The sun., 1917-06-17

or various Kinds use the stopwatch. and
set time limits on mechanical operations.
Mr. WHY'S has adopted this standard
practice idea at his service plant to all
repair work.
"Your Job will take four hours ano
fifteen minutes" heard one Of the plan
ming stan tell an Overland owner.
"An hour and a quarter" he told
another.
Then he set the cost of each Job In ad-
vance I had lugubrious recollection
OF Jobs done on my own car that hadn't
been planned. Unluckily. never had
any costs set in advance.
Just then the chauffeur Of the car in
which had come threw In the clutch
executed semi-circle. and we went up
the ramps to the second floor. 1t was
quite like mountain climbing, and with
a hoarse signal we swooped in among
cars in the quick service department.
Here already was one of the cars ]
had seen below. It had been diagnosed
In less than five minutes and was In the
hands of the maintenance men. Some
thing allied itS ignition or lamps, forget
which. On this floor they do all sorts OF
quick Jobs on carbureters. spark plugs,
tires and tho like. Six hundred Jobs a
day can be done there. and the average
time. they tell me, Is fifty-eig minutes.
Often the owners wait downstairs In the
lounging room.
But l was there as a spectator. and
my driver took me up those steep winc-
ing ramps to the third floor. Here
found the first half Of the shop proper.
An amazing big room 1t was. with
cars located in orderly array all over
It. One had the afiliction known as
spoke squeak. which is sometimes baf-
fling ailment though not fatal: another
xx,oo tad vxhA In, yv,0u
undignified and helpless position and
hitched with chains to the top Of the
room: still other were being operated on
for carbureters, batteries or valves.
We drove on up the ramps to the
fourth floor. an6 here I saw cars placed
throughout the room in different stages
Of dishabille. 80 to speak. ! always
marvel when I see an automobiles inner
secrets thus displayed to the world; It
fills me with wonder to reflect that a
contrivance 50 intricate. plus little gas
olene. can go up the steepest hills or
across q whole continent
walked around here for an hour. UP
under the ceiling saw a cranelike con-
trivance. and II came along and stopped
just over ono Of these gasolene beasts
Somehow an automobile seems alive.
My own car call Patsy. and we pet and
cajole him. II you know how to hancle
his fierce tempers he can purr very
softly-but beware OF him.
As I watched the tongs of the crane
reached down and stole the engine out
of this car and ran away with It. At
one end of the room saw big machine
tools. and they were grinding boring
and cutting.
Somebody told me that q car could
be wholly rebuilt there. The ramps
end at the fourth floor. so took an
elevator to the fifth. where about the
first thing beheld was the car had
seen below belonging to the young lady
in blue. 1t had come up to have its
fender made over.
They call this the setting up shop.
Here were heavy rolling machines that
could take any fender not beyond hope
and make II almost as good as new.
1t looked to me as II the upholstery
| would have to be fixed up considerably
too. but I Judged from appearances that
any Job Of this sort could be we'll done
here on the NTH floor.
My gaze also encountered the old car
that belonged to the square Jowled man
In buckskin. It was getting a bath
preparatory to soma new coats Of paint.
He was right. I should say that It
needed at least eight or ten.
I had seen the far spreading paint
department at the willys-Overiand
works in Toledo. and now found It re-
produced in miniature here. They took
me into one Of the drying rooms and I
came out we'll baked. got some paint
on my coat. and that was baked too.
Here in this paint department I saw
magnificent Limousine repainted and
almost ready for delivery. The foreman
told me he could do the most elaborate
Job and that he also specialized in mod
crate priced work. He could make q
car look like new.
Up went to the sixth floor and found