It was January 19, 1982 when Brenden Eeles, Neville Peucker, Norman Walpole and John Kelly started their apprenticeships at Ford Geelong.
Mr Kelly trained as a plumber and gas fitter, the other men as fitter and turners.
More than four decades on they are all still working at Ford, having had completely different careers within the company.
Mr Walpole still remembers their first day at work.
"It was a 40-degree [Celsius] day … and you had to do an exam. The first question said that you had to read the questions carefully," he said.
"If you'd read the questions carefully when you came to the last question of the exam it said, 'You don't need to do this test'.
"That was a baptism of fire the first day."
A job at Ford was a job for life
For many, getting an apprenticeship at Ford was a way out of school at the end of year 11.
Mr Walpole and Mr Peucker remember flicking through the Yellow Pages and applying for work at nearly "every engineering joint" in Geelong.
After getting multiple job offers, Mr Walpole decided to go with Ford because he hoped it would provide career longevity.
When he finished year 11 at Belmont High School Mr Kelly remembers having "free range choice" between Shell, aluminium company Alcoa and Ford.
"My father was a long-term employee at Ford, so my destiny was decided for me," Mr Kelly said.
"I got my role aged 17 and I've been here ever since."
New opportunities working on new cars
After a four-year apprenticeship, each of the men's careers have taken different paths through the company.
Mr Kelly spent 10 years working as a plumber looking after everything from gas and sewerage to the roof at Ford sites in Geelong, Ballarat, Broadmeadows and even Sydney.
"Loved every minute of it," he said.
He then moved into a role as a workplace trainer, before becoming a production supervisor in the engine plant.
"I spent 10 years in there and now I've been 10 years in my current role as a learning and development specialist."
Mr Walpole went from his apprenticeship to the drawing office, then into process engineering before he became a production supervisor overseeing part of the manufacturing operation at the Geelong plant.
"I stayed there until the end of manufacturing and then went across to product development (PD) where I am at the moment," Mr Walpole said.
"It was at a very, very good time. I got to meet a lot of nice people and learnt a lot."
During Mr Peucker's career he specialised in dies used to manufacture parts in the vehicles.
"I ended up on afternoon shift … and then 10 years ago I moved to PD where I am now as a benchmark and teardown engineer," he said.
In his current role, Mr Peucker meticulously takes apart cars to see how they've been made.
"We get to work with very cool vehicles from all around the world," Mr Peucker said.
"Not just Australian cars, I work on cars from Russia, Africa, China, UK – we get them from everywhere."
After his apprenticeship Mr Eeles was "lucky enough" to be put on night shift.
"That was tough, really, really tough," he said.
He then took a role as a trainee draftsman before getting the support of the company to study an engineering degree while he continued to work at Ford.
"From that I ended up with a role as launch coordinator for one of the Falcons, so it was a promotion for me at the time," Mr Eeles said.
"It was my first foray into leadership with the company."
Since then, Mr Eeles' career has gone global.
"I had the opportunity to get spend eight years in China, where we oversaw the growth and building of the China plant, and the growth of the India plant," he said.
He now works as the manufacturing program director for vehicle operations manufacturing engineering.
"We look after Argentina, South Africa, the plants in India, two plants in Thailand, and a plant in Vietnam," he said.
"We've got about 220-odd engineers working for me probably in about eight different countries."
Love of cars keeps them coming back
Over the past 40 years there have been times when the four men have thought about leaving Ford, but at the end of the day good working conditions, great people and exciting opportunities have kept them at the company.
The other major thing that has kept them at Ford: a love of cars.
"This morning for instance I just went for a spin around the track in [a new] electric vehicle; that's just made my day," Mr Kelly said.
"I love things with engines in them, so I have two motorbikes and go nuts on that," Mr Peucker said.
At a lunch to celebrate their 40th year working at Ford the men discussed whether they all planned to be at Ford in another five years.
One person said no, but it won't be another job that will lure them to leave — it will be retirement.
