General Motors Body By Fisher. Transferred from an original 35mm print. Footage from this film is available for licensing from www.globalimageworks.com
My father worked for General Motors-Fisher Body in Detroit and later at the General Motors Technical Canter in Warren, Michigan. Dad was a skilled woodworker who made full scale models of GM automobiles , and wood die models of automobile parts out of wood. I remember as a young boy and again as a teenager, touring his shop at the Technical Center. It was exciting to see where he worked and what he did. All but a few glimpses of the new wood and clay models were covered from view, but it was so interesting. Before going to work for Fisher Body, Dad made custom laminated wood fishing nets, tennis rachets, and hockey sticks and fine wood cabinets in his shop in the village of Laurium, in Michigan's Copper Country in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. His work with wood was not only functional but also art. Dad taught me a lot about woodworking as a boy and I have loved to work with wood all my life. I remember always looking at his hands and admired what he could do with them. Even today, when I look at photos of my dad, I am still drawn to his hands, the hands of a skilled woodworker and fine craftsman. I have my dad's Body by Fisher badges and carriage pins in a safe place. Thank you, dad, for all the wonderful memories you helped create for me. Thank you for sharing this very interesting history of Body by Fisher.
Wow, thank you for sharing. I truly admire and appreciate the skilled men and women that helped build this country and still the ones to this day. As a machinist, I am a skilled worker and make things for manufacturing facilities.
I tell you, it's a crime of a shame, of how you can count on the fingers of one hand, the number of people who appreciate what goes into a manufactured product, not only cars
As a body draftsman nearing retirement, I remember this age very well. The cars of the late 70s and early 80s were all hand drawn. There was true artistry involved with the best body draftmen. We took great pride in our work because we knew dies were getting cut from our hand drawings. The computer is certainly easier and allows for tighter tolerances, but it is no different than the old campass, sweeps and triangles. It is a tool and is only as good as the guy driving it. The manual world forced the draftsman to think three dimensionally in a two-dimensional medium. You couldn't just spin the data on the screen. The great ones were truly brilliant because you would have to see lines of multiple parts on a master layout all together, and they were the same color - black lines on mylar. I loved working with all of those guys!
This RU-vid video brings back a fond memory I have of my mom bringing her brand new, 1969 Pontiac Catalina home. She proudly showed off her new car to me (I was four (4) years old at the time) and when she opened the driver's front door, she directed my attention towards the bottom, center of the door opening (an aluminum plate), saying to me as she glowed with pride: "See Freddie; she has a body by Fisher! They are really good bodies"! Right afterwards, my mom promptly showed me something that I had never known even existed. My mom directed me to the front bumper of her new Catalina and once again, she proudly stated: "She even has a rubber nose"! As a young child, I had no idea that a car having a "rubber nose" was a "real thing". Fifty two (52) years into the future, the cars built back in the sixties, compared to cars of today's vintage, have very little in common anymore. Well, at least the "rubber bumper" carried on over the years and still exists even on new cars! This new, sky-blue, 1969 Catalina car was very special to my mother. She loved that car so much. Nowadays, I can only pray that my momma is driving a brand new, sky-blue, sparkling, 1969 Pontiac Catalina around up in heaven, with no traffic. I love and miss you so much momma... Your Freddie
@Fred Roeder, Such a nice story. Made me smile. Same here, Dad bought a new '67 Chrysler Newport Custom. We went to go see it in the showroom. A few days later, what a surprise! The '62 Biscayne wagon was probably not too happy. lol!
History shows that many great things came from this era; great engineering product from post war. Supermarkets, great cars, fast food, suburbia, space program, jet age, great music, television, computers, etc. As a nation we will never see this again!!!
@@spod2998 Well, technically that’s not correct, since fisher only built the sheet metal components. Electrical problems were courtesy of GMC. (Great Mass of Crap). Every GM car I owned was inferior quality and reliability. Then I switched to Honda, and can now appreciate quality and reliability.
After watching this, I have much greater appreciation for what Preston Tucker must have gone through to make his car bodies starting from scratch. Keith L.
Those tool and die makers were legend in this country at that time. They could design tools and machinery for any application. They were innovators and problem solvers of the first order.
My father had a 65 Cadillac Sedan de Ville and always remember seeing that Body By Fisher as we stepped into that car I restore old refrigerators and coke machines and I get so impressed by craftmanship of years gone by
IAM 73 now and I did all this kind of work. The only thing I didn't do was work in the stamping plaint and on the assembly line. It was great to see something made from nothing to a beautiful car. My hands where like a surgeon 😷.
My dad worked for fisher body in lansing mi for Olds along with 6 uncles 1 grandfather and 1 aunt and mother in law. Long live the wonderful GM cars of the past!
I have always liked cars the cool vintage cars 50s 60 70s also build plastic model cars and also autobody. very good film to see how cars are put together. when I was younger my grandfather had a 57 chevy convertible and my dad had a 57 ford ranch wagon 2dr
I had a few uncles who worked for Fisher Body. It was all about craftsmanship, in those days. You never hear about that anymore. Car/truck commercials, today, give you no clue about what went into making what you are seeing. Fantastic video.
