Building a Spoiler II Fender at the Factory

Chris Vick will be presenting at our Talladega Spoiler Family Reunion later this month but is also a great contributor to this web site. If you remember a while back he did some research and found a few fellows who actually worked at the Loraine Ohio plant when the Spoiler II cars were being built. The information he has collected is invaluable! We owe Chris, also known as the Archaeologist, a great big Thank You.

Here is Chris’ information on: Building a Spoiler II Fender at the Factory

The information for this short story came from one of a few people I have talked to that worked on the fenders. It is short but is a big piece of the puzzle. His name is Lewis Long, he worked at the plant from 1963 to 1997. At that time he was a metal finisher who was put on a special project of doing the final body work before painting. He got the fenders as assembled units and did the lead work. The fenders were put in a jig to hold them still while the work was done. He thinks he was part of a 10 to 15 man crew that worked 12 hours a day, 7 days a week to build all the fenders at one time. There was a special area off of the body shop for them to do the work. From there the fenders went through cleaning baths and then paint. As you might expect, they didn’t have much for safety, just a blood test every 30 days to monitor metal levels in their blood. It is a tall order to think somebody would remember details about work from 48 years ago.

Editor’s Note: The statement about the fenders confirms that the Spoiler II fenders were only painted white. Remember the body was painted the dark color first and then the white applied over it. Also, remember that unlike the Talladega Chris told us in a previous interview that the front clip on a Spoiler II  WAS NOT installed on the assembly line. The cars went to another building to have the cars completed!