The machine tool business gets a great deal of its revenue from the automotive sector, and after the Arab oil embargo the folks in Detroit started developing smaller and more fuel efficient cars. But it takes several years of “behind the scenes” work before these cars are even ready for the road tests that must be done prior to public release. The next generation of automobiles were going to be smaller, with a front engine / front wheel drive design. General Motors dubbed their product the “X-Body”, basically the Chevrolet Citation size cars. J&L would receive their biggest machine tool order ever from New Departure, a division of General Motors, for specially designed lathes to machine the front wheel drive spindles and hubs (basically the wheel bearings). In the end there were well over 100 machines, most with custom designed automatic load and unload mechanisms and blue steel conveyors. The man at New Departure, a Mr. Ziegler, insisted that the machines be under 60″ tall, as many of the operators would be women, and a small machine would be less intimidating to them. Most of the machines would be shipped to the New Departure plant in Sandusky, Ohio.

The Chevrolet Citation was introduced to the public in April of 1979 as a “1980” model. It was GMs first mass produced small front wheel drive car, and because of the rush-to-market philosophy at the time, suffered many quality issues (Chrysler had similar problems with their “K-Car”). J&L had been quoting machines for this project since the mid-70’s, and had gone thru many requotes because the technical specs were always changing. I’m not sure of the dates, but engineering must have started sometime in ’75 or ’76. As I said, it was a huge project, and I remember spending quite a few nights doing design layout work. This was back when all the design work was pencil and paper (and eraser!!). We got to know the night janitors quite well.

Once the machines were built and debugged, they were shipped out to Sandusky. Because of the large scope of the project, we had several full time mechanics in place in Ohio, along with engineering support. Many of us in engineering were blessed with a revolving assignment to go out and “put in an appearance” at the New Departure facility (my boss called us “cannon fodder”). Just walk around with the J&L shop coat on so the customer was satisfied we were supporting them. It was interesting at first, but the days were long. And there were always little friction points with their union help.

In addition to our own in-house sales force, J&L had several sales branches located thru out the country (and overseas as well). The salesman who was responsible for the Ohio territory really hit a gold mine with this order. I don’t know what his paycheck was for this project, but J&L revamped their commission sales formula after this job……….I do remember he frequently dined with us out there, and picked up our dinner tabs.