didn't spend more time when these cars were built or the years that followed closely to document or collect stuff. Too busy focusing on other details and things never imaging what would be important or hard to find 50 years later. Also it would have been helpful if the authors writing books about Ford products and production had been writing about the then, fairly current cars but that was not history. If I had been slightly older and knew what I knew now I could have had access to the archives through  Lorin Sorensen whom I worked for for a couple of years in the early 70's


A good source is often employee manuals or guidelines even union documents. Often the handouts given to tours of the period rarely provide much in the way of concrete new information. Most is pretty generic but a possibility

Original workers can also provide nuggets here or there but in general they are much better remembering other employees, their interactions and the like rather than retaining  memories of many details that would help with restorations. 

[66SevenLitre]

Jeff, sent you an email.  Excellent info as always.  I too wish I started collecting info/insights/etc about this many years ago.  It may be harder to do now, but I still hope to gather and document more about Ford's production line processes. 

I know there are knowledge bases out there for full-size, trucks, T-birds, Falcons, Mercury's, Cougars, etc ... and folks with some pretty deep subject matter expertise. I'm hoping explore both over time.  Great idea on the employee manuals/guidelines and union documents.  If you ever hear of any books or other sources, or have suggestions, I'm certainly interested. 

Thanks again. 

[TLea]

I agree with Jeff on the e coating not done   My 65 Galaxie r code had all the tell tale signs of conventional jet/spray painting similar to mustang plants. Not sure how they were secured as no visible dolly marks  but they certainly wouldn’t be visible if posted were body mounts went