- Yes, I'm a little off topic again. - Over the Labor Day weekend I traveled with my daughter to the Novi / Dearborn Michigan area for a visit with my brother who is staying in his motorhome near Commerce Township, MI.

Had always wanted to see the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. It was a nice outing. I mistakenly thought there would be a more prominent display of different models of Ford cars and trucks. There were actually very few trucks in the museum and the collection was eclectic with many different makes on display. (The 1965 Indy 500 winning car - a rear engined Lotus, powered by Ford - driven by Jim Clark, and an original Ford GT that AJ Foyte and Dan Gurney drove to victory in the 24 hours of Le Mans were my favorites.)

We drove by the Wixom Road auto plant just off I-96. It's closed as so many are. We could not see anything to indicate what sort of a plant it was. On returning home I learned on the net that it had been a FORD plant until 2007. At one point it was the largest production facility in the world. It was the first place for Ford to build and assemble a unibody automobile - back in the late 1950s. They built the Ford GTs there and the Lincoln LS cars among others. The plant was winning awards for production efficiency and innovation well into this decade. Now to see the huge facility idle and no signs or indications to tell what company the facility was part of seems really odd.

 

It sounds like you had an interesting trip! Take any pictures to post?

 

Dearborn Village etc are on my Bucket List, so I'm kind of disappointed by your report. I'm wondering if there is another site that has more cars/trucks on display?

 

Wixom is where the Thunderbirds and Lincoln Continentals were built from the 50's. Both were unibodies. But those were not the first unibody cars Ford built. The Lincoln Zephyr starting in 1937 was Henry's first unitized constructed vehicle. I do not know where he built those, though.

It sounds like you had a fun trip. One I'd like to make one day.

 

Very cool trip. One of these days I hope to make a trip to the same museum. In the next few weeks, I'm going to make the short trip (1hr) to the Milpitas/San Jose plant where my great grandfather's (now mine) 1960 F-100 was built. The plant has been converted into a mall, but there is a section inside discussing the history with some artifacts.

 

Rob~
you were in my backyard so to speak. I worked in the building just north of the Village and adjacent to the parking lot. Quite often I would spend lunch there just walking. Here are a couple pics from in the museum and on the grounds from a Motor Muster.

 

And a little larger and a bit more unique:

 

Zephyr's were assembled on the same assembly lines as Ford's and Merc's.

The Zephyr was based on Briggs Body Company's designer/stylist John Tjaarda's case study L'Atlantique, which was also the basis for the Czech RWD Tatra, which Ferry Porsche and 'Der Fuhrer' used for the basis of the VW.

My first car was an all original 1936 Zephyr sedan with 40,000 miles that I bought in 1956 for 200 bucks.

My dad (an Olds dealer) said I was nuts when I bought it, didn't say much when I sold it several months later for 350 bucks.

The first unitized vehicle was the 1922 Lancia Lambda.

Harrah's Automobile Collection in Reno had over 1500 vehicles on display. When he died in 1977, his heirs sold most of everything.

All that remains today is known as The National Auto Museum which has about 350 vehicles on display.

 

Man...you were litterally about one mile, or so, from MY backyard......

I have not been inside the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village
complex in a while now...

Funny...it's RIGHT down Southfield expressway from where
we live...and we drive RIGHT by it EVERYDAY...yet...other than rolling
up to one of the parking lots across the street at what is "now" called
PDC (Product Development Center) to watch the fireworks on July 4th...

I seem to always miss the car & truck shows!!!

Anyway...did you get by the Automotive Hall of Fame???

Yea...guess what...havent been in that one yet either...

Last time I tried was right after it opened and it was really packed!

Wixom Plant...WOW...I worked there in.......uuuhhhh....had to be right around 1979-1981...

That would mean we were building the Lincoln Town Car & the Mark V
I think...I always loose track of the Marks...

At THAT time the Wixom plant was STAMPING SHEETMETAL IN-HOUSE!!!

Floor pans and cowls and such.....yea...LOUD place to work...lots of
dudes wearing 3 and 4 fingered gloves!

GET THIS...I worked on the "drag line" in the body shop.

1) Floor pans passed by on a track on the floor...

