MosportGreen66

- Where was AO Smith (City, and State)?
- What does AO Smith stand for?

Larry P

Right across the Mississippi river from the old chevy plant. Granite City, Illinois, probably about 5 miles from the chevy plant by rail. Could be A.O. is Mr. Smiths initials but thats just a wild guess.
Larry

prisoner2

Arthur O. Smith

Company history can be found at the following link:

http://www.aosmith.com/about/aoshistweb/index.html

Donald #31176

Always thought that Dow-Smith Co. , A subsiterary of AO Smith made some of the 64 up Corvette bodies in Ionia, Michigan.

JohnZ

To clarify - there were two A.O. Smith plants that supplied the Corvette plant. One, in Ionia, Michigan, molded body panels and built 50% of the Corvette bodies from January '64 through the end of '67 production; this plant was originally owned by the Mitchell-Bentley Co., and was sold to A.O. Smith in late 1963, and became known as the "Dow-Smith" division of the A.O. Smith corporation. It later went through several other owners (Rockwell, General Tire, and others) as the fiberglass industry consolidated, and continued as the major supplier of Corvette body panels through 1982.

The other one was the A.O. Smith - Granite City, Illinois plant, which made Corvette frames from 1963-1967. 1954-1962 and 1968-1982 Corvette frames were made by a different A.O. Smith plant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Ron Miller

Where and by whom were the other 50% of the Corvette bodies built?

SMR 67

I know from my trim tag that I have an A.O. Smith body. Any way to tell from which A.O. Smith plant it came from?

Donald #31176

The Ionia, Michigan plant was contracted late in 1963 to make fiberglass bodies as the St Louis plant could not keep up with the assembly line demand.

C2IT

Ron: The other 50% were built by Chevrolet in the St.Louis plant.

SMR 67: The Ionia plant was the only A.O. Smith plant that built complete Corvette bodies, which were then shipped to St. Louis for final assmbly.

jimgessner

The Corvette plant made the other 50% bodies. If your mid-year 64-7 has an A.O.Smith body,the trim tag will have an "A" before the BODY#..........like A2145 which is the 2145th body made at the AO Smith plant that year.

MosportGreen66

Thanks for all your help. I did know a little about the plants but not as much as I do now. AO Smith only built cars with under-car exhaust, while St. Louis built both cars with under-car and side exhaust. WHY? Donald #31176 you said that AO Smith was opened because St. Louis couldn't meet demands. What year was it opened? Besides the exhaust systems how was a car determined to go to St. Louis vs AO Smith?

Ron Miller

Well, I thought so, too. So how am I misinterpreting this quote by JohnZ from the thread titled "'67 small block hoods", in which he says the following:

St. Louis was strictly an assembly plant - they didn't mold ANY body panels; ALL Corvette body panels came from outside suppliers, and A.O. Smith manufactured most of the C2 and C3 panels for Chevrolet.

Does that mean that A. O. Smith or someone else manufactured the panels and they were assembled in the St. Louis plant? I didn't think so, but haven't researched Noland's book in some time, so I'm still confused. I thought body panels were laid up and "press molded" in the St. Louis plant also, until the quote by JohnZ above.

Donald #31176

During the 63- 64 model year Corvette demand was picking up. The assembly line started developing "bottlenecks",most acute in the body
and panel division. St Louis went to an extra shift but this was only a "bandaid" solution. In 1963 GM contracted with Mitchell Bently to build Corvette whole bodies and panels . Mitchell-B. was a body builder for GM manufactoring station wagon bodies for Buick and Oldsmobile. Body building was being consoladated by GM and work at Ionia was being
phase out. To appease the union ,local community and the Mitchell- B. managment, GM chose the Ionia plant to make the Corvette bodies.. Mitchell-B was bought out by AO Smith soon after this contract was signed . The first AO Smith bodies rolled off in Jan 1964. As far as to which body was to be used ( AO Smith vrs St Louis)
was determined by what was needed on the assembly line. That is why
one can find early built AO Smith bodies with late VIN cars and vice versa. AO Smith bodies started appearing around VIN 10,600.

C2IT

Ron - the answer to this question is St Louis - Chevrolet. If you are asking about the origins of body panels, maybe JohnZ can help us out

Ron Miller

Yep, that's my question. I had thought St. Louis molded and assembled the body panels, but from JohnZ's comment, it appears that they only assembled the body panels. So I'm wondering if A. O. Smith also manufactured the body panels that St. Louis assembled, or if some were manufactured by other sources. John will chime in at some point, I'm sure.

Donald #31176

Molded Fiberglass Products And General Tire & Rubber supplied fiberglass body panels to St Louis and Ionia .

JohnZ

St. Louis-Corvette didn't manufacture ANY fiberglass body panels - they welded the birdcage together in the basement, primed it, sent it upstairs to the Body Shop, and bonded the body together around it, using fiberglass body panels molded, trimmed, and prepped for bonding by outside suppliers. Almost ALL the body panels were molded by A.O. Smith in Ionia, Michigan, with some smaller panels molded by others. There was only one set of molds for body panels, and the panels were used both at A.O. Smith on their body assembly line and at St. Louis on their body assembly line.

A.O. Smith-built bodies were assembled, painted, and partially trimmed (glass, exterior moldings and hardware, and interior garnish moldings and internal door hardware - just enough to make the body water-tight), and were shipped to St. Louis on tri-level rail cars; all interior soft trim, seats, carpets, pedals, heater/AC, and complete instrument panel assemblies were installed at St. Louis.

A.O. Smith built 50% of the Corvette bodies - the St. Louis Body and Paint Shops only ran on one shift, but assembly ran on two shifts. All orders for N14 Sidepipe cars (which required a unique birdcage) were allocated to St. Louis - no bodies for sidepipe cars were ever built at A.O. Smith.

It's possible for A.O. Smith bodies to have the same body number on the trim tag as a St. Louis body (ignoring the "A" or "S" prefix); both plants had separate (but similar) body numbering schemes, and coupes and convertibles had separate number sequences as well at both plants. For example, body number A-3407 on a convertible would be the 3407th convertible body built at A.O. Smith, and there would also be a convertible body number S-3407 for the 3407th convertible body built at St. Louis (same situation for coupes at both plants, which had number sequences starting from "0" just for coupes).

ctjackster

Man o man, it sure is nice having John around to share all of this wisdom with us, I know many of us just lap this stuff up, myself included

John, your info above raises one question in my mind - just what was the adjustment made to the birdcage for N14 [sidepipe] cars? Lack of side molding tabs?

JohnZ

The rocker molding support brackets weren't welded on, and both the sill and sill reinforcement were "notched" locally before they were welded to provide installation clearance for the "U"-nuts for the outer cover attaching screws.

Ron Miller

Me, too!! Guess I may have been able to figure some of this out if I had gone back & read Noland's book again, but nothing like having someone who was there, is there? Having been born and raised in southeast Missouri, I always felt a strong connection to the early year Corvettes since they were "born" in St. Louie. Still do, as a matter of fact!! Thanks again, John. It's great to be able to count on your input!!