When you look back over the Corvette’s history, it’s a wonder that it’s survived all of these years. From government emission restrictions to a mountain of bureaucratic red tape to GM’s ineptitude, amazingly, this iconic brand is still with us today.
Often it was only through the perseverance and dedication of those closest to the project that kept Corvette alive.
Tom Boik was there on the front lines as a C3 Corvette Body Design Group Supervisor at GM during the turbulent 70s. We first got acquainted with Tom through his son, John Boik, in our article, Designing Corvettes Runs In The Family.
Since that article, we’ve wanted to pull back the curtain and let Tom tell you in his own words what it was like to be a C3 Body Design Group Supervisor in the 70s. A time before computers, a time that saw seismic changes instituted by Roger Smith, Chairman and CEO of GM.
His Granddaughter Curates The Story
To bring this story full circle, we asked Tom’s granddaughter, Daniella Boik, to curate this snapshot of her grandfather’s successful career. Daniella is a senior majoring in journalism and anthropology at Georgia State University.
After graduation, she hopes to be an editor-in-chief of a creative or fashion magazine eventually. As you’ll see, Daniella is very adept at pulling a story together.
For our part, we interviewed Tom and turned over the raw audio transcript to Daniella to let her work her magic. Enjoy.
Early Years & Getting Into GM
ROD WORLEY – Editor – Tom, have you always wanted to be a designer?
TOM BOIK – Retired Body Design Group Supervisor – When I started high school, I wanted to be a pharmacist. But the school that I went to wouldn’t give me the classes that I wanted.
I wanted to take Latin, but they told me I couldn’t take Latin, so I said, well, I’ve got to change. So at an early age, I decided I would take drafting in high school.
When I got out, I wanted to be a draftsman, but it was very tough to get into drafting back then. Every place you went, they’d say, how much experience do you have?
I didn’t have any.
So, I got a Tool & Die apprenticeship through my father, which lasted a year, and then found a draftsman job. I started in electrical drafting and had four years of that before I went to Chevrolet Engineering.
In the beginning, they said that I didn’t have any automotive experience, so they put me in their detailing department to learn that side.
I started as a detailer at Chevrolet Engineering and worked my way up over the years to Design Group Manager.
Climbing The GM Ladder
ROD WORLEY – Editor – It’s impressive how you worked your way up the ladder at GM. Is it true you didn’t get assigned to a platform back then; you just worked on the various projects they gave you?
TOM BOIK – Retired Body Design Group Supervisor – Well, it was body engineering. You worked on everything and anything that was Chevrolet related. Chevrolet only did the vehicles’ front end back then and the front and rear bumpers. We didn’t do any doors, roofs, glass, or anything like that.
For most of my career at General Motors, the Corvette design work body-wise was all done by contract designers, and no in-house designers were working on the Corvette program.
Even when I had the Corvette program, I was outside and not at the tech center. I was always outside of the tech center at a contract house with contract designers working for us.
Experience Working Inside the Contracting House
ROD WORLEY – Editor – So how would you keep any continuity going if it wasn’t all in-house?
TOM BOIK – Retired Body Design Group Supervisor – It was tough, but the power train was in-house because it was such a unique vehicle. But the underbody, roof panels, doors, hood, headlights, and bumpers were all done outside by contract employees, but when it was ready, I followed it as a GM employee.
When I was in the contract house for a while, they brought the Corvette back in. That’s when I was working on the windshield wiper washer and the bumper in-house.
Then they elected to ship it outside again because we only had so much room and had so many different vehicles at the time that there wasn’t enough room. So, they contracted out the Corvette because it was the smallest of the programs.
For instance, in the instrument panel group alone, it was like 30 designers in that group. So, that took up a lot of space, physical space in the building.
The Corvette did have a reputation at Chevrolet Engineering of being done by contract designers. At the time, being a designer, way back then, all of us, all the designers, we were all upset that they were going to send the best car that everybody wanted to work on outside the house.
We couldn’t do anything about it. So that’s what happened. But then eventually, I got sent outside to be on the program. I was a design leader on the program and then a supervisor.
So then, as things went on, we worked on so many different vehicles over the years.
Roger Smith Breaks Up GM
I’m going to jump for a moment over to when we became CPC. It was back in 1984 or 1985 when Roger Smith decided to break up General Motors. We were no longer Chevrolet engineering.
It was C-P-C, Chevrolet Pontiac Canada. I ended up with the “A” Car program: the Chevrolet, Buick, Oldsmobile, and Pontiac, the small cars.
This configuration went on until probably the end of 1991 and the beginning of 1992.
They were ready to release everything entirely because everything was done design-wise. I was working on the outside again, and I had a handful of different contract shops working on those programs.
Back then, I had the whole vehicle, the doors, front end, bumpers and instrument panels, everything except air conditioning and electrical. They were all done at different contract companies.
I bounced around a lot. During this time, I had seven or eight supervisors who were GM supervisors, all in charge of the front end, the instrument panel, another did the seats, and another was responsible for the doors.
They all worked for me, and all the designers worked for them. So I had a group of a few hundred people.
