All the old fixtures tooling and other machines used at the St. Louis plant. I would think all the big things got scraped but I would think maybe line workers took things when the plant closed. Is any of that stuff still out there in collections.
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I went into the old Corvette plant in about 1990 with permission of the owners at that time . It was empty for the most part . The owners told me all the body dollies were scraped not long before we went there. I spent two days inside we went on the roof , all over inside , into the offices ,in the tunnels ,store rooms etc. We did bring home a few things . There were lots of bolts , Crates of cotter pins . paint gun heads , some small signs ,brass light covers , door handle balls and a seat bottom used to sit in cars before the real seats were installed and a few tools . I still have a brick from the wall . Some of the tunnels were flooded . It was very dark we each had two flash lights looking for rats and spiders . I did take a few pictures . I will post them later . Sorry no treasures were found .We always heard rumors of radios and carbs hidden in the tunnels but we didnt find them. Most of the stuff left over was pushed into the pits and openings in the floor .Comment
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What are the tunnels you talk about?Comment
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Can't wait to see these pictures !!!!!!!Tom Hendricks
Proud Member NCRS #23758
NCM Founding Member # 1143
Corvette Department Manager and
Specialist for 27 years at BUDS Chevrolet.Comment
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I assume that the tunnels at Chevrolet were the same as at Buick, where I earned my pay as a welder. These tunnels were poured concrete, steel re-enforced walkways between the plants. These walkways were about 4 or 5 ft. high and had brackets and supports on the walls that carried steam, compressed air and electrical conduit to and from the powerhouse and water treatment plants. There were also trestles above ground that had much larger pipe and duct work and electrical equipment that ran the entire length of the complex, also from roof to roof and below ground.Comment
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If the Corporation is consistent, my recollections of the Locomotive plant in McCook (that which I knew of or was told on good authority); most things are scraped, destroyed or buried. It seems they would rather do that then anything get out in the public and, sort of, end up on E-Bay or at some swap meet. I personally witnessed the destruction of a lot of old artwork, renditions and (of course) part/assembly drawings, etc. I was told that all the WWII tooling was buried including complete Stainless Steel engines built for mine sweepers (boats). I suppose that if the quarry people start mining that land someday they will run across it.
Stu FoxComment
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It would be hard to bury anything near the Locomotive Plant Stu. As you know and have noted the quarry is right across the road. Limestone is right at the surface in that area so digging there is a B)*$*. We tried to bore in some electrical cable along Joliet road and eventually had to trench it in because of the rock.
There once were three black C4 ZR1s with active handling that I saw at the Mesa Proving Ground. One is now at the National Corvette Museum (or it was a few years ago) and I was told the other two were buried at Mesa. Now that property has been sold. What will they dig up there? I am sure someone in GM has thought about that, right?TerryComment
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Jerry you are correct about the tunnels . The one between the truck and Corvette plant was flooded .Comment
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Interesting question alright. You do wonder about St. Louis and Flint, or even Tonawanda. There are always rumors floating around about those stamps they used for the engines however. Anybody actually seen one of those in the flesh recently?Big Tanks In the High Mountains of New MexicoComment
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Micheal the stamps never crossed my mind because I read on here or the other board that they were changed out daily.
I was just looking though Nolans book and looking at the assembly line pictures and there just a lot of fixtures, tools and other stuff used to build cars.Comment
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I guess I had heard the engine pad stamps were gang stamps, loaded and changed daily indeed, but the gang tool itself and all the letters and numbers used to load it should have survived someplace, no?
See page 45 of this article about St. Louis:
Big Tanks In the High Mountains of New MexicoComment
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I really don't know. what became if the plant after 81? did it just sit vacant until GM sold it? did GM have it cleaned and sweep of anything of value and then rest hauled off for scraped. or did they just dig a big hole and bury the good stuff like said above.Comment
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I was at the St Louis plant the last two days of production and two more days after it shut down. I still vividly remember the gondola (looked like a dumpster) that followed the last Corvette down the line that was being filled with tools. As soon as a worker finished his last operation on the last car, he started gathering all of the air powered tools at his station and tossed them into the gondola.
Some tools didn't make it into the gondola though.
The day after the last car rolled off, people were already starting to dismantle some of the equipment.
I don't remember the date that the last car (#31,611) rolled off the line but it wasn't the last car out the door. (actually, my (X) wife rode out of the building in that last car to leave. I have a pic of that) It was a dark blue car that went to Canada. I have a pic of the manifest but it's hard to read the VIN.
Lot of sad faces when the last car passed by on the line.
The only part of the engine gang stamp that changed were the characters. The tool itself lasted a long time. The characters had to be changed for every job because the VIN changed for evey job.Comment
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