Spottings by redbird

[redbird]

Tbirdman,

Sorry, I forgot that Wixom is down for the next two weeks for summer vacation, looks like it will be about a month before yours is built. Oops.

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[Tundrabird]

Hi Redbird
Would appreciate if you would watch for our baby, VIN #22252, blue/white/full blue accent interior, scheduled build date 7/22. Thanks!

 

[Tbirdman]

Redbird
Got it. Thanks for follow up.
Tbirdman

 

[3BMMII]

I hesitate to write this because in reading the posts here I know people have waited for their birds a great length of time, but in the interest of sharing information here is our chronology.
Placed Thunderbird order with dealer Wed. April 10, 2002
Dealer gave us the VIN, Fri. May 30, 2002 at 11:44 A.M.
redbird information said it started down final assembly Fri. June 14 and finished Mon. June 17, 2002
Arrived at Dealership Fri. June 28, 2002 at 8:35 P.M. (Gilbert was the transport driver and was very friendly and posed for pictures).
Signed final papers and picked up our Triple Black Thunderbird Mon. July 1, 2002. It had 6.1 miles showing on the odometer. My wife drove it off the lot at 4:35 P.M.

Many thanks to redbird for sharing inside information as the dealer was ill-informed. As a matter of fact when we picked the car up the New Car Sales Manager told me she did not know that it had been built yet.

 

[HKS]

redbird,

I ordered my Tbird March 1 and just received a VIN number issued 6/27/02. The number is 24737 Premium/Blue/White/Full Accent. Do you think it will be included in the production run when the plant resumes operation in July? As you see, my Tbird is 263 vin numbers away from the absolute end.

Also, I was curious if they make the same color cars at one time or if the assembly line is made up of all color choices. In that case, the paint area must be equiped with paint areas equiped to handle all colors. I had a chance to tour the Audi factory in Ingolstadt Germany with one of the engineers and have some idea of modern production lines.

I would appreciate any feedback you could provide. Thanks in advance-- HKS

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[redbird]

HKS,

At the rate the plant is building T-birds, your's will probably be scheduled for production near the end of August. I don't yet understand how this jives with the switch to 2003 birds in November, maybe they are not going to build any for two months.

The birds are painted on the same line with the Lincolns and the paint robots can switch colors for each car if needed. They try to group a few birds of the same color to go down the paint line together. That saves money and waste by minimizing the number of times the robots have to purge paint from the guns and reload a different color.

 

[HKS]

Redbird, thank you very much for your informative reply.

That was interesting about the robots purging between paint jobs. I had assumed that each color would use different robots. I did not get a good look at the Audi painting process, only several assembly lines. I also watched the camshaft grinding and assembly process. Some had lobes ground, newer ones had lobes pressed on.

I hope I can keep my sanity until end of August. My dealer was getting a car a month. The vin number of the last car was 21,123. So, the cars (mine is 24737)were spaced 3,614 vin numbers apart, indicating that Ford was producing 3,614 cars a month. Of course, with the 2 weeks shut down in July, that changes this.

Thanks again for the info. I still do not understand the rotantion and vin number relationship now that the cars are in the 20,000 bracket.

I will post again at the end of august. Maybe you can watch for my 24,737 then.

HKS

Originally posted by HKS:
redbird,

I ordered my Tbird March 1 and just received a VIN number issued 6/27/02. The number is 24737 Premium/Blue/White/Full Accent. Do you think it will be included in the production run when the plant resumes operation in July? As you see, my Tbird is 263 vin numbers away from the absolute end.

Also, I was curious if they make the same color cars at one time or if the assembly line is made up of all color choices. In that case, the paint area must be equiped with paint areas equiped to handle all colors. I had a chance to tour the Audi factory in Ingolstadt Germany with one of the engineers and have some idea of modern production lines.

I would appreciate any feedback you could provide. Thanks in advance-- HKS

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[redbird]

HKS,

I don't know how Wixom's paint booths are set up, maybe Wixompooh can tell us. I believe most plants use robots that can change colors for each car.

When the VIN numbers are assigned and the bird is scheduled for production, it is picked from thousands of other waiting units and they are not currently being sorted to be in VIN # sequence before being assigned production rotation numbers. The VIN numbers of the scheduled units jump around by hundreds of digits.

When the car actually starts down the line, it's in "rotation" number sequence, from 0001 to 9960 and then back to 1 for T-birds. This will tell you exactly when your bird was built in relation to the other birds. By the way, the current rate is about 2,500 T-birds built a month.


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[NCBlueBird]

Thanks Redbird for keeping up with my build day. My Blue/Blue Premium got here over the holiday weekend. #20726 arrived at Bilton Ford in St. George SC the morning of July 3.

The whole family drove down from Raleigh to accept delivery Friday. Everything ya'll said about turning those heads was right on. We shared the driving back to NC. I even enjoyed riding in the second car in front and behind. It's probably the only time I'll ever see it moving from the outside.

Beautiful car, drives great, everything I had hoped for! The only minor issue was that I wanted solid black interior, and the standard was ordered instead of the black accent. I like it this way after hearing about the dings some people are having with the accent.

I am glad I got the bra. Lots of bugs on these hot summer nights.

Maybe some of us in the tarheel state can connect for some cruizin' on a weekend sometime now that I'm equipped for it.



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[HKS]

Hello again Redbird,

More on my ordering experience.

I found out that my build date is August 19. Original build date was August 12 but the color choices were again messed up. This whole process was a comedy of errors since my deposit on March 1. The Tbird did not get ordered until May 9 due to the computer not accepting the Blue/White color combination.

Anyway, August 19 is the build date (for 24737)given to me by Ford customer relations. The last time I called customer relations, I was told that my Tbird would be next in line to be built. I interpreted that as July when the plant started up production again.

I have concluded that customer relations is told to say anything to make the customer temporarily happy.

HKS

 

[HKS]

redbird,

Can you confirm when the Tbird plant will begin production again? I heard it was August. Is the plant shut down for the entire month of July instead of the first 2 weeks?

HKS

 

[redbird]

Wixom is back from the summer vacation shutdown.

steelers2002 - your 22423 is on the line, will be completed tomorrow.

 

[yello7530]

redbird
what is your guess for vin numbers for August 12? Should be winding down.

 

[NCbird]

My white/white deluxe (VIN# 122507) was "bucked up" the week of June 24 according to the dealer. He estimated that it should go down the line the week of July 15. Any report on its progress? What about a guess at delivery date?

 

[Tundrabird]

Hi Redbird;

Any sign of 122252. I was told it would start down the line yesterday.

 

[redbird]

NCbird,

Your 22507 went down the line Wednesday, should be on it's way!

Tundrabird,

No sign of 22252 yet, should be anytime now. Sometimes Canadian birds lag behind the US birds a little.

yello7530,

Should be building mid 24000s. At the current rate, all 2002 T-birds will be built by the end of August. I believe the start of the 2003s is still set for November.

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[oaklifdn]

Saw a red premium this morning headed south on 67 into Dallas. 'Bout had a wreck catching up to her. Honked and waved. Second one I have seen on the road since DRK BRD arrived.

Dan
DRK BRD

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[redbird]

Tundrabird,

You can relax a little now, 22252 went down the line today, don't know if it made it to the end. Will be completed and head to shipping for sure Monday.