Then, once they canceled that program, I went back to the tech center and retired. I said, you know, I don’t need this aggravation, I had enough points, I was old enough. So, I retired from General Motors.
A Family Early On
ROD WORLEY – Editor – Tom, was it frustrating working through the GM bureaucracy?
TOM BOIK – Retired Body Design Group Supervisor – No, it wasn’t frustrating. Honestly, I enjoyed my job, and I enjoyed it more when it was Chevrolet Engineering. We were a family.
At that time, we had the detailing group, the design group, the sheet metal people, a plastic shop, and a woodshop.
You could follow the parts that you were designing whatever it was. If I worked on an B car front bumper, I would go out to the model shop because that’s where I’d send copies of my design.
They would build a wood model, and I’d check if it had a problem. We’d all talk to each other. They fixed my problems, and I fixed theirs.
It was a happy family type thing back then. We played baseball together; we did everything.
When Roger Smith came in we combined Pontiac, Fisher Body, and Chevrolet. Then it became CPC.
When I lost that program and came back, I had a boss that had no clue what he was doing. He had no clue what I was doing on the outside, so I came back, and he says, “Well, I’m going to put you over here.”
So I ended up with body structures for the last six months of my career even though I didn’t have body structure experience.
Dave McClellan & St. Louis
ROD WORLEY – Editor – But during that time, didn’t you say you met Dave McLellan?
TOM BOIK – Retired Body Design Group Supervisor – Oh, yeah, that was back in the 70s. We had a group called the Corvette Design Group.
There was a staff engineer named Bob Vogelei, and he had senior project engineers under him.
All the designers were contracted back then. They worked for me, but the engineers would give them direction because each engineer had a specific part.
I had my first ride on an airplane when they put me in that group. I’ll never forget my first flight was to St. Louis.
I’ve been to the St. Louis plant several times. The most memorable was when we drove the 1978 prototypes from St. Louis up to Detroit. If the plant were having a problem, the engineers and I would go down to the plant.
It was interesting because we could go right out on the assembly line and get with the guy who was putting the thing together.
He would say, “What’s this part for?” and I’d say, “Well, that part should be over here.”
Everybody was working together. So that was a lot of fun.
It was great going to the plants. One time, I got to go to the glass plant in Dayton, Ohio. They produced vast sheets of molten glass and then cut them and put them in molds.
I remember they had a lot of trouble manufacturing that rear window of the 1978 Corvette. It’s because the back window was huge, and it wraps around the corners.
They had never really made anything that big before, so that was a challenging project. I got to see how that was made, which was very interesting.
ROD WORLEY – Editor – It’s incredible to hear how hands-on you were back then. It must have been something to go down to the assembly line and give your input.
Designing The Mid-Engine Corvette
ROD WORLEY – EDITOR – During your tenure, Chevrolet was working on the mid-engine Corvette. Did you get a chance to work on that project?
TOM BOIK – Retired Body Design Group Supervisor – I remember working on the rear engine Corvette. It was in the mid to early 70s. They just couldn’t get it to work.
I never knew why they canceled the program. And so here we are all these years later. Now we finally have one.
ROD WORLEY – EDITOR – If you had to give it a percentage, how close to completion do you think they were?
TOM BOIK – Retired Body Design Group Supervisor – It’s a wild guess on my part, I’d say probably only 40 to 50 percent into it.
But, you could see that it had potential.
Well, they had made a clay model of it, and there was maybe a running model of it.
ROD WORLEY – Editor – Hmm, I wonder how close that clay model was to the one you got today.
TOM BOIK – Retired Body Design Group Supervisor – A long way, I will tell you that. There is no comparison at all.
ROD WORLEY – EDITOR – Well, the technology’s changed, right?
TOM BOIK – Retired Body Design Group Supervisor – Absolutely, and the materials.
Production Time Table
ROD WORLEY – Editor – How far in advance did you have to start working on a model to get it ready?
TOM BOIK – Retired Body Design Group Supervisor – We usually started about two years before the model year for most of them. It had to be either 1974 or 1975 that they started on the 1978 model Corvette.
It was the 25th anniversary of the Corvette, so it started well ahead of time.
ROD WORLEY – Editor- Even in the 70s, was there a lot of prestige for those working on the Corvette platform?
TOM BOIK – Retired Body Design Group Supervisor – Oh, absolutely. They only put their best people on it.
It was hard to find good designers back then because none of them wanted to come in-house because they could make more money outside.
But, they didn’t get the benefits the designers got on the inside.
We had health insurance, vision coverage, dental coverage, and all that, which was something the guys on the outside didn’t get, but they were getting paid more per hour. Plus, there were tons of overtime hours available.
Design Team
ROD WORLEY – Editor – How many designers do you think worked on any single Corvette?
TOM BOIK – Retired Body Design Group Supervisor – On the body itself? The room was pretty big. One room had 16 to 20-foot long drafting boards.
Everything was done manually. There was anywhere from two to four guys on one of the boards working on a 16-foot metal plate.
Those drawings were done on a metal plate with gold.
