Video: The Body Builders from Fisher, 1970

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Here’s a detailed look inside the body-making process at the Fisher Body division of General Motors in 1970.

 

Fisher Body was founded in 1908 when two wagon-building brothers from Norwalk, Ohio, Charles and Fred Fisher, came to Detroit to produce automobile bodies. The business blossomed, five more Fisher brothers from Norwalk soon joined them, and by 1916 the company had become a major supplier of car and truck bodies to General Motors. (We’ve got a great little documentary on the brothers here.)

In 1919, GM acquired a 60 percent stake in the company and in 1926, Fisher Body became a major division of GM with family members, including Lawrence Fisher, filling key roles in the automaker’s governing committees. Eventually there were more than 40 Fisher Body plants supplying bodies and associated components to the various GM vehicle brands, before the division was finally shut down and assimilated into the corporation in 1984.

In this 1970 film, produced by GM Photographic and entitled The Body Builders, we get a detailed look into the Fisher process, from research and development (we noted the early airbag system at around the 2:40 mark) to finishing and trim. In 1970 we can already see broad-scale automation coming into use, for example in the welding and painting processes, yet there are still large numbers of humans on the factory floor, many of them performing simple and repetitive tasks. But that would change soon enough, too. Heraclitus was right about the auto industry way back in 500 BCE when he observed that the only constant in life is change. Video below. (Note: Please click and subscribe to our YouTube channel, where we host our videos and feature tons of great content. Thanks!) 

 

3 thoughts on “Video: The Body Builders from Fisher, 1970”

  1. This story of the Fisher brothers will always be close to my heart. My grandfather who came from the Island of Malta to Detroit in 1910 as a carriage builder was personally hired by one of the Fisher brothers.My father William A.Bennett worked for Fisher Body Division for 27 years 1940 – 1967 retiring at the G.M. Technical Center in Warren Michigan where he was supervisor of the seating department (E & D) Experimental and Development.The carriage symbol associated with Fisher Body always made me think of my grandfather Giuseppe DeGiovanni or the Americanized shortened name of Joseph DeJohn.

  2. When they built real cars. Full frame, front engine rear drive. Good ride easy maintenance and style. Not the front drive, mini engine, unibody Euro-copy minicars.

    • Exactly right! All of them went down hill when they started copying the Japanese and European models. If they had of built them to the tight tolerances used today, they would have lasted much longer. But, they are all in the business to sell cars, so that have to build a certain lifetime into them so they can still sell.

      I’d much rather have a full framed 70’s car than one of the new unit body belly buttons without a soul that they sell now.

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