dave 316 Posted October 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 17, 2012 There are only 8 Race Red and Sonic Blue cars to begin with but, unless my crystal ball badly needs some Windex, precisely zero cars exist as you describe as I believe yours ALSO happens to include the Electronics Package and Car Cover, presuming yours is 5272. 3 of the 8 have been exported. The other 4 went to stores in SD, FL, KS and OR. Mine is in fact 5272! Safe to say at this point pretty rare? PM me your address for your reward, and use that crystal ball to fast forward shipment!~! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikejaeggi Posted October 18, 2012 Report Share Posted October 18, 2012 Got the window sticker today, build confirmed for 10/23. is Nov 15th to NJ too optimistic? just got my VIN and buil date from the dealer-build date of monday 11/26, right after the svt guys have a nice, long thanksgiving weekend so they will be extra rested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madlock Posted October 18, 2012 Report Share Posted October 18, 2012 just got my VIN and buil date from the dealer-build date of monday 11/26, right after the svt guys have a nice, long thanksgiving weekend so they will be extra rested. I don't mean to dash your hopes, but the same folks who build every V6 and GT make GT500s too. Your motor will have been made before the holiday and, without meaning to cast aspersions upon the domestic U.S auto sector, I'd lay 5:1 the holiday weekend is far likelier to mean "hungover" rather than "well-rested". :beerchug: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snoopy49 Posted October 18, 2012 Report Share Posted October 18, 2012 just got my VIN and built date from the dealer-build date of Monday 11/26, right after the SVT guys have a nice, long thanksgiving weekend so they will be extra rested. Is the plant going to be producing cars after Nov 22nd, aren't they suppose to be down for retooling, Christmas and New Years? If that is the case, the car won't be built until after Jan 2nd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madlock Posted October 18, 2012 Report Share Posted October 18, 2012 Is the plant going to be producing cars after Nov 22nd, aren't they suppose to be down for retooling, Christmas and New Years? If that is the case, the car won't be built until after Jan 2nd. Nah. It's just the UAW equivalent of a long weekend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squirrel 007 Posted October 19, 2012 Report Share Posted October 19, 2012 just got my VIN and buil date from the dealer-build date of monday 11/26, right after the svt guys have a nice, long thanksgiving weekend so they will be extra rested. I'll tell you from my experience of 36 years at Ford. Monday is typically not a great day for the workers. They partied hard for the weekend and are a little slow on Mondays. By about 11:00am they are moving along prettty good. My car was also built on a Monday too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madlock Posted October 19, 2012 Report Share Posted October 19, 2012 I'll tell you from my experience of 36 years at Ford. Monday is typically not a great day for the workers. They partied hard for the weekend and are a little slow on Mondays. By about 11:00am they are moving along prettty good. My car was also built on a Monday too. It makes a body wonder what anybody has to say to the dozens of unemployed who’d each give their right arms for a chance to be more productive and create greater value. They wouldn’t need any reminding to show-up for work on Monday ready to perform the work they’ve agreed to do. Of course, I exempt the so-called “new hires” who didn’t have a voice in negotiating the contract that established the terms of their employment which not only requires them to subsidize their more senior colleagues by working at half-pay and less than they would’ve earned without UAW looking out for them, but prevents them from ever constituting a majority. Just how bad can the job market be when the government, businesses and workers themselves accept half-assed Mondays as part of the cultural landscape? When the wheels finally DO come-off and China has repo'd the last very last lock, stock and barrel, we can all sleep well in the knowledge that Detroit's collapse will have been an inside job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squirrel 007 Posted October 19, 2012 Report Share Posted October 19, 2012 It makes a body wonder what anybody has to say to the dozens of unemployed who’d each give their right arms for a chance to be more productive and create greater value. They wouldn’t need any reminding to show-up for work on Monday ready to perform the work they’ve agreed to do. I agree with you, but about 30% of the Monday morning problems are machines that sat idle for the weekend. The machines run way better if they run continuously. Sort of like getting a car up to operating temperature. And the tired people who showed up not ready to give it their all are more likely not to care about things being right. So if a machine is not for instance, pressing a bearing in all the way and then an oil seal gets pressed in and it gets damaged pushing the bearing in the rest of the distance it should have been in the first place, on Mondays the worker may just not care and the seal may end up leaking for the final purchaser of the car. But later in the day or week that same worker is more alert to machine malfunctions and has the problem corrected immediately. Which goes back to reinforce your statement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikejaeggi Posted October 19, 2012 Report Share Posted October 19, 2012 Is the plant going to be producing cars after Nov 22nd, aren't they suppose to be down for retooling, Christmas and New Years? If that is the case, the car won't be built until after Jan 2nd. i hope that's not true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave 316 Posted October 19, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 19, 2012 Ok , lets get back on topic, MY BUILD!!! LOL! Madlock, dealer called this morning with what I think is great news. Was told, car is in production, and has an ETA to the dealer for Nov 3rd. Build date on window sticker is 10/23. Now, as an investigator by trade I called SVT to verify. They confirmed the car is in production, ahead of the build date and ETA to dealer is in fact Nov 3rd. My question to you O WISE ONE, is how accurate is this information? I'm going on vac Nov 3rd to the 7th, and the last thing I want is the car at the dealership for that long. I have the kind of luck that somebody who won the lottery would walk in and offer double the sticker price and hi-jack my dream!