Factory quality control marks?

[Macabry]

Hello folks,

Just wondering if anyone knows about quality control symbols/signatures on body panels ... has anyone else found any? ... does anyone know any details about them?

The reason I ask is that I've found what appears to be a QC mark/signature inside my passenger wing 👍

Here it is ...

[MaR]

On my '74 Eldorado, just about every major part has the last two digits of the VIN written on them somewhere.

[cadlove]

In essence the car is a set of sub-assemblies. The body arrives from Fisher Fleetwood and first of all has it's instrument panel fitted. Fleetwood did no work on the firewall. Following the joining of the body (sat on a dolly being pulled along by a chain in the floor) to the chassis being assembled on the ground floor below, the hood and fenders arrive at the right assembly point.

Hoods, fenders, engine compartment metalwork and bumpers were stamped at Conner Avenue before being trucked to Clark Street. They were then prepped at painted. They also had any chrome trim fitted, same with the fenders, prepped, painted. These panels were also polished by men using one foot diameter polishing machines. There were various types of polishing processes used over the years.

They were then conveyored on hooks down through the floors to assembly, left fender on the left obviously, right etc. The hoods came down hanging backwards hooked on their left side, this was so when the four suction cups were attached and the hood lifted, it was pointing in the right direction. Now to your inspection marks.

Each part, so each completed hood was inspected before being allowed to go to assembly. The person that did that final check scribbled their own inspector's number. Body panels appear to have yellow wax crayon, interior / dash parts are often red wax crayon. You can buy the yellow ones from one of the Camaro (I think) restoration suppliers.

Obviously door panel trim etc may have the marks as well, but these were applied by Fleetwood inspectors.

Sometimes of course cars had faults, the inspector's marks allowed them to identify which worker passed that part.

[Macabry]

Thanks so much for your thorough and fascinating answer ... I assumed this was the case ... nice to see 👍

I'm going to be able to keep that mark intact, it'll be interesting to see if I find more as I progress 😎