What is This?, Testing the collective wisdom... Options

[tomeric914]

Possibly a crude go/no-go gauge to get the spacing of something just right that a factory worker built to make their job easier?

What is the spacing on the hood to hinge bolts? Possibly used to bolt the hood in place during the painting process? Maybe for one factory worker to be able to install the hood by themselves?

[montoya 73 2.0]

Since it was bolted on, It had to have easy acces to remove the nuts quickly. Since it was found inside, maybe a handle for aligning/hanging/opening and closing the doors before and during paint. Plenty of through holes on the inside of the door with easy access to remove the nuts. Then removed after paint? The threads aren't gummed up with paint so it had to be covered on that side.

[Eric_Shea]

Plenty of through holes on the inside of the door with easy access to remove the nuts. Then removed after paint?

I was just thinking the same thing... I'll go check the doors.

[Eric_Shea]

I think you got it!

Check these out:

Bottom toward the front edge:


Closest to the front edge:


On the front edge:


This would make it much easier to position the door into it's proper place. When done, the worker is sortof inside the car. Bolts would come off and the handle accidently made it's way into my center tunnel.

Thoughts?

Does anyone have factory painted door they could check for positioning? Two of the lower holes that have the clearish plastic seats in them should show signs where this was bolted in.

[Chris Pincetich]

The way those paint layers "hang" looks so right in pic #1 above
What a rare find!
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[PlaysWithCars]

Yeah, but why go to all of the trouble to bolt it to the door, later unbolt it, and recycle it to the start of the paint line again when there are already so many convenient hand holds in the inner door structure? Not very efficient from a manufacturing operations perspective.

Where ever it was used is going to have to be pretty unique: Clearly there must be access to the fasteners from the backside to install and remove this thing, but they would have to be in spot that didn't get any paint. Painting over threads would have made it tough to remove.

My money says this wasn't used on the cars at all, but was part of the equipment used for assembly or transport. If used on the cars I would expect to see more color variations in the layers of paint. Only one color says it was on a piece of equipment that got repainted the same color over and over to tidy up just before any senior level executive came to visit the plant.

[montoya 73 2.0]

I would bet if you did a little sanding in that chip area, you would find several layers of different colors. The only reason it's still yellow is because of the obviuos, it was the last paint color shot on the line before it was lost.

I would think if it were part of the main equipment it would have been welded rather than bolted and it wouldn't be a piece of rod steel welded to two M8 bolts.

It looks more like a worker had a idea of "if I had a handle right here it would probably be easier" tool. I've had the Fab shop that builds our machines create drill jigs and welding jigs for repeat-ability and then thrown away when not needed.

[Eric_Shea]

It may not have even used the nuts. The doors aren't "that" heavy just awkward, and, if this is how it was used, it may have just been stuck in the holes and the weight of the doors vs. the angle of the handle would have created enough pressue on the threads to hold it in there. The fact that you can see some paint on the base of the fastener just under the head would alude to this. Those holes are by a press formed edge so they would be fairly strong. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)

[FlatIV]

Open and closing the door whle painting?

[r_towle]

considering the location, how about the metal dashboard assembly?
A handle to put that in place?

Rich

[warrenoliver]

Eric,

When I first saw that, it immediately reminded me of the old metal steps cast into the old concrete silos - (farm boy background) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I don't mean to say that it is from a silo, just that it looks like it was used as a step or handle on some type of equipment.
I don't think it was used in a repetitive fashion, i.e., to help align the doors, because the threads are still in good shape. If that were used to repeatedly insert into holes, the threads would rapidly degrade. If they had used a tool like that for the door, it would most likely be smooth with possibly a hole for a cotter key or something similar.
That thing was attached to something and then painted over several times while it was attached to the structure.
Maybe someone is just messing with you? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/happy11.gif)

[scotty b]

Open and closing the door whle painting?

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif) that actually makes the most sense. I have seen the bottoms of enough doors to tell that the factory runs, run downhill meaning the dors were painted in a mounted position. The doors were also painted after assembly, as I'm sure most of us know, there is no paint under the hinges, and the bolt heads quite often have paint running onto the hinge.

Cool find whatever it turns out to be (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Eric_Shea]

That seems to make most sense...

[SirAndy]

there is no paint under the hinges

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The doors were obviously mounted to the car *before* painting. There's no paint under the door hinges and the bolts are painted in body color.

I think the opening/closing the door while painting is a very good guess. That way, you don't actually need to bolt it down, no weight on it so to speak.

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