The ultimate Mod!

[Tone]

Yes ASC does a lot of chops, many for custom one-off vehicle conversions (such as for the VX)- but you are telling us that major auto manufacturers ship ALL thousands and thousands of their vehicles( sold as convertibles) over to ASC and then they are shipped back? ASC is going to go in, add major structural support (that would be much easier and safer to do when designing and building them in the first place) in a production style line? They must have the largest line in the world and lots of robots with only 1,100 employees!

But look at thier home page - the first statement: " ASC exists to help automakers design, engineer and maunufacture high-imagelow-volume vehicles". That is NOT the same as prodtion quantities.

The 350Z, Bug, Mustang, PT Cruiser, Porsche, SABB, Lexus convertibles and most all others ARE built as convertibles ON the production line from a design based on the original hard top versions. There is NO ASC sticker/plate on the vast majority of convertibles (and not on any of the factory convertibles I saw @ SEMA, Ford included). But I would be interesed in seeing YOUR Trooper chopped. With money, most anything is possible!

[Soulpower]

I say chop that puppy up. I've seen VXs that cost like $7000. Buy one of those and chop off the top. If it doesnt look good, oh well! Atleast it will be unique. I pledge $500 towards this project!!!

[BritVX]

Tone,
I don't think Nate implied every chopped car came through ASC however I can say that every VW Golf is chopped post production and done by Kharman, incedently Kharman also did a not to good 4X4 version of the Golf.
Anyhow as I said I do not intend just to hack the top off, my approach will be properly engineered as I intend to seriously offroad my VX but as we say over here "the proof will be in the pudding"

Col

[nater]

Tone, I will try to get some hard numbers on this.

By the way, cars are not assembled by robots, only the welds in the bodies are. Painting is done either way, depending upon the line. The dashboards, seats, panels, engines, are all dropped in by hand. An assist device is used on the line so the worker's hand only guides the part, not so much lifts the part into place.

When I watched Grand Am's being built in Lansing in 1991, I saw two guys putting "IP's" as the tour guide called them (instrument panels) into cars. They had to lift the panels in sequence (they had a series of grunts and noises they used to stay in sync) and then used makita cordless screwdrivers to drive the screws home.
I was a little surprised, to say the least. I would have envisioned a machine with a scredriver bit at each precise location, and a jig for the dashboard, but muscle and sweat gets the car assembled.

As far as convertibles go, nothing has to be engineered in the shop, likely a template for cutting and welding, all parts ready to go in. I'm speculating 3 or 4 guys can do one (factory style) in a day. Imagine how many can be done by several hundred workers in a year. You are forgetting too that UAW contracts probably mean the guys actually doing the chops may even work for their respective auto company.

See here:
http://www.conceptcarz.com/folder/ve...vehicleTypeID=

A quote from the article:
"The all-new Camry Solara convertible will be a joint venture between Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Canada (TMMC) and ASC, which is opening a production facility near the Toyota plant in Cambridge, Ontario."

"The Solara convertible will be built in a dual-stage process. A coupe body shell will be built at TMMC, then trucked to the nearby ASC facility. ASC will remove the top and perform convertible-specific structural reinforcement. The body then will be trucked back to TMMC where it goes through the entire paint process and is fitted with running gear and interior. The car returns to ASC for final detail work including interior trim, quarter windows and convertible top installation."

This article is on the older solara, the new one is radical because it is designed to be chopped with no painting afterword.

Here's a little on the 80's Mustang:

http://applications.edmunds.com/revi...0/article.html

A quote:
"... the Mustang convertible returned in the form of a conversion performed by ASC, Inc. on coupe bodies."

Here's a picture of the ASC decal I mentioned, at a Mustang parts site:

http://www.mustangparts.com/images/ascdecal1.jpg

From an ASC Press Release:
"Once just a sunroof maker, ASC's award-winning programs include vehicle development and sub-assembly of the Chevrolet SSR; convertible systems for the BMW Z4, Toyota Camry Solara and Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder."

Nate

[nater]

From ASC's website:
1991: "ASC builds 100,000th GM Cavalier and Sunbird Convertible"

1989
ASC introduces first production convertible pickup truck, the Dodge Dakota Convertible

2000
ASC opens Munich, Germany technical center for European open-air development

By the way, they define low volume as capping around 40,000 vehicles per year (per model). I doubt there is a convertible maker out there who isn't capped around there somewhere.

Nate

[totallto]

That pic makes me think of my old Amigo!