Marveled at the Body by Fisher label in my dad's 1978 Oldsmobile 98 Diesel, GM's first foray introducing a diesel engine into a passenger car. It was basically a converted gasoline engine, and basically junk. I was given that car and drove it from California to Michigan and charging up the steep hills in the Rockies it looked like an ancient 707 taking off with a blast of diesel exhaust fouling the pure Rocky Mountain air, sorry about that!
my grand father was the head supervisor there 'Jimmy Aldrich' for over 30 years. and my dad worked there also I think he was in the body shop but his name was Jeffrey Aldrich (now deceased)
What you comment is not only wonderful for automobiles, but also for the people of that time where the children continued the lavours of their parents, their future work was planned, the families developed in peace and with a future. All this is being lost thanks to globalization and the business of a few.
Fascinating, - My 1988 Chevrolet Caprice station wagon has a 'Fisher Body' plaque on the door sill kick plates with a little carriage inscribed on to it.
Thanks so much for posting this great footage. I'm restoring a 57 Chevy and it's great to see how much work went into these classics. Makes you appreciate the cars from the inside out.
A guy i know who once said," Why does it cost so much? It's only a car." I was shocked he could be so naive. The complexity of an automobile is staggering. No wonder it takes billions of dollars to introduce a new model.
I have a 1955 Belair 2 Dr hardtop . I have owned the car for 25 years. This video is so wonderful. I am able to see how my car was made. Wow thank you so much for posting this.
Hey there.. I realize you posted your comment FOURTEEN YEARS AGO ‘but’, having just read it for the first time @ myself, in the middle of restoring one of my ‘55 Buick Super 56R’s, I couldn’t resist asking you if you were ever able to fulfill the completion of restoring your ‘55 Chevy Belair? I’ve likely watched/listened to this same vintage film 30+ times over the past decade + & maybe not necessarily this same YT channel… can’t remember if same RU-vidr. I discovered this film’s title from original literature i painstakingly collected for my two ‘55 Buicks over the past couple decades, one item of which, lists out any and all GM/Buick Films, whether 35mm slidefilms with accompanying vinyl record audio &/or, R-to-R 16mm movie films… I’ve collected every original slidefilm kit but, these motion-picture 16mm films have eluded me thus far! Any of them having been digitized/archived & uploaded to YT over the years, has been such a great help AND ENTERTAINING!
@@seanbatiz6620 thank you for the reply from many years ago my comment. I actually sold my 55 I was frustrated the threaded clips that holds the quarter panel stainless trim on we’re too short so the quarter panels had so much Bondo in them could not start the nuts. The car needed complete new quarter panels so I sold it and let somebody else worry about it and I am enjoying the money. Thank you so kindly for the reply Travis in KY
For the first time in our countries history we .have a President who promised to revise the horrific trade deals that destroyed the middle class, but guess who the UAW endorsed ?
How sad.....America truly shone then....As did the big three. As a recent retiree of GM, I appreciate the days when Quality ran the show, in ALL industry
Adverage salary one dollar an hour, money had value , by 1965 no more silver coins . Now basketball players demand 30 to 60 million dollars Greed in sports
@@edwardalamo2507 I strongly agree! I will not contribute to any pro sports team or player. When I shop at the grocery store, I will not buy any item that sponsors any sports team, like Pepsi or any type of cereals. I live in the suburbs of Boston, home of the Red Sox and New England Patriots... I love it when somebody asks me if I am watching the upcoming game... I say "oh, the Red Sox are playing?... Isn't that football?'... you should see the look I get back! lol... its really hilarious!
@@formula112967 Oh, I can see that you are really down on the athletes but you don't mind that a Hollywood star gets $100 to make a movie these days? Or that a CEO from a failed corp. gets $32million when FORCED to retire? Or that a piece of shit car that parks for you , costs $50,000....Maybe your industry had a unique way of separating the fools from their money so you really don't think of yourself as being greedy...That's capitalism-that's the American way...
These cars really are this great too, the doors on my ‘53 Buick still open & close that easy. They don’t put this kind of quality control into cars anymore, this is a bygone era for cars...
@@guysteel Depended on where you lived. If it was a salt state it was game over but it didn't matter because most who could afford new cars changed them annually. As for crashing it can be said that cars were never built to crash: they were built to drive. A 60mph crash into an oncoming car also doing 60 mph gives a 120 mph impact. No car old or otherwise would protect you
Awsome vidio.I too have a 55 chevy hardtop,those were the days.It's too bad greed and the lack of care for the middle class have turned Beautiful 1955 into Ugly 2012.
I found this vid absolutely fascinating! Having worked as an autobody mechanic in my younger days, I always wonders how stamping dies were made. This answered it!
