Video: BGA Making C7’s

[John]

I love watching Corvettes be built. Periodically I re0watch this or similar videos. Wish we could instead take plant tours...

[Ssscooter66]

Thanks,
I haven’t seen that video before ...

[C8-wannabe]

Great video, thanks.

Only did one plant tour way back curing C5 era, of course so much has changed, but watching the video almost looks the same, just more robotics.

[John]

According to several videos made by Kai Spande, not only was the entire plant gutted last fall during the 13 week shutdown, but major changes in the sequencing of parts’ assembly and the lines themselves have changed majorly since then. It will be so interesting to see all the differences when we get to re-enter the plant.

One of the biggest changes was no longer assembling body panels on the car in nine different areas, most near the beginning of the process, but now consolidating the placement of the panels close to the end of the assembly — with consequent less chance of paint damage. First, a couple of pictures, then two videos by BGA Plant Manager Kai Spande explaining a lot about the plant physical and process changes.

[Meldoon]

Very kool video. I hope the new paint shop has addressed the orange peel problem. My 2017 GS is pretty bad.

[John]

There are lots of reviews of those who have gotten a new Corvette painted since November 6th in the new paint shop, very happy with their car’s paint. One of the most memorable ones was of a black one, in which he took a large amount of pictures, gave a detail analysis. Bottom line is that the 100 degree color temperatures in the new 120’ paint booths (compared to the 270 temps in the old, only 40’ paint booths), has resulted in less orange feel, and perhaps more important, less panel waviness. Are the new cars perfect? No, but neither were a few I saw at the Porsche dealership earlier this month. Saws also a couple of posts from folks who specifically commented that there second C7’s — both painted in the new paint shop, were far better than their first C7’s.

Are the new ones really, really good? Yes, and here is a picture of the first Elkart Lake Blue one in the Pacific Northwest that I took yesterday. It’s paint was really nice, and no panel waviness I could see (though as you can see from the picture, still was in its PDI process so there was still the hood having it protective traveling covering).




[email protected] has seen over 250 Corvettes painted in the new paint shop, and he gives the quality of their paint a double thumbs up (I talked to Mike about this very subject just a couple of days ago.

I am going to inspect a friend’s Shadow Gray Metallic GS within the next week. Hope it is just as good.