In April of 1964, Ford revealed to the world the Mustang, a car that would go on to change the concept of American sports cars. The Blue Oval could not have anticipated that they would create an icon, but once the orders started flogging in Ford knew it had a hit. Ford had to triple Mustang production in the early days, converting plants in California and New Jersey to build the popular pony car.

Over the summer, Ford released these images from one of those long-closed plants, the San Jose Assembly Plant in Milpitas, California, giving the world a look at old school Mustang production.

Back in “the day” there were far fewer automated machines building cars, compared to today’s modern factories. We would not want to be the guy who got to stand beneath the Mustang when lining up the rear-end. Another job that has probably been automated is that of the anti-corrosion painter, who moved down the line painting each and every bare Mustang body (all the good it did many of those poor Mustangs…)

But one job we would love to have had was installing the engines. Imagine getting to cradle horsepower behemoths like the 428 Cobra Jet and Boss 302 engines before dropping them in. Seems like heaven for a true Mustang enthusiast. These days many of the jobs are automated as progress renders human assembly inefficient and obsolete. But we’ll always have the memories of the days when men built cars, not robots.