Watch The 2019 Silverado & Sierra Get Built In Ft Wayne

[Zane]

Zane Merva

Executive Editor / Publisher, GM-Trucks.com

April 26th, 2019 

 

Our friend Tim Esterdahl from Pickup Truck and SUV Talk got an awesome chance to tour the Ft Wayne Assembly Plant. That's one of the two plants that produce the 2019 Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra. Tim's tour was narrated by GM's Executive Chief Engineer Tim Herrick. Sit back and enjoy this look inside the manufacturing of the all new Silverado and Sierra. And if you like what you see, subscribe to Tim's YouTube Channel. 

 

 

[Jsdirt]

They do a great job assembling all the outsourced parts from low-bidder manufacturers! 

 

 

Last time I toured a GM plant was in the early 80's, in Framingham, MA. Was a bad time for automobiles then - really bad quality, slow, ugly, style-less, and stripped models rolling off the line. Was neat to see the processes though. I remember seeing doors as far as the eye could see coming down the line, and watching the unibody units getting completely submerged in what was either paint or, white cleaning / priming liquid there at the time. All 5th-gen A-bodies being built there - awful vehicles.

 

My dad had worked there in the 60's, when the REAL A bodies were being produced. Things weren't so different business-wise in those days - he told me a story of how GM decided to use a redesigned (read: CHEAPER) window seal in all the cars they were building there. The guys at the end of the line had the once coveted job of sitting in the car while high pressure water got blasted over the vehicles - their job was to check and repair any leaks. Cushy job ... at least until this redesign happened. My dad recalled all those end-line guys walking out of there dripping wet, and cursing up a storm, HAHAHA! GM wisely went back to what worked. 

 

Anyway, in typical MA fashion, GM wanted to expand the plant, the town balked, and eventually GM closed its doors, packed up, and headed out. Yet another big industry run out of state. Idiots (state of MA). Dukakis era.   Worst governor in the history of this state, but at least he tried to fight to keep GM's doors open here. Glad I got to see it before it folded.

 

https://braintree.wickedlocal.com/article/20140801/blogs/308019929

Edited April 30, 2019 by Jsdirt

[Colossus]

Thank you for sharing this.  I found it educational. 

[Chris Callanan]

Fascinating that they mix Chevy and GMC at the same as evidenced in the last scene...   I would have thought they would do a run of one, then the other - but I guess they are similar enough that it doesn't matter...

[Z45]

They always have built multiple models on the same lines.  This plant builds 3 models on the same line.

 

Lansing Grand River Assembly/Stamping

 

Revised:2019-09-14       

Location:	920 Townsend Street Lansing, MI. 48921 United States
Year Opened:	LGR 2001/LGS 2016
Facility Size:	3.4 million sq. ft. on 111 acres

---

Employee Information

Hourly:	Assembly (approx): 1,231/Stamping: 159
Salaried:	Assembly (approx): 232/Stamping 15
Total:	1,637 - Shifts: Assembly - 1; Body and Paint – 2, Stamping - 3
Union Local:	Lansing Grand River Assembly UAW Local 652

Products

 

• Cadillac CT4, Cadillac CT5, Chevrolet Camaro

 

 

 

Look at this 1967 photo of Camaro mixed in with full size Chevy

Edited October 18, 2019 by elcamino

[darina99611]

which one is the best?

[alsquare]

I want to find the replacement for my old verhicle

tunnel rush