Critter1

This was the entrance that most of the employees used.

I shot this about six months before the plant closed in 1981. I tried to get the "Going Out In Style" sign when the plant closed but someone beat me to it. I have a lot of other items from the plant though.

1965glengreen

Super cool. Would have been awesome to have the sign.

PrimeRib

My Vette was born there in 1966. Very cool pic :-)

Rusler John

Where was the plant in St. Louis?

Critter1

The Corvette plant was just West of the big Chevrolet building at Union Blvd & Natural Bridge Ave. (building #1 in the image below)

Thanks John Hinckley for the drawing.

I've heard this is now a very rough area of St Louis.

John BX NY

If I remember correctly the the 120 in the sign refers to corporate vehicle quality audit score they were shooting for

Critter1

I don't remember what it was for but that may be correct. If I get time later, I'll try to dig out the original picture and re-scan in better quality.

dmaxx3500

I stopped down there 2-3 years ago in the day time,and after 5 mins a cop car pulled-up and told me to leave for my safety,,its just south of fergeson,,


anybody with more pics would be great too

mikelj

How much of the equipment got transferred to Bowling Green in late '81?

Critter1

Not much of the equipmen was sent to BG. The new BG plant was already in operation when STL closed so BG already had to have everything it needed.
Some may have been sent to other passenger car/truck plants. I know quite a few of the employees went to Wentzville and I suppose a lot of equipment did too.

On the last day of production at STL, a great big gondola followed the last car down the assembly line and as each worker finished his final job, he was instructed to immediately toss any hand operated air tools into it. I suppose much of that was usable at other plants.

That place at any given moment always had about hundred air tools in operation around the plant. That was a very noisy and HOT facility.

mikelj

Just after my '81, early BG car, was Bowtie judged at the national in July, John Ballard was talking about it for the class concerning paint. He said the early BG '81s probably had twice as much paint on them as a typical St.Louis car in '81 did. You can tell the difference a mile away, as the BG paint job is gorgeous, deep, and almost flawless. It seems the new BG workers wanted to show what a great paint job they could do (new process and BC/CC), after so many years of the St. Louis lacquer paint jobs.

JohnZ

Here's the St. Louis complex (biggest assembly plant in the U.S.) in the 60's. The main Chevrolet/Fisher Body car and truck operation is in the foreground, with Fisher on the right and Chevrolet on the left, on the corner. The Corvette plant (the "mill") is the rectangular building at the left rear, behind the water tower, coal pile, and the Powerhouse.

The Corvette building was a terrible place to work due to the intense heat, humidity, fiberglass dust, and no ventilation or air-conditioning. When I left at night, I went straight to my hotel for a LONG shower; might have a drink later, might not. Went back to Chevrolet Engineering Center and the Pilot Line in January, 1968.

Critter1

Thanks John. Excellent picture. That must have been in the very early 60's because I don't see the new extension on the back corner or the wheel/tire assembly building behing the plant. The extesion was built in 64?

JohnZ

Yup - the extension was done for the '64 model year; photo was shot in '62 or '63.

Photo below shows all the products Chevrolet-St. Louis built in 1961; the Corvette came out of the "mill" building, and the other (11) products came out of the main passenger car/truck assembly plant. There were two completely separate lines in the main plant - one for passenger cars (bodies from the firewall rearward came from the Fisher Body plant next door), and the other line built trucks (pickups, chassis-cabs, medium and heavy-duties, and school bus chassis). The forward-control rear-engine Corvan models (including the Greenbrier and pickup) were built up on the third floor of the truck line.

Old Blazer

Love the train car load of Corvettes in the background.
I toured the plant several times in the late 60's and early 70's. What I remember the most were the black marks left by the drivers as they left the plant to park the vette in the lot and more black skid marks left when they locked up the brakes to avoid the fence at the turn into the lot! Some didn't make it stopped as new chain link attested. I thought that management would have frowned on the practice but was told that if the car was going to break it was better here rather than on a customers first drive.

PAmotorman

when mrs and I toured the corvette plant when we were picking up our 396 on april 16 1965 I thought it was a dirty dark place to work. I worked in a research facility and I was used to a clean brightly lit work place.

Critter1

It didn't get any better as the years went by. It was hot in the summer too.

Nowhere Man

So could anyone just stop in and ask for a tour back then or what.

Critter1

I think it was mostly prearranged tour groups but if you knew someone, or bought several new Corvettes over the years, like Clem, you could get a private tour. Visitors didn't get to see the entire plant though. Most areas were off limits. The most popular areas were body drop and first start.

mikelj

John and Mike, either of you have any pictures of the lower body shop area in the basement?