Up From Clay - A Car is Born in 1959 

How lovely.

That's my mother @19:45!

Wow, so cool!!@@bobjohnson205

WOW!, so many people working to bring quality cars to Customers. I remember my Dad owning 1963 Chevrolet Impala and Fisher logo on car. Very cool Video.

While I was watching this, I was thinking, man, some of these of folks are so old at the time of the film while others are so young and probably still alive today. So many generations in this film. Back in the day when old folks and young people had so much more in common with each other.

@Célia Huart No need to apologize for your well written English! It is better then how most North Americans write these days, my self included!

Yep you sure do know how it was made lots of work went into it.

👍Congrulations 👏👏 1959 Chevrolet Impala is a just star of the all the times of the WORLD It ‘S have a legend lines.... 🙋‍♂️👋👋

I once had a Roman Red Sport Coupe with 348, factory air conditioning... .

I do also and I'm grateful 🙏 for it

@Adrian Vegas Thank you Capt Obvious for missing my point.

I was watching the way that car wobbled as it traveled across a flat road, it looked heavy and not very aero dynamic.

1959 Chevrolet had "wings".....1959 Cadillac had "fins".......one goes out side ways - the other goes up and down......hopefully, you're not still confused.....

Wow, I didn't know that.

I heard that when the head of GM styling saw the Chrysler "Forward Look" '57 lineup he told his group, "You can all resign now."

Bill Mitchell orchestrated the redesign because his boss Harley Earl was in Europe during Summer 1956.@@TPOrchestra

Back then it was more or less expected that you'd trade in every 2-3 years. Styles were always changing and you were expected to keep up with the current styles. That and most cars of that time, especially in areas where salt is used, were shot in 5 years anyway. For me, and probably most people, the nostalgia is for the styling of the past, not the build quality, safety and driveability.

Yes

Yep, There was a good reason why they called a lot of cars rust buckets back in the day. And really if you got 75,000 miles out of an engine without having to replace it or rebuild it. You were doing really good. Being born in 1951, I have seen a lot of rust buckets and a lot of worn out engines in cars that only had less than 80,000 miles on them. Compare that to nowadays where some automobile engines can knock out 100,000 miles or more easily without major repairs and for the most part, major rust problems have all but been eliminated. That said, I can't help but be nostalgic about the styling wars of all the cars from the '50s, '60s and '70s. Every auto maker had their own idea of what style was and it was pretty exciting as a kid or a young man to see those. And yes cars last a long long time nowadays but the other side of that is to me they all look the same.

@@carlmontney7916I think the thing that played a big role on how long a engine lasted back then was how one’s driving habits along with changing the oil every 3 months or every 3,000 miles. Many people fell for the 5,000 to 6,000 mile oil changes (the oil change conspiracy isn’t entirely new) which wore out the engines sooner than necessary so they could sell you a new car sooner than necessary as well. Another example of ‘planned obsolescence’ at work though, this isn’t the typical planned obsolescence we are know of, but is one of those things where it’s at one’s discussion. I think by the time the 1960’s came around, cars gradually began to last longer and longer since the tolerances were beginning to get better and better along with things becoming a bit more standardized. The ‘66 Ford Galaxie 500 I am goin to be getting (hopefully) has the 289 in it paired up with a C6 automatic, wouldn’t be surprised if it actually has 162,000 on it judging by the wear on the driver’s side of the seat and leaky transmission. Easily will make it to 200K once everything is fixed since the Ford 289 (same thing as the 302, just a slightly smaller displacement) was known for running for a long, long time.

The engines were less durable than todays but the body and frames were worlds better than the ones now ( with a few exceptions of bad paint batches in the early sixties)

Totally agree. Much of the logistics, design and production of complicated vehicles, was surely learned in WW 2, producing complicated planes, engines, and countless pieces of war material in record time. I know most of younger generation would not believe it, but in the Sixties and Seventies, one could go to an auto dealership and order the exact auto one wanted, the body color, interior color and materials, automatic gadgets, or plain Janes,all the bells, or no whistles, order was sent to Detroit, and the exact model you ordered was built on the assembly line per your exact specifications. Pretty amazing 🤩

The guy doing the chiselling?

Even though I don't see him in this film, my father worked at G.M. South Gate (CA) BOP assembly plant from 1955-1959. He said that in his first week of employment there, he lost 15 lbs. installing steering columns. He could definitely tell when they would speed up the line. For those of you who love those 59 Impalas and Bel Airs, check out the film here on RU-vid titled "1959 Bel Air versus 2009 Impala" to see how these beautiful steel masterpieces held up in the real world. Prepared to be amazed.

+tobacco72 Thanks for your comments. Much appreciated. There was a lot of pride and skill going into those cars.

I don't think that attention and care goes into cars anymore. Just look at the cheap plastic all over the insides of a car.