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squirrel 007 Posted October 19, 2012 Report Share Posted October 19, 2012 Is the plant going to be producing cars after Nov 22nd, aren't they suppose to be down for retooling, Christmas and New Years? If that is the case, the car won't be built until after Jan 2nd. For Thanksgiving the UAW gets Thursday and Friday as holidays to make a 4 day weekend. The Christmas shutdown would be scheduled starting Dec 22 and returning Jan 2. Sometimes the assembly plants, depending on sales, get extended shutdowns. Ford plans on making the 2013 Shelby to the end of February so they will not retool the line during shutdown. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snoopy49 Posted October 19, 2012 Report Share Posted October 19, 2012 Squirrel, Checkout this article. Flat Rock Assembly Plant From article:' Much of the retooling will be done during a three-week shutdown in November. By March, prototypes could be coming down the line, Gonzales said It appears that the retooling has been rescheduled to the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. If anyone knows the exact dates, please post them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squirrel 007 Posted October 19, 2012 Report Share Posted October 19, 2012 Squirrel, Checkout this article. Flat Rock Assembly Plant From article:' Much of the retooling will be done during a three-week shutdown in November. By March, prototypes could be coming down the line, Gonzales said It appears that the retooling has been rescheduled to the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. If anyone knows the exact dates, please post them. Interesting article. The Mustang line will not be retooled but apparently the other line will for the Fusion. But it looks like, from the article that they will shut the plant for 3 weeks in November. Maybe the 3rd through the 26th? That would take them past the Thanksgiving holiday. Then I guess they run for 4 weeks and shut down for X-mas to New Years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snoopy49 Posted October 19, 2012 Report Share Posted October 19, 2012 The latest I have heard is the plant will be closed from Nov 28th to Jan 2nd. I haven't seen anything official, just some random posts. I also heard the dates Nov 22nd to Jan2nd, but I have seen 2 posts from 2 different members who said their scheduled build dates were Nov 26th. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madlock Posted October 19, 2012 Report Share Posted October 19, 2012 Ok , lets get back on topic, MY BUILD!!! LOL! Madlock, dealer called this morning with what I think is great news. Was told, car is in production, and has an ETA to the dealer for Nov 3rd. Build date on window sticker is 10/23. Now, as an investigator by trade I called SVT to verify. They confirmed the car is in production, ahead of the build date and ETA to dealer is in fact Nov 3rd. My question to you O WISE ONE, is how accurate is this information? I'm going on vac Nov 3rd to the 7th, and the last thing I want is the car at the dealership for that long. I have the kind of luck that somebody who won the lottery would walk in and offer double the sticker price and hi-jack my dream!!!! I'm sure it's 100% accurate.... for the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madlock Posted October 19, 2012 Report Share Posted October 19, 2012 Interesting article. The Mustang line will not be retooled but apparently the other line will for the Fusion. But it looks like, from the article that they will shut the plant for 3 weeks in November. Maybe the 3rd through the 26th? That would take them past the Thanksgiving holiday. Then I guess they run for 4 weeks and shut down for X-mas to New Years. It's not just about "line retooling". A whole lot more goes into trying to leverage economies of scale and integrate a single plant building two cars. Hence the paint shop moving to Oxford White and Ruby Red Metallic like the rest of the Ford product family because that's what Fusion will be using when Flat Rock starts picking-up overflow capacity or operating as a second source for building more retail orders. ALL of these will play a part in the changeover which will happen at various stages, many of which are likely to occur in parallel with continued production. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snoopy49 Posted October 19, 2012 Report Share Posted October 19, 2012 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snoopy49 Posted October 19, 2012 Report Share Posted October 19, 2012 I just read a post on SVT Performance and a member there just got his VIN and a build date of Dec 3rd. What's going on at Ford? Post Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madlock Posted October 20, 2012 Report Share Posted October 20, 2012 Ford's manufacturing schedule apparently isn't as driven by Internet forum chatter as much as some seemed to suspect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squirrel 007 Posted October 20, 2012 Report Share Posted October 20, 2012 I just read a post on SVT Performance and a member there just got his VIN and a build date of Dec 3rd. What's going on at Ford? Post Sort of jives with my dates from above. Close 3 weeks until Nov 26 (You mentioned above that somebody has a Nov 26 build date) then run until Dec 22nd for the X-mas shutdown. UAW contract gives them until Jan 2nd for paid holidays but Ford can shut the plant longer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squirrel 007 Posted October 20, 2012 Report Share Posted October 20, 2012 It's not just about "line retooling". A whole lot more goes into trying to leverage economies of scale and integrate a single plant building two cars. Hence the paint shop moving to Oxford White and Ruby Red Metallic like the rest of the Ford product family because that's what Fusion will be using when Flat Rock starts picking-up overflow capacity or operating as a second source for building more retail orders. ALL of these will play a part in the changeover which will happen at various stages, many of which are likely to occur in parallel with continued production. Times have changed. We used to retool in July. That way