Cadillac Clark Street Assembly Plant Body Drop
Detroit Historical Museum

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When they still made body on frame automobiles, perhaps the most dramatic point on the assembly line was the “body drop”, where the assembled bodies and interiors would be joined with the rolling chassis, already mounted with the car’s mechanical parts. It’s when cars would start being cars. While they still do a body drop with BOF trucks, for the most part most passenger cars these days have unibody construction. You’re more likely to see a drivetrain and suspension raised up into a body than a body drop. Fortunately for posterity, when the Cadillac Clark Street assembly plant was shut down in 1987 the body drop section of the assembly line was salvaged and installed in a special two story wing of the Detroit Historical Museum, complete with ’87 Cadillacs in various stages of construction. Though it’s a static display, supposedly it still works and is demonstrated on special occasions. These are likely the only 3D photos of the exhibit and I doubt anyone shot it in stereo when it was in operation at the factory.