Tweet
I got a really cool opportunity last Friday and figured I'd share a bit of what I saw on the board. I know several folks who either worked there or had parents that worked here so in that regard I felt obliged to thread it.
The plant is in the "remove anything valuable" stage of their deconstruction. One of the PVT guys got moved to our organization and he was nice enough to work out a deal with Fordland that allowed us to walk around and either grab or write down anything we were interested in taking. It wasn't as simple as just getting "dibs" on whatever looked cute but from a corporate standpoint it's about as close to a free looting pass as one could get. We don't have possession of everything we "reserved" yet but in the next few weeks the TC training center should have a nice lot of TCAP memorabilia.
My primary interest was getting any and all signage associated with TCAP. Doodads, trinkets, tools and equipment are nice but in 10-20 years the thing that people are going to be interested in are things they used to see on a daily basis...Like signs. We expressed interest in getting literally every white TWIN CITIES ASSEMBLY PLANT sign outside the plant. I expect to get several. Considering they tried to convince us to take the gigantic 50ft high blue oval, I doubt I'll have a problem getting some 6x8 wooden signs
The first pic is toward the end of the line. This is where the trucks where started for the first time and driven under their own power to the alignment bays. After that, they go through a short bumpy road test and then off to transport of everything checked out good.
This is a picture of the trim and glass fitment line and ahead you can see for hundreds of feet through the building. It's amazing how creepy a place like that is when everyone is gone. We saw maybe 10 other faces throughout our entire walk through the facility.
This is a carousel after the bodies have been painted and it's either where the paint is dried or where the bodies meet chassis. The pictures don't illustrate how big and deep some of these areas are. The amount of steel, copper, etc. that needs to be scraped is just unreal.
Leftovers..... Brand new exhaust manifolds, hubs, rotors, flywheels, oil pans, valvecovers, etc. It's a shame how much stuff is getting thrown away
Electrical leftovers.....Entire harnesses, 02 sensors, PCMs, IACs, plug wires, ignition coils, etc. I hacked the connector ends of these harnesses till my arm was on fire.
Pallets of alternators
Pallets of rims
These are the leftover Mazda M5ODs, 5R55's and 4.0 SOHCs. 1200 units a DAY went through this place. These "leftovers" are just the few extra that didn't make it into a chassis.
This is the last 4.0 SOHC to come down the line. All the engine guys signed it. This will reside in our facility from now on
Thought this was pretty cool....pretty sad too Sitting right at the end of the engine line
Pallet of side glasses
Lug nuts and batteries
The plant is in the "remove anything valuable" stage of their deconstruction. One of the PVT guys got moved to our organization and he was nice enough to work out a deal with Fordland that allowed us to walk around and either grab or write down anything we were interested in taking. It wasn't as simple as just getting "dibs" on whatever looked cute but from a corporate standpoint it's about as close to a free looting pass as one could get. We don't have possession of everything we "reserved" yet but in the next few weeks the TC training center should have a nice lot of TCAP memorabilia.
My primary interest was getting any and all signage associated with TCAP. Doodads, trinkets, tools and equipment are nice but in 10-20 years the thing that people are going to be interested in are things they used to see on a daily basis...Like signs. We expressed interest in getting literally every white TWIN CITIES ASSEMBLY PLANT sign outside the plant. I expect to get several. Considering they tried to convince us to take the gigantic 50ft high blue oval, I doubt I'll have a problem getting some 6x8 wooden signs
The first pic is toward the end of the line. This is where the trucks where started for the first time and driven under their own power to the alignment bays. After that, they go through a short bumpy road test and then off to transport of everything checked out good.
This is a picture of the trim and glass fitment line and ahead you can see for hundreds of feet through the building. It's amazing how creepy a place like that is when everyone is gone. We saw maybe 10 other faces throughout our entire walk through the facility.
This is a carousel after the bodies have been painted and it's either where the paint is dried or where the bodies meet chassis. The pictures don't illustrate how big and deep some of these areas are. The amount of steel, copper, etc. that needs to be scraped is just unreal.
Leftovers..... Brand new exhaust manifolds, hubs, rotors, flywheels, oil pans, valvecovers, etc. It's a shame how much stuff is getting thrown away
Electrical leftovers.....Entire harnesses, 02 sensors, PCMs, IACs, plug wires, ignition coils, etc. I hacked the connector ends of these harnesses till my arm was on fire.
Pallets of alternators
Pallets of rims
These are the leftover Mazda M5ODs, 5R55's and 4.0 SOHCs. 1200 units a DAY went through this place. These "leftovers" are just the few extra that didn't make it into a chassis.
This is the last 4.0 SOHC to come down the line. All the engine guys signed it. This will reside in our facility from now on
Thought this was pretty cool....pretty sad too
Sitting right at the end of the engine linePallet of side glasses
Lug nuts and batteries
Comment