we could run the "New" rear axles and drive shafts in August for the "New car releases" in September. Kind of crazy like a 2013 Shelby being built in April of 2012. Makes me get up in the morning and wonder what year it really is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madlock Posted October 20, 2012 Report Share Posted October 20, 2012 Times have changed. We used to retool in July. That way we could run the "New" rear axles and drive shafts in August for the "New car releases" in September. Kind of crazy like a 2013 Shelby being built in April of 2012. Makes me get up in the morning and wonder what year it really is. Yep. Since the chaos of '09, all makers have been pulling forward product to stimulate demand which has played all sorts of hell with product cadences which created all sorts of inconsistencies within the lineup as well. For example, Flex came to market as the first of the true "new generation" of Ford vehicles, and it was terrific. However, it went virtually unchanged for 3 years as every other vehicle came to market with Adaptive Cruise, BLIS, Active Park Assist and a handful of other features that suddenly left Flex the most expensive but least well-equipped model in the lineup for almost 2 years. Similar things happened with shared platform cars between Ford and Lincoln. My Taurus SHO had BLIS and seat massagers, but my wife's MKS couldn't get them at any price. Only now are they starting to get back product back in sync as each hits its next major refresh or redesign. Flat Rock is also the oldest plant in Ford's arsenal and is just getting reworked for flexible manufacturing where multiple models can go down the same line. I was shocked to learn that in any mass-production auto plant, the most expensive portion is the paint shop which accounts for almost 70% of the entire facility's capital investment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikejaeggi Posted October 20, 2012 Report Share Posted October 20, 2012 how long after you get the VIN# from the dealer can you view the window sticker online? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squirrel 007 Posted October 20, 2012 Report Share Posted October 20, 2012 how long after you get the VIN# from the dealer can you view the window sticker online? About one week before the build date. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iceman5000 Posted October 20, 2012 Report Share Posted October 20, 2012 Flat Rock is also the oldest plant in Ford's arsenal and is just getting reworked for flexible manufacturing where multiple models can go down the same line. I was shocked to learn that in any mass-production auto plant, the most expensive portion is the paint shop which accounts for almost 70% of the entire facility's capital investment. Actually Ford's Chicago plant is the oldest Ford plant in operation. It is 30 years older than Flatrock. And Flat rock has been producing multiple models on the same assembly line since 1987, (Mazda MX 6 and Ford Probes), and more recently Mustangs and Mazda 626's until August 2012. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madlock Posted October 20, 2012 Report Share Posted October 20, 2012 Actually Ford's Chicago plant is the oldest Ford plant in operation. It is 30 years older than Flatrock. And Flat rock has been producing multiple models on the same assembly line since 1987, (Mazda MX 6 and Ford Probes), and more recently Mustangs and Mazda 626's until August 2012. I stand corrected. Thank you. I believed the existing Chicago facility came on-line after AAI was formed. Though Flat Rock made Mustang and 626 concurrently until Mazda pulled 626 for Mexico, the relevant point to which I was alluding is the investment made to equip Flat Rock with the current-generation flexible infrastructure it lacked - which made no sense when only Mustangs were being made for Ford and Mazda wouldn't fund on the basis of selling one 626 every other Thursday and Flat Rock's hugely expensive labor versus building a cost-competitive facility elsewhere. The $550M investment now makes sense for Ford with two high volume products to help amortize the cost and bring forward the ROI, especially if it can add new staff at the UAW entry-level wage on the basis of being a new product to the facility which may include more than Fusion once CAFE mandates fully kick-in in 2016 and killing-off the Canadian D4 products becomes more likely. From what I understand, much of the 626 slack space has been used to rebuild from the inside concurrent with Mustang production rather than instead of it - as has been the case as products were juggled between other facilities like Claycomo and Louisville to achieve many of the same goals there. Mazda is now basically the one thing NOBODY wants to be - a Detroit area landlord with property that's worth to much to sell, but too little to keep. Thanks for helping me to be more clear and specific about what I MEANT to write. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snoopy49 Posted October 20, 2012 Report Share Posted October 20, 2012 When is the new 3-wet paint system going on line? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madlock Posted October 20, 2012 Report Share Posted October 20, 2012 When is the new 3-wet paint system going on line? From a logistics perspective, I'd guess it'll probably coincide with the model year or the first Fusion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snoopy49 Posted October 20, 2012 Report Share Posted October 20, 2012 If the retooling included upgrading the paint shop to the new 3-wet process, would they still be able to paint cars using the old system after the upgrade? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madlock Posted October 21, 2012 Report Share Posted October 21, 2012 If the retooling included upgrading the paint shop to the new 3-wet process, would they still be able to paint cars using the old system after the upgrade? If the whole point of reworking the paint shop was to adopt a new, common process, I'd highly doubt they would paint the old way even if they could. First, there's no point in operating more paint capacity than the line can accommodate. Second, the cost of operating both systems in parallel (presuming they could be) would be staggering. It'd be cheaper to keep a battalion of the most talented body painters on 24/7 standby. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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