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