Drawing Out A Corvette
ROD WORLEY – Editor – Why would you do it on a metal plate with gold?
TOM BOIK – Retired Body Design Group Supervisor – Because it was very accurate and didn’t shrink. I still have some of the gold that I used.
We went from metal plates to Vellum. Then there was a blue Mylar and then a heavier white Mylar that we used with aluminum.
Going backward, though, it all started with paper layouts. It was on vellum with a pencil.
When that was all approved, then the final design went to either a metal plate or a Mylar.
In the end, it was 16 feet long. Then we’d roll them up, but they were tough to roll up to send out.
The reproductions would go out to the pattern shop, the model shop, and manufacturing.
ROD WORLEY – Editor – That sounds like an incredibly time-consuming process.
Generations Of Car Designers
ROD WORLEY – Editor – So how did your other two sons get into General Motors?
TOM BOIK – Retired Body Design Group Supervisor –They were contracted. Bob, the youngest one, was on contract. He worked at a contract company as a wood model maker. Then, he got into cardboard model making.
The oldest one, Gary, worked at Chevrolet Engineering, for a while. He then went back to the contract shops and worked for Detroit Industrial Engineering. But he was still on the Corvette program.
As for Bob, he got into electrical designing and worked for Delphi for 15 years.
But it’s unreal how technology has changed everything. We take computers for granted these days.
Tom’s Personal Car Collection
ROD WORLEY – Editor – So you had a 1970 Corvette?
TOM BOIK – Retired Body Design Group Supervisor – Yes, I had a 1970 Corvette. I got a discount on the purchase. I had finally worked my way up in the organization.
You had to be a certain level at General Motors to get a discount on the vehicle back then. It wasn’t the employee discount; it was an earned discount by what your classification was.
But every year, as soon as you’d buy the car and someone saw it in the parking lot, we knew we were going to sell it and buy another one.
So we’d sell it for a reasonable price, it was a pretty easygoing thing. Then one day, somebody got the great idea to give everybody the employee discount, so it made it very difficult to sell your car the next year.
ROD WORLEY – Editor – So your car, was it an automatic or four-speed?
TOM BOIK – Retired Body Design Group Supervisor – Yes, it was an automatic, just the base 350 engine.
ROD WORLEY – Editor – So how many Corvettes have you owned? Just that one?
TOM BOIK – Retired Body Design Group Supervisor – Just that one, but I’ve owned 52 cars. Over the years, I’d buy a car, and I had to keep it for six months before I could sign it over to one of my sons or my brother in law, sister, or my mother in law.
So I’d ask them what they wanted. Then I’d buy it, and I’d drive it for a couple of months, but they actually paid for it.
Then, for the last seven, eight years that I worked at GM, I got a company car, and they paid for all the gas, oil, insurance, and everything.
I drove it for a thousand miles, then turned it in, and got another new car.
ROD WORLEY – Editor – Well, that’s a great little setup.
TOM BOIK – Retired Body Design Group Supervisor – Yes, it was a nice perk, lots of nice cars.
New Generation Garners Press
ROD WORLEY – Editor – Are you surprised at how much publicity the C8 has gotten?
TOM BOIK – Retired Body Design Group Supervisor – Hmm, not really. Because John and I talk a lot and with the younger generation, and they love Corvettes. This newest one is very popular with the younger generation.
They’re not cheap, though. I watch Barrett-Jackson quite a bit, and I see those Corvettes going for a $100,000.
I know they’re in beautiful shape and everything, but I wish I still had mine. Mine would probably be worth $100,000 because I don’t put more than 3,000 miles on a car in a year.
Corvette Impressions
ROD WORLEY – Editor – So what’s the most recent Corvette you’ve ridden in, what did you think of it?
TOM BOIK – Retired Body Design Group Supervisor – It was a 2002 model. It’s another Corvette, so it’s great.
ROD WORLEY – Editor – Was it harder working in fiberglass or metal?
TOM BOIK – Retired Body Design Group Supervisor – Well, they went from fiberglass to carbon fiber. But in the 70s, I was using fiberglass. The underbody of the car was all fiberglass.
They were making mock-ups at Creative Industries. When I first went outside of GM to be on that Corvette program, they made layups of the underbody in that building because Creative Industries was a very versatile company.
It was a versatile company. I watched them upholster the first DeLorean while I was there.
A Great Career
ROD WORLEY – Editor – Tom, you’ve had a great career. Thank you for sharing so much with us today.
TOM BOIK – Retired Body Design Group Supervisor – You’re welcome, Rod, yeah, I really did. I honestly had a great career.
Thank You, Tom
As you listen to the 83-year old Tom Boik talk about being a Body Design Group Supervisor on America’s Sports Car, you can’t help but be grateful. It’s dedicated people like Tom and others who worked tirelessly to continue the Corvette legacy.
Special thanks to Daniella Boik for her labor of love in bringing her grandfather’s story to life. Daniella showed off her journalistic chops here.
Tom Boik has graciously provided insights into a world that few understood outside of GM. For that and so much more, we’re grateful to Tom and others on his team when our throaty V-8 Corvette roars to life.
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