US car assembly standards in the 1970's

I inherited a 1973 Buick Apollo about 10 years ago and I'm now paying the price of my poor stewardship for those years. The short of it is that the rubber gaskets around the tail lights acted like sponges and retained any available moisture and totally rusted the back panel surrounding them. The rust was hidden by the plastic surround piece. The rest of the car is not too bad rust-wise, so I'm putting in a new panel.
Here are a few things I noticed as I removed the old one. "Seam sealer" was applied copiously, up to an inch thick in some places; spot weld schedule was non existent and completely different on each side including a considerable amount of brazing on one side; and a 1/2 x 1 inch sheet metal filler strip on the side with the brazing.
The car has been in my family since new so I know it has never been worked on before. I've not noticed this sort of thing on my Triumphs and wonder if this was peculiar to the odd Buick or just the way things were done then.
Tom

I look at my Midget from the same era and am reminded how "funky" construction was in those days for everyone - even the Japanese were having rust issues then. I suppose that is why they are collectable now. And, not just the construction but, they were designed (especially American cars) to be replaced every two year - back then planned obsolescence was cars not cell phones and computers. I remember being impressed by cars with 60,000 miles on them - now you don't even change the plugs.

BTW on another board I frequent, the rubber parts holding moisture comes up surprisingly regularly in cars of the vintage - they suggest replacing the rubber with rubber from yoga mats. cheap and easy.

Thanks for the yoga mat idea. The seals for the Apollo are NLA. Tom

In the 70s GM/Chevrolet was caught with 2 assembly lines side by side. US line and an Export line. Tolerances and fit were exceptional on export line, whereas the US line was slammed together. Seems the US population lived with dents and paint problems, where the exported cars were more detailed as the Europeans and Japanese people were more picky on fit and details for their money. I believe the article was in Road & Track and had pictures of Camaros on both lines.

If you wanted quality production, you should've got a Trabant:

On a recent episode of Legendary Motorcar, Peter's boys were doing a resto on a 70's vintage American muscle car for a customer. During the work they separated panels that had never been apart since it left the factory. Later, he handed the customer the (empty) booze bottle they found sealed in the bodywork.

PC said:

On a recent episode of Legendary Motorcar, Peter's boys were doing a resto on a 70's vintage American muscle car for a customer. During the work they separated panels that had never been apart since it left the factory. Later, he handed the customer the (empty) booze bottle they found sealed in the bodywork.

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Love it! and, of course we now know many cars have been waaaay over-restored - now they are putting the overspray etc back in.

My mother had a new Valiant wagon in 1960. Had a ton of dum dum (like modeling clay) filling in the seams. Good little car though - slant 6 engine and just the right size. But it rusted fiercely.

pdplot said:

My mother had a new Valiant wagon in 1960. Had a ton of dum dum (like modeling clay) filling in the seams. Good little car though - slant 6 engine and just the right size. But it rusted fiercely.

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I don't know what GM used for seam sealer but the stuff on the Apollo was much more tenacious than dum dum. I had to heat it with a heat gun to get it out.
Rick, loved the video. GM would have been much more discreet in editing. It does make you appreciate robots.
Tom

In 70 I was working with a shop while in the Marines, had a Chevett that had a flat. The factory employee had left a screwdriver in the tire. Seems they were have contract issues.

Man that is some professional work those Trabants received, I wonder why they didn't take off in the west.

Buick Apollo - now that's a nameplate that brings back memories. Buick's entry into the compact car market on the Nova platform. IIRC, Oldsmobile was given the Omega the same 1973 model year.

Even in Buick's brochures, they said "while it comes with a six cylinder standard, we recommend you start with the Buick 350 V-8". The Apollo name was kept until 1975, where it was concurrent with the resurrected Skylark name on GM's compact car chassis (Nova, Ventura (later Phoenix), Omega, Skylark and then the Cadillac Seville), and then the Apollo name was dropped in 1976. They were not particularly hot sellers, so this is a pretty rare beast.

I opened up a car quarter once and found a pair of vise.grips (still have them).
General Misunderstanding used plain steel clips to hold the trim around the back glass....and they rusted...and then the rust continued as a cancer through out the window area until the water ingress got so bad you junked the car or the glass fell out and you junked the car. One of the reasons they all smell moldy inside.

I worked for Lincoln-Mercury in mid-70's. Fellow mechanic bought a NEW Cougar (BIG), and when he got it the deck lid badges said "LTD II" And nobody wanted to "fix" the problem.

A lady in St. louis, who I worked with, bought a 79 Granada. Badged Granada outside, Badged and buttoned Monarch inside. After she went to dealer and pitched a hissy fit over the lemon Pinto she had bought.