F451

Hey guys,

I was watching this 928 promo vid on this other thread (great vid btw: https://rennlist.com/forums/928-forum/292864-awesome-928-video.html) and it looks like they are essentially assembling the 928's by hand.

Are they in fact considered to be "hand built" cars? Or is it just the promo vid giving that impression?

And how about the rest of the Porsche line up? Are they considered hand built, or more assembly line built cars?

And I understand there may be some ambiguity about definitions, but was wondering what people knew about this.

Thanks,

Ed

kary4th

Mine's got signatures and handwritten notes on lots of interior parts.

User 4221

Yep... .Each car took about 40+ hours to build.
They did this for the 911 as well up until the 996 product line.

Now, each Boxster or 996 takes 8 hours to build.

cobalt

All pre 1995 Porsche's were considered somewhat hand built. Many times cars were removed from the production line to message and make sure everything met their high standards. Unfortunatly the cost was prohibative and Porsche needed to drop several models and bring in the Japanesse to change the way the cars were manfactured. I for one like the pre 1995 cars over anything built after. Even the 993, although extremely similar to the 964 in components, has more plastic and less quality in the overal product because of this chnage. IMO

I guess if Porsche continued the way they were going they would have been out of business by now or a 997 would cost well over $200k.

Alan

Yep - all handbuilt and when you dig into the car it shows - even in places that are very hard to get to (like very few customers would ever look there) its still screwed together very well...

Alan

Jim bailey - 928 International

from Excellence was Expected..." ..the planners were able to install an assembly line for the 928 in the area that had served as a machine shop before. In the former Reutter plant, one line was converted to build both coupe and Targa 911 bodies, while the other became the 928 body line.Thus the manufacturing of the 928 was integrated with that of the 911........Limited volume production of the new car began in May of 1977 By August it was stepped up to twenty cars per day....the plan for first full year was to build 5,000 cars , half of them to be sold in America..." So the 928 is an assembly line car. Not that there is anything wrong with that !

pewter82

I was told up until 92 the cars were hand built and that accounted for small variations in spaces on fender clearances....I think Mark @ 928 Int. told me that IIRC.

jason

Normy

It was described to me as follows, by a man who was a college buddy of my dad and who now works at Ford:

"They build the cars by hand...kind of. It's called "team build" here at Ford, but we call it [derogatory term deleted]. Basically, the car moved from team to team down a track. It's built on a jig, just like a radio control model airplane, only the jig moves from work station to work station. One group welds the body panels together, then pushes the completed work to the next station. They mount the suspension mounts, then push it to the paint shop.....etc. The long and short is that every panel is hand-fitted by people who work together day after day- it's a real team exercise, and the problem is that productivity seems to suffer when people call in sick or have personal problems"

Productivity wasn't an issue for Porsche managers when the 928's were built. The last sentence that I've reconstructed from memory is what bothers me the most; it occurs to me that you might wind up with a car that is a "twisted sister" if the guy who aligned the spot welder when they brought the first unibody panels together back in 1985 was going through a divorce! The car never seems to drive right when it is aligned perfectly with a DSP400 machine, and you are left scratching your head after a tire purchase every 10,000 miles.

There's two sides to everything now isn't there!

N!

RyanPerrella

perhaps they were hand assembled but i wouldnt go so far as to say entirely handbuild cars, such as you think of a Ferrari and it being hand built. Hand built usually leads to more problems, allot of smaller engliglish car companies woudl build cars by hand, as well as italian's and i think it leaves allot to be desired, te quality control isnt there. But they seem to have more "character" as some things dont line up, a switch only works this way, you have to do this that and the other thing to get it this to work.

I was always under the impression that these cars were built on the line. But i could be wrong, they certainaly didnt build very many especially in the 90's which i could see it being feasable cost wise to hand assemble. But not so for large production.

6.0-928S

I used to work at Holbert's & we had training seminars. The training manuals specifically said that they were completely hand assembled to keep the fit & finish up to Porsche's standards, noting that assemblers were encouraged to sign their work which was verified previously in this thread. I know when I disassembled my car the interior trim had signatures everywhere. I asked one of the instructors if I could take one of the 928 posters off the wall & take it home because I had a 928. He said "As long as nobody sees you", & turned around. It's framed on my wall now. It's the one with the 928GT that says "Eight guys hand-built the engine on a bench. Crazy, isn't it?"

Hammer

PorKen

I found that the distance between the jack holes is ±1/8" (or more), side to side, car to car.

Not everything was fitted with a jig, I guess.

Shark Attack

it seems their is some confusion if they were or were not... but even so they didnt hand build my vynal dash.... i would say maybe "hand assembled".. but not "hand built"

Kaz

I was told the same thing from a different source on the east coast. Paul at Par Porsche in New Rochelle.

Ron_H

In the days of the 356, the engines were hand assembled and signed and a record was kept for each one. Bodies were finished by hand and leaded where imperfections were found by an inspector. If you take apart a 356, you'll find the lead, unless it has rusted. Look around the door seams and panel edges. I have even heard rumors about entire cars being destroyed if, at the end of the process, they didn't check out to spec. I have heard more rumors about apprenticeship processes at Porsche, like being given a block of metal and a file and asked to go sit in a corner and file the block perfectly square until someone tells you to quit. It might last a few days, until the newbie "understood" metal, and was then allowed to work on the chassis or engines.

Normy

My door panels have initials, and there are arrows and marking pen marks all over the place. I'm tempted to add a few of my own, since I've probably disassembled the door panels 25-30 times....each!

N!