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So AO Smith built the bodies in one plant? Shipped them to St. Louis and the other AO Smith plant where they were put assembled?
The A.O. Smith complex in Ionia, Michigan had both a molding plant (where the body panels were molded and then shipped next door to their body assembly plant and to St. Louis), and a body assembly plant where bodies were built, painted, partially-trimmed, and sent to St. Louis for final assembly. Here's a photo of the A.O. Smith shipping yard with a load of Corvette bodies on tri-level rail cars ready for shipment to St. Louis for final assembly.
Seeing that picture makes me wonder: Did all of the A. O. Smith convertibles come with a hardtop or did they ship some of the bodies on those rail cars with just the soft top in place?
It sure would be great to go back in time, and get to see all those mid year bodies being assembled. While you were at, might as well take a ride down to St Louis, and see the finall assembly.
This forum is one of best sites on the Internet for Corvette information.
Thanks for the updates John. We are all blessed to have a person of your knowledge and wisdom share with us. I have always said knowledge is power.
All these years I thought St. Louis made their own panels on molds supplied from outside vendors. You have now cleared that mystery up.
Now here is a new question,......for years here in the west at least, many people believe that an A.0. Smith body has better quality than a St. Louis body. They are glued together a little differently......and from what my West Coast Corvette Body and Paint friends tell me is the A.O. Smith cars are easier to restore because they were built better.
Jim, there was competition right off the bat starting in 1964 between A.O. Smith and St. Louis in terms of body quality, and you can bet there were some animated discussions at St. Louis during the daily completed vehicle quality audits when a St. Louis bodied-car and an A.O. Smith-bodied car were compared in detail side-by-side. A.O. Smith documented the assembly process very thoroughly operation-by-operation in their planning and used the same assembly tooling, jigs, and fixtures St. Louis did (a duplicate set was built and supplied to A.O. Smith), and they continuously improved their processes and the tooling as the years went by. They were paid a negotiated contractual price for each body (depending on style and options), so any productivity improvements they made put more margin in their pocket.
I think the competition was healthy, and there's no question that St. Louis bodies got better and better through the '64-'67 model years as the "friendly competition" with A.O. Smith intensified; St. Louis certainly didn't want to take second place to an outside contractor in building "their" body.
I've been researching the A.O. Smith build Corvette since I have a late 1964 built coupe. I wanted to add a photo of my trim tag & VIN tag showing specific details related to an Ionia Michigan built '64 Corvette.
After the Corvette body was produced in Ionia it was rail shipped to St. Louis for assembly. This rail trip took 8-14 days, you can see my Ionia built car completed 7/9/64 was final assembled in St. Louis 7/21/64,
which was 12 days later. I hopes this helps answer some questions to someone researching this interesting side of the C2 Corvette history.
I am hounded by the fact that A.O. cars were not ever supplied with N14 side exhausts. After doing a pretty credible job of restoring my '66 using all the available books as reference, I entered an NCRS regional and was stunned to learn that my car was incorrect with the side exhaust because it was an A.O. car. So, I lost points because it didn't have the correct exhaust pipes and mufflers, didn't have the right hangers and clamps, didn't have the correct ground straps and exhaust tips, didn't have the correct rocker panels, and didn't have the correct rear valence. Great looking car though, at 92.2 pts. Takes 94 to be Top Flight I'll get there.
Amos Otis Smith made the first frame for ford 1910 or so,i worked on the corvette line till they went to unibody.
we made all the frames for a GM cars and truck ford,Dodge,and GM and all semi frames till 2005 when they moved
retired from there in 2005 at 51 years old
Moulded Fiberglass Body Company. I believe they made the hoods and the upper surround. That’s why the hoods always have a gap on the side, because their arch is too high.
Last edited by OldCorvetter; 09-13-2021 at 10:04 AM.
I had no idea there was a quality diffence between the two plants. Years back, when I first looking for a C2, Jim tought me the differences between St Louis and AO Smith bodies. After talking to Jim, I could start see the fit differences when looking at a car.
I ended up with an early 65 car with a AO smith body. The panel gaps are almost perfect on the car; much better than my early C3 built in St Louis. The AO smith car's panel fit is as nice as many modern automated assemblly car.
Great old thread. Thanks Jim and others for the education!!!
It's unnerving to see revived 15 year old threads. Rest in peace and God's speed to Mr John Hinckley.
I think it's great to see them. First of all in my opinion, it's a tribute of sorts, that show the deep respect that was earned by John over the years.
He was alway's gracious with his time and knowledge, and would always reply to PM's looking for help. I will never forget his kindness in that regard.
And secondly, this type of info may not have been seen by newer members, or anyone not looking for certian info at the time, but may need it now for whatever reason, and can refer to our own little specialized encyclopia type of info..... Just my opinion!
03-03-2005, 10:58 AM
