ART - I didn't think ANYONE ever read My posts about FARMALL?!?!
Bonderizor was a caustic hot water washing machine with the last portion of the washer adding a phosphatizing rinse that etched the steel for good paint adhesion.
It was in the dept I hired into in 1976, Dept. 44 which was actually the "Welding" Dept. and other misc. assembly. My job was to wash the frt axle castings after machining, the frt axle extensions, and P/S cylinders in another washing machine, plus do some sub-assembly on the frt axle like press in two bushings and bolt on the rear pivot ball which looked all the world like a trailer hitch ball.
After about TWO DAYS I had that job down and as I got to know more of the people around the dept. I'd look over their shoulder and I actually got "Qualified" to run several other jobs down stream from My job. Best other job was assembling the power steering cylinder, the yoke it attached with and the P/S hoses. The P/S system on a 66, 86, & 88-series is similar to the system on a 982 except the big tractor has P/S. We were building 175 tractors a day at that time, the 86-series tractors came out in April or May of '76 and I started there on Friday Oct. 11, 1976. I hired in right in the middle of a WILDCAT strike. There was about 8-10 of Us that started that day, As We were walked out into the shop to Our assigned departments I bet there wasn't 250 people in the whole plant. About Tuesday or Wdnesday when We walked in with the rest of the 3500 poeple there it was QUITE a change!
The "Footburt-Reynolds" machining center that machined everything on the frt axle casting was prone to break-downs because it was OLD. When it was down more than an hour the Foreman would send Me to the Bonderizor, to hang parts on the overhead chain. There was a short area just out of the bonderizor where all the parts were painted 2150 red, then they went thru a baking oven and were removed and staged for assembly and I'd hang more parts on the chain. The Bonderizor was an hourly rate job, I got paid My average hourly wage from my normal job which was piece work, normally the more parts I ran the more I made, but IHC was NOT the place to make $$$ on piece work. We got a base rate and most of My jobs paid a Dollar or two per hundred so I was making about $8-$9/hr. At the OTHER company's plants in the Q-C's there was a base hourly wage but piece workers didn't get the base PLUS the incentive rate, Time Study, (Manufacturing Eng.) determined an operator should run so many pcs per hour and if You ran that many You made that rate. If You could make 8 hours worth of parts in 4 hours You made 8 hrs pay, Most people at THOSE plants made 12 hrs pay in about 6-7 hrs, where at IHC if I ran 150% like that I'd make maybe $1/hr more instead of 50% more. Guess that's maybe part of the reason for the premium price for that green paint.
However there have been a couple of HUGE concessions in the UAW contract at those plants. Hiring into one of those plants now gets You better medical benefits but about the same weekly paycheck as asking "Would You like to SUPER-SIZE That?" or "Paper or Plastic?"