Thanks for keeping this older historical gem going for all to enjoy and perhaps learn something. I know the technology is very outdated but as most of you know, this is not the point. Respectfully. Sven.
Even though I came in at the end of it, in the plastics division, I surely wished I worked in the modeling (the clay) part.. it wasn't encouraged for girls to go there., yet there were many prototyping occupations for interior components.. RIP Fisher/Pontiac.. some day I will be gone too.. and the Memories of Detroit will be graffiti ghosts in the wind.. Something NoOne thought possible..
these cars in 2013 are still being proudly driven everyday in Cuba, do you think a toyota Prius will be driven daily in 50 years,oh thats right todays cars are NON restorable, do your part and dont buy them.Buy old cars restore and drive them,one of these classics did save my life, and could save yours when a plastic pod bounces off of it off a bridge on some black ice, remember what GM engineers have said, weight wins in a motor crash. Be smart buy gas and drive something beautiful and heavy.
Nice to see the skilled artisan getting some credit. As mentioned below the Fisher plant stands now as a crumbling ruin like so much of the rest of Detroit.
The Fisher Body plant in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania was razed after GM sent its work to Mexico. It's now a Copart junkyard. The Fisher Guide plant in Columbus, Ohio was razed after GM sent its work to Mexico. It's now a casino. I used to calibrate and maintain the boiler controls at both places.
It was 1959 I was on the night shift ,20 years old and not the sharpest tool in the shed operating a press that riveted the upper ball joint to the control arm there were two buttons at knee level that had to be pressed with your hands I was also “Poping” a few with guys on the line near me so I figured out that I could speed up the operation by using my knees to push the buttons ,I pushed the buttons with my knees and a little inebriated didn’t see my right hand was in the press ,I didn’t loose the finger but my pointer is definitely larger and fatter the my left finger. The moral of the story is don’t drink and drive.
Столько труда нужно вложить, что б спроэктировать одну только дверь! Афигеть! Уважение и почет инженерам! Теперь я понимаю, почему разработка новой модели машины так дорого стоит, столько труда и испытаний нужно пройти + наладить производство.
There was a time when America was great and hard working and innovative men were promoted as an ideal and those who practiced it were looked up to as examples.
Wonderfully crafted 50s corporate propaganda film! I really admire how the narrative seamlessly melds together the production methods of guild artisans of the pre-industrial age with assembly line work that aimed to erase any trace of job complexity so that one worker was as disposable as any other. The good ole days, indeed!
Как мне все это знакомо.Сначала я был штамповщиком, а потом контролёром ОТК.Процесс производства мастер-- моделей проходил перед моими глазами.И контроль готовых штамповок.70- е и начало 80- х годов.
Fischer Body Willow Springs IL and neighbor GM Electro-Motive Division La Grange ran the local economy for 50 years. The area boomed. No more FB and a small GM Electro Motive Div. How sad. The area is not the same booming towns as before. As General Motors goes, so goes the nation.
I remember a metal plate bolted inside the frame of the driver's door of my father's '69 Camaro engraved with the words "Fisher Body" and a depiction of the carriage under the words. I always wondered what that was about.
Armando Flores :Yesss!!! The logo with the carriage thingie. Always mystified me as a kid. Parents had to 'splain it to me. Ach. Us old folks! Riding in those beautiful really unsafe rattly metal beast cars.
When the "body by fisher" sill plate disappeared, car style went to shinola, all the most beautiful styles and even Americas pride as a great industrial giant suffered as a result. Love Chevys muscle cars of the 60's? Love the 50's cars?, The 40's tanks? The thirtees coupes and street rods? all Fisher. Love the 80's, 90's and modern day look alikes? nahhh, shame what greed does to everything good and beautiful. Think anyone will want to restore a 2000 Impala? doubt it. Hats off to the Fisher bros. Thank them when you go to a car show, or a cruise in, they made a mark that will be in the hearts and minds of American car guys forever.
They were not redesigning a totally new model every year. A basic design would carry on for several model years with minor or trivial tweaks from one year to the next.
Chevrolet in 1936 was basically one car with a 2 door sedan 4 door sedan and a business coupe a lot of the annual styling changes were sheet metal and sheet metal and trim tweaks that 6 cylinder engine was in production for decades.
Automating stamping presses has been my job for 50 years. I always wonder how many fingers, hands, arms, shoulders and backs were saved by automating that type of work.
+++++I am currently restoring a 66Malibu I have to tell yes after 50 years yes some of sheet metal needs replacement but let me tell you it is daunting they really built these cars back then not so easy to separate the metals but that's why I love the old cars, after I am done this car will last another 50 years.
There’s a test crash on RU-vid between a 1959 Chevrolet and a 2009 Malibu.....the 59 kills the driver....big, heavy car and its a death trap. Modern cars are far safer.
Wish we could send a video of present day Detroit, back in time, to these craftsmen of 1955. I'd like have shown them what the fruits of their labors led to ie, the mayhem occurring on the streets of the United States. They may have taken different decisions.