January 2015 seems like such a long time to get to this point but time sure does fly as I am approaching the end of this amazing process and oh what a ride it has been. During the ordering process with my concierge I had requested to visit the assembly plant during the build process of my car so on June 28th I received the much anticipated call informing me that my car (#57) is on the assembly line and awaiting my arrival. I was told that there was a 14 day window to make the trip to Markham to see the car being assembled so I made my flight plans for July 10th to visit on the 11th.
Knowing that Terry lived so close to Markham I reached out to him to see if he wanted to be a part of this process and lead me around Canada (as he had witnessed at the first Texas rally I could use all of the navigational help I could get). :facepalm::rofl At the same time Trent was doing a couple of favors for me on my yellow car and showed interest in attending so at that point we were all set.
My flight going out wasn’t the best due to a smell of smoke in the control tower which caused all flights to be grounded but unfortunately we had already boarded plane so 4 hours later we were in the air. :frown I landed in Ontario at midnight and headed to the hotel arriving at 12:45am and guess who was bellied up at the bar with an adult beverage??? :eekYup…. it was Trent! So what better to do but have a few beers and chat about old and new GT stuff until 2am. :cheers
Terry picked us up at 7:20 am the next morning for breakfast and off to the Markham plant we went to meet Pearce at 9:30am sharp. Unfortunately the first thing we were told by Pearce was no pictures inside the building :frownv Otherwise I would have plenty of pictures to post. Upon entering the plant I immediately felt overwhelmed with GT porn and stood there in amazement of how many cars, parts, and techs around us but it only took me 10 seconds to spot #57 sitting there staring at me in complete dress (except for the rear deck lid) on the car dolly.
As we passed through all of the assembly stations we saw many of our forum members cars (Tomy, Shelby, Ron, Brian, etc.) getting meticulously put together by the Ford performance/Multimatic techs. I can tell you the Ford performance/Multimatic team looks to have a everything in order on the assembly line from the parts carts, tools, check lists and assembly techs working like a well-oiled machine. Each phase of the assembly line has about 3-4 techs working together knowing that they are not to end their work day until they are 100% complete no matter what and then the next day a new cassis number will arrive and so on and so on.
One of the main differences I’ve noticed from the Ford truck plant tour in Dearborn to the GT plant is there are NO robotics, hanging air tools or the use of any air tools, conveyors, or hanging computer screens etc. When they say this car is “hand built” it is truly hand built with every nut and bolt installed by hand including thread lock manually put on the bolts. In the middle of the assembly line is a large black cabinet that has a data base to communicates with the torque wrenches and logs in each cars nut and bolt torque to ensure the process is 100% complete.
Later in the tour we were approached by Jeff (GM of the plant) to personally take us to visit the normally inaccessible tub room for a quick peek and to visibly explain the process from a row of tubs in the many assembly stages as well as giving his perspective of a few things normally not discussed (we are sworn to secrecy LOL) . This was truly an amazing day getting to see the rows of wheels ready to be installed, feeling the weight difference of the carbon wheels and Ti lug nuts, seeing the dyno, water intrusion test room, final paint inspection room, racks and racks of parts, many completed cars preparing for shipment, many different color cars and options, special paint palettes, and getting the sense that everyone working knows exactly what their duties are.
After 2.5 hours of jaw dropping GT porn we had to move on so that Pearce and the Ford performance/Multimatic team could get back to building the one of a kind hand built Super Car Ford GT’s. I would like to personally thank Pearce, Jeff, Terry, and Trent for being a part of this epic part of the GT ownership and rest assured to all that the GT’s are lining up to hit the streets!!!
Knowing that Terry lived so close to Markham I reached out to him to see if he wanted to be a part of this process and lead me around Canada (as he had witnessed at the first Texas rally I could use all of the navigational help I could get). :facepalm::rofl At the same time Trent was doing a couple of favors for me on my yellow car and showed interest in attending so at that point we were all set.
My flight going out wasn’t the best due to a smell of smoke in the control tower which caused all flights to be grounded but unfortunately we had already boarded plane so 4 hours later we were in the air. :frown I landed in Ontario at midnight and headed to the hotel arriving at 12:45am and guess who was bellied up at the bar with an adult beverage??? :eekYup…. it was Trent! So what better to do but have a few beers and chat about old and new GT stuff until 2am. :cheers
Terry picked us up at 7:20 am the next morning for breakfast and off to the Markham plant we went to meet Pearce at 9:30am sharp. Unfortunately the first thing we were told by Pearce was no pictures inside the building :frownv Otherwise I would have plenty of pictures to post. Upon entering the plant I immediately felt overwhelmed with GT porn and stood there in amazement of how many cars, parts, and techs around us but it only took me 10 seconds to spot #57 sitting there staring at me in complete dress (except for the rear deck lid) on the car dolly.
As we passed through all of the assembly stations we saw many of our forum members cars (Tomy, Shelby, Ron, Brian, etc.) getting meticulously put together by the Ford performance/Multimatic techs. I can tell you the Ford performance/Multimatic team looks to have a everything in order on the assembly line from the parts carts, tools, check lists and assembly techs working like a well-oiled machine. Each phase of the assembly line has about 3-4 techs working together knowing that they are not to end their work day until they are 100% complete no matter what and then the next day a new cassis number will arrive and so on and so on.
One of the main differences I’ve noticed from the Ford truck plant tour in Dearborn to the GT plant is there are NO robotics, hanging air tools or the use of any air tools, conveyors, or hanging computer screens etc. When they say this car is “hand built” it is truly hand built with every nut and bolt installed by hand including thread lock manually put on the bolts. In the middle of the assembly line is a large black cabinet that has a data base to communicates with the torque wrenches and logs in each cars nut and bolt torque to ensure the process is 100% complete.
Later in the tour we were approached by Jeff (GM of the plant) to personally take us to visit the normally inaccessible tub room for a quick peek and to visibly explain the process from a row of tubs in the many assembly stages as well as giving his perspective of a few things normally not discussed (we are sworn to secrecy LOL) . This was truly an amazing day getting to see the rows of wheels ready to be installed, feeling the weight difference of the carbon wheels and Ti lug nuts, seeing the dyno, water intrusion test room, final paint inspection room, racks and racks of parts, many completed cars preparing for shipment, many different color cars and options, special paint palettes, and getting the sense that everyone working knows exactly what their duties are.
After 2.5 hours of jaw dropping GT porn we had to move on so that Pearce and the Ford performance/Multimatic team could get back to building the one of a kind hand built Super Car Ford GT’s. I would like to personally thank Pearce, Jeff, Terry, and Trent for being a part of this epic part of the GT ownership and rest assured to all that the GT’s are lining up to hit the streets!!!