2) "Hook-Line" with either 2-door OR 4-door full-length body-sides
(from “firewall” rearward) passing directly overhead!

3) On the OTHERSIDE of the dragline the was this giant good ol' boy
named Scotty that would take a small electric hand operated hoist and
****** the body-side off the hooks as they came down to the dragline
"level".

4) Then he would lift it up "just" enough to get it off the hooks, spin it
towards me...and shove the damn over to me to "set " in place...ONE
shot 'cause THEN he had to grab HIS side...we pinned the fronts to the
top of the cowl, locked about 4-5m welding clams in-place and the
bodysides were done...but I wasn't...

5) Package Tray (trunk hinges installed & 6 x 9 speaker holes) had to be
SELECTED from a bin behind me.
Each on different fort for each vehicle trim level...base model...
...Mark V "Cartier"...Town Car...you get the idea...

6) Finally toss on a couple of welding clamps and scoot my A$$ back up
to where I started...hopefully Scotty had NOT left my bodyside waiting
for me on the floor...and do it all over again...

When this line was running flat-out...44 1/4 cars EVERY HOUR...

Good times...oh yea...the next line over was a "finishing" line where after
the bodysides rolled out of a "sealed" grinding booth where All the workers
were required to wear oxygen equipment as they were grinding...

After the bodies rolled out of this booth right next to our station, these
dudes...were applying what I thought was lead to all the seams on the
A-pillars<O</O, B-pillars...smoothing the bodies real nice...

THESE dudes were required to were "hip-mounted" contamination
detectors of "some sort"...management was always a little vague
on "why" if ya know what I mean...

Sorry......I haven't thought about that place in a very long
time...I do know "somebody" is doing "something" at the plant tho...

I'm GLAD you enjoyed you visit...

-

 

I went through the museum about 8 years ago, I had no preconceived notions about what I would find there so I guess I was not disappointed. Eclectic is an understatement...did you happen to see the test tube that holds the dying breath of Thomas Edison? Henry Ford asked Mrs Edison to capture Thomas' dying breath and now it is on display at the museum. Henry Ford was in awe of Thomas Edison and needless to say just a little weird as well.

 

I went last fall when I was in town for a friend's wedding, although I didn't spend much time in the museum, more in greenfield village and the rogue plant (which I would recommend... just make sure it's open for business the day you go). I think my favorite part is the whole complex is named "The Henry Ford"... that's it, not the Henry Ford Museum, not the Henry Ford Collection, just "The Henry Ford". As mentioned previously, he was a bit of an odd duck in his collection habits, but neat stuff nonetheless. You can also get some great middle eastern food in Dearborn right nearby (if you like that kind of food anyhow).

Also, depending upon what you like (i.e. some might find it a bit depressing), there's a couple of large abandoned auto plants down in Detroit, including Ford's Highland Park Plant (where all the Model Ts came from... and I guess it's not technically in Detroit, but Highland Park). The building has to be a mile long.... I found it very impressive in person.

 

It must be a sign of getting old when I can't rely on memory alone anymore. Thanks for keeping me straight. ;-)

 

Model T's were assembled at the Highland Park plant from 1910 thru 1927. The 1908/09 Model T's were built at the Piquett Avenue plant.

The Highland Park plant is on the National Registry of Historic Places. A portion of the plant is still used by FoMoCo to store records.

Most of the Packard Motor Car Company assembly plant complex remains on East Grand Blvd. No vehicles have been assembled there since 1954.

Henry Ford once worked for Thomas Edison.

 

My wife and i went there in 2001. Unknown to me Ford Motor was celebrating it's 100 year anniversary the weekend we were there. They had a race with the first car that Henry ran in 1901. There were so many fords from all types and eras of racing that i could not begin to remember what all was there. I think all the living drivers were there swapping stories about their years in racing. It was a trip i will never forget.

Terry

 

I went to the Henry Ford Museum about a month ago. It was very nice and everything you said it was. Likewise, the Atlanta Ford assembly plant was their most efficient plant when they were building the Taurus there in the 80's and 90's. Rather than the state of GA offering incentives to keep the plant going, they gave my money to the new KIA plant and the Ford site is now an empty lot. It's really quite sad when we'll give a foreign company millions to come here and not treat a domestic company in the same manner.