The LazyAssGeek’s

We arrived at about 7:45am and were met by our Delivery Team Member, Lance B. Lance is a retired airline pilot who owns a ’58 and a ’92, so with the ’92 he & Rob became fast friends, commiserating over the “Optispark.”  Lance gave us a quick synopsis of how the day would go and then sent us off to watch the mandatory safety film, which of course leads to signing a release.  Damn lawyers.

Now renting the GM car despite Rob’s cranky complaints the previous evening pays off… they were short on staff cars and we were able to take the rental because it was a Pontiac Grand Prix.  OK, so he’s right, that car is a piece of crap, but it was a GM piece of crap and on that day, that is what mattered!  A quick drive across the street, removal of a very sophisticated security device (a vertical steel tube stuck in a hole) and we were parked at the front entrance to the plant. On the drive over to the plant Lance told us that Corvette Assembly doesn’t hire “off the street”, only existing GM employees.  The line runs at approximately 1/3 the speed of a standard GM line, which means there is always a waiting list for assembly workers. The plant produces 160 Corvettes and 30 Cadillac XLR’s a day.  The weather had turned awful by the time we had the car so I Corvette Forum member ROKNBLU’s shot.

You enter the plant in the holding and QC area for painted body panels.  There are C6 and XLR panels hanging everywhere. Unfortunately you do not get to see the painting process, just what comes after. As you continue down and around the aisle you come to a spot where there are assembled chasses coming slowly down a track.  At that point all they have on them are rocker panels glued along the sides, which are the only panels attached with adhesive.  All the other panels are bolted on.  At this point they have an engraving machine that gets fed the VIN via a bar code from the build sheet that travels with the car all the way through the assembly process.  The VIN is then engraved onto the frame in a spot that will be VERY difficult to access once the car is fully assembled.

My memory is a little hazy at this point, but as I recall the next bit of the process can’t really be seen from the walkway where visitors are allowed.  Pretty much the next time you see the cars they have body panels from the quarters back.  The interior starts going in at this point.  As the line travels the floor level of the stations changes to suit the work to be done, so the interior stations are higher above the floor than body panels, etc.  As the electronics get installed there are power modules that get plugged in so that they can test all “non-running” electrical systems – seats, radio, fans, etc. After that the cars take a right turn on the line they head to where the seats and then the doors are installed.  The door installation is a fairly cool process.  The doors are picked up by jigs which have a locater pin attached.  This pin goes through a location hole in the frame to properly align the door, then the assembler shims it into position with spacers and torques the door into place. 

Opposite this area of the line is a really wild process.  The frames are fed along a conveyor to a robot that glues the rear storage tub into place.  The frames are fed into a waiting area where they are turned 90 degrees and then backed into the robot area.  The robot applies the glue into the area where the tub will be, then it picks up the tub and puts it into place.  The car is then turned another 90 degrees and goes back around the carousel.  The carousel alternates between cars that have had the tub installed and those that have not.  The ones that have come back around with the tub installed are lifted a level up onto a conveyor that sends them towards the area where we saw them coming “downhill” towards where the VIN is etched.

Another jog around a corner as the windshields are installed.  Another robot that applies the adhesive around the frame and then installs the windshield. There are actually very few robots in the process and best I can recall, the tub and windshield are the only robots that we saw in the assembly process.

It starts looking like a car in a hurry now, fenders, headlamps, hood, nose, etc.  After the body assembly is complete the car is picked up off the dolly it has been riding and begins to rise to the upper level and into a holding area that separates the body & chassis assembly area from the drivetrain area.  The holding bin can store about 10 cars so that if either side of the line falls behind or stops it doesn’t effect the other side of the line.

To be continued….