[Baldwin]

Ok....so I'm bringing this forum back. I finally moved to LA and spoke with Z from MTV's Pimp My Ride. They saw all the pictures of the VXO2 that I had and they said they could totally make one from my VX. Cost? Hold on....$102,000!!! I got it down to $82k! Hmm...is it worth it? It would be a full time convertible with no working top. Fiberglass with powered opening to reveal a very nice sound system. They would lower the VX by 1" and add 22" rims, Dual exhaust system, totally re-inforced cross bracing, new interior and seats, raked window and eliminate A & B pillar from the door (slick how they showed me it could be done), no more window though cuz they'd have to do something else to make it stop rolling up. I'd still need to get the skid plates from one of you guys though. and paint of any color that I choose. I guess it would be a little less if i didn't do up the sound as nice or kept the factory rims/tire, or kept the same color as the VX I got. I was going to buy a used VX for $6k. 2 concerns. $$$$....and if the VX I get will be ok to handle these mods since I don't know the history. I'm asking if we could document it and make it part of the Pimp my Ride show. That's open for discussion. So....who's got the money? Would you do it?

[kpaske]

LOL If I had $100k right now the last thing I would do is mutilate my VX trying to make it look like a VX02!!

I've thought about what a show like Pimp My Ride could do to a VX, but much of what would truly be an improvement is beyond the scope of what that show usually does. I'm thinking engine swap, solid axle with custom gear set, 35"+ tires, custom suspension and lift, real skid plates (not fiberglass), etc. etc. PMR could definitely do some great custom paint, wheels, audio/video system, and interior redesign, but leave the exterior design alone!!!

But that's just my opinion.

[CoastieCosta567]

dude, don't "PIMP MY RIDE", all they do is distroy cars and they fall apart in a year. total waist of money, if you want your VX done right, go to foose, he will make sure your VX will turn out to be better and look like how it's suppost to be, not a bling, sparkaling made with duck tape POS, sorry, thats what i think MTV have done. Good luck though. Hate to see another VX go to the ****'s.

[Baldwin]

Points taken. What's Foose? Gotta admit though, if I was a multi-millionaire, I'd go through with the mod. THey know I'm a mechanical engineer with a PE (Professional Engineering) license so we talked a long time about the things they'd have to do to give it more support and still be a performance vehicle. THey estimated 800 hrs on just the top removal, structural support, design...etc. The other stuff was minimal. Oh wells, was fun dreaming for the moment.

[JoFotoz]

What's Foose?

Foose is the Gold Standard...the MAN.

Try a Foose Google search...it'll blow yer mind!


jo

[VCrossfan]

Points taken. What's Foose?.

Wants to drop 80k on an automotive upgrade and hasn't heard of Chip Foose??

[Baldwin]

Yeah, I wasn't thinkin' Chip Foose when Coastie just said "foose" lower case. Was gonna go to Huntington Beach to talk to him too to see what he thought. Tryin' to work the marketing thing too and get a write off. For those that don't know, I'm also a hip hop artist. myspace.com/onlywon so tryin' to see if the record label could chip in and use this in a music video and as a business expense. Being an engineer by day and the "Lyrical Engineer" by night, I do have some logic to my madness. Had to go to GAS first cuz Xzibit's my boi. I'm just not big time...yet. Need the mad VXer's behind me.

[VCrossfan]

Nice myspace page, and stepping out of your Proton at the beginning of the Glory Video and adding it in/out through out the video...Nice Touch..

[WormGod]

If you went that Pimp My Rice route, I can save you the money....

$10 for 5 gallons of fuel

$.75 for a lighter

$1 for a local paper

Get where this is going yet?

I have done custom rooftops, targas, and ttops back in the day and NO top has ever exceeded $8k, that I can recall. Of course, back then you were covering our $90hr labor, not that LA Thug Shop ("what is ASE?") $600hr labor. I am sure that the planning, design, and modification work will take a hell of a lot longer than anything I ever worked with, but $100k sounds outrageous. Now let's say you decided to go for it anyways.... think reputable. Look at shop credentials. Some of the shops you see on tv are circus shows. I guarantee 10% of the employees are actually trained and certified. Sometimes, those OJT guys may be good, but I need guarantee behind that work. You spend that money, you need to aim higher at someone like Foose. If a shop has too many shiny things in the windows and 20 lowriding, multicolored MODERN cars in the lot, run for your life. :P

Beinga hip hop guy like you say you are though, and if it's just that rep you are trying to uphold, its your call. I would take reputation of a shop over "but these guys do all the rappers cars!" any day.