Packard and Ford assembly lines at mid-century

(July 11, 2023) Viewing vintage images of automaker’s assembly lines gives us insight into how vehicles were constructed decades ago and also serves as a valuable visual reference of details for car owners when restoring a vehicle. It was during the period when autoworkers actually operated the machines and provided the labor to assemble cars and trucks rather than banks of CNC-controlled robots and spot welders.

The top image is a view of a woman near the end of the body assembly line applying pin-striping to a five-passenger sedan or touring sedan body. Later at the body drop station, it would be mated with an eight-cylinder 1936 Packard 120B chassis.

The first image below are workers leaving the massive Ford River Rouge plant in Dearborn, Mich.