@@RivetGardener It's called gas mileage,these boats from the 50's/60's would get 5mpg,but at .20 cents a gallon no one cared. Try getting that mileage with gas at 3.00-4.00 per gallon.

@@bengus8148 TRY 12 TO 18 MPG!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MY DAD GOT 6 MPG PULLING A 3,000 LB CAMPER & US 3 AT 65 MPH WITH AN 68 OLDS USING A 7.5 LITER V8!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

are you 78 + 3 = 81 ?

Then, as now, we only get 2 ten minute breaks and 24 minutes for lunch. There’s no time to go out for lunch

Not true. AT&T was.

@@desertbob6835 Not even close. GM valued at nine and a half billion in 1959.

made for pretty uncomfortable work.

Sounds terrible....

i still drive gm. ready to get my corvairs out soon

Millennials today hate anything that says Made in America.

I drive a 17 SS Camaro

And while the Soviets launched the first orbital vehicle (Sputnik) in 1957, industrial and technical talent in the United States at the time was sculpting tail fins on cars for consumer appeal...

lar4305 the economic incentives were completely different back then, companies were taxed incredibly severely on profits, the way they were encouraged to avoid this was by investing in new facilities and machines. These days there’s no incentive to expand, the only thing that is incentivised is for the executives to give themselves more money.

Glad you enjoyed it!

That's true, but more so how automated things were in the 1920's, Michael.

Yep...there is a video also on 1930s auto factories...lots of automation.

That always blows me away as well!

@@matrox I came here to say the same thing. 1936 was the year of that video.

Mind blowing we think they were retarded back then

Take a look at the '59 Buick Invicta and compare to a '59 Chevrolet Impala

I like the 58 and 59 Impalas both about equally. They kinda xmessed it up in 1960 but the 61s are nice. 61 is when the SS Package became available. The 409 also became available that year.

Would be fun to be able to come and go. I'd miss the Internet and all the great shows on TV and a few other creature comforts but boy it would be fun to pick up one of these vehicles for so little and have a blast.

Yeh...I remember the oldies were a regular site on our roads, they were cool then as much as today.

THEY HAD A POWERFUL FILTERED VENTILATION SYSTEM; SERIOUSLY!!!!!!!!

Yeah , I noticed that. How long would those guys live ?

TheHelado36 yeap the also ate tons of bacon, those basterds!

There was no OSHA in the 1950’s.

@@fw1421 ......and alot of guys smoked filter less cigarettes then too!!!.

No Lie! A friend's dad had that '59 Buick. We went camping once with another kid. The dad was in a pup tent by the fire, my friend got the front seat, I got the back and the 3rd kid got the trunk which was probably the best of lot.

Thank you Tim for watching and for your kind words and support.

Damn , can't believe someone else noticed that ! Yea. I bet she was the tomcat of her department.

This is not an 80's car

Glenn Havinoviski, most people would trade in their car for new one every three to five years back in those days They were never designed with ten year durability in mind.

@@lrg3834 My Dad allways kept a car 10 yerar

@@raysitzes2455 , your dad obviously took very good care of his automobiles. I applaud that. Personally, I have two trucks, one that is 24 years old, the other 14.

@@lrg3834 then He bought a 62 comet total peace of junk He still kept it 10 years probably spent 60 thound dollars in repairs that taught Me a lesson when You get a total limon get rid of it something was allways wrong with it from the start put Me off fords for a long time

Would have been nice to be able to at least hear what the guy was saying. The sound was warbly from start to finish. 😿 But the vintage footage was great!! 😇

+69roadr Volume helped.

+Martin Beneteau The only year with the cat eye taillights

+Rick Stenquist So what is your point??????

Rick Stenquist I agree. Gee, you think they could have chosen a more charasmatic personality, some on that was capable of a smile, and who could exude passion for the product.🤔🤔

@@paulpatriot1776 Public speakers back in the conformist 1950's were very reserved as they had to appeal to a broad much more conservative American culture. But if what you mean by "exude passion" is to sound like those announcers on those overly long and frequent "as seen on TV" commercials, I'll pass.

Back then you didn't have to dance and shout to get a point across.

This was NOT for public consumption, but for GM employees and dealers. It didn't need the kind of "hype" that advertising to the general public would require.

matrox And you may just get it in 2059!

EVERYONE loves inventory 🤪.

johnny cash took most of it to build his own cadillac lol, one piece at a time

Decent wages and benefits.

It's air dry Lacquer. No toxic hardeners used.

The main reason for our domination in the 50's and 60's was because a lot.of the civilized world was destroyed in ww2.

So sad to see all the shirtless with tattoos, meth and opiate addicts walking around my small hometown in Ohio on vacation. Walking around looking for something to steal, jobs available, but they cannot pass piss test. Funny, all on welfare and food stamps, but sure can cover whole body with tattoos.🤯🤪😴💀

Some of that may be true, but people with cash would happily part with some to get a restored Sixties early Seventies muscle car, made in Detroit.

I think they still look great!