Are there mistakes done at the factory on the assembly line?

[scenarioL113]

I was wondering how Ford dealt with mistakes on the assembly line?

I just bought an 85.5 SVO (this is my 2nd SVO and my 4th Fox Body) and I found some suspicious minor repair on the front where the hood prop mounts. There is a "lip" along that edge and there are a few spot welds that hold 3 sections of the factory sheet metal together. This is a low mile well kept car with no rust and in excellent condition. It is white and it is super clean in the engine compartment and all visible sheetmetal is easlily inspected. Every factory spotweld is present and accounted for. I am trying to reach out to the orginal owner but have not had success yet. The entire car looks to have 45K miles and the paint matches that in the sense that it has expected chips and imperfections from driving it. It sat in the garage for 20 yrs until 9/2022 and I bought it recently.

Two of these spot welds (which is more like a double-tap of the spot welder) missed their mark by about 3/8" and are only spot welded to a single layer instead of the 3. I compared the area to my 86 SVO and this was 100% some kind of miss at the factory. The lip was slightly bent up and you can see on the inside that there are a few small weld beads (I think it is weld unless it is some kind of resin or seam sealer) that were put there to make up for the missed spot weld.

This was either an assembly line mistake (which I tend to think is NOT the case) or it is some kind of repair that may have been found or from some kind of possible accident or something. If it was from some damage then it is very strange that all of the spot welds surrounding it would prob not be spot welded...This repair is in an easy area to re spot weld....again baffling to me. There are lots and lots of harnesses, bolts, plastic, grommets, plugs, wires, more parts, more spot welds, lots and lots and lots of things that are all 100% good so this one thing is just making me wonder wtf??? Not a single bit of overspray or anything in the engine compartment at all.

I have looked this car over for hours and hours and this is baffling bc it is something i have never seen before. These 3 layers of sheet metal are parts of much larger sections that are spot welded all over the place and otherwise in perfect condition. Each of them have stamped codes on them. WIth all that said, I do think that there has been some paint work on the car but only a few small areas and again I am no body guy but overall the car is excellent. I do think that most of the car is original paint if not all. I have to bring to a body shop anyway and gonna ask their opinion. The transporter (enclosed trailer) nudged the charcoal paint on the rear bumper molding area a tad.

The hood prop has inconsistent white paint on it (like half was painted and half not as if it was laying down when painted). A small section on front d/s fender is a little less smooth than rest of fender. Just under the sail panel has the same lack of smoothness in a 6"x 12" section and a minor drip under the sail that is out of view. I found one very minor overspray on the d/s rear tail light....I guess that all sounds like a lot but honestly I had to really spend hours to find this. I did not pay top dollar and I am not mad, I did look at the car before I bought it. This is an excellent example and if there were repairs and paint work it was done good, especially since it would have been done 20 plus yrs ago.

In the pic the
"red" circles are the location of the missed spotwelds
"green" cirlces are where the spotwelds should have been
"purple" arrows just show the sections that are spot welded together

Anyway, what are your thoughts

[emerygt350]

Very interesting. I am sure they fudged stuff in the factory but that seems a bit... Amatuer.

When I get a chance I will have to look at mine.

[scenarioL113]

Here is the view from the front. You can see the spot welds from the front. If this was some replacement piece then the spot welds would not be there in the first place they just would have welded it to begin with.
Also, these are zoomed in pictures and from 5 feet away it is barely noticeable. I agree tho, that it is not pretty but it is equally baffling. There are harness clips that have "aged" tape and grommet push-ins that are attached to these panels / harness connectors and they have NEVER been removed or messed with. We all know how impossible it is to detach these things and to disconnect harness plugs with out breaking the ears or something... Everything is "too" perfect and aged accordingly. That is why I wonder if it was done at factory....again baffling to me...
I would like to talk to an assembly line worker and ask if this could have possibly been a fix and still be allowed past quality control (my gut says no but who knows)
The original owner worked at the local Ford dealer when he bought this car

[emerygt350]

I

If it is factory I bet it was damage on the line and cleaned late.

[emerygt350]

Yours really looks like it has been painted twice. The paint just looks so much thicker than mine. That could be factory but hmm...

[scenarioL113]

I agree, it is tough. The rear where the welds actually are has consistent paint on the small beads and that is throughout the sheet metal area... like the way you would expect

keep the comments coming


also, if it was painted and then repaired the 1st layer of paint would have bubbled off the backside (which is the front) and then when resprayed I think there would be indication that you could see on the paint surface that would show thru

[webestang]

I wonder if the lip got damaged while someone changed the battery?

My 88 for reference.

[emerygt350]

I don't know. Wouldn't you whack/bend it back in place after you took the trouble to put that booger weld on there?

[webestang]

I need to show this to a friend that has done body work for over 50 years plus he has rebuilt many Foxes, he might have some insight as he's told me of all kinds of goofy stuff he has seen that came from the factory.

[scenarioL113]

The original owner worked for FORD and that lip has a few other dings on it across the length. Nothing bad but since it is all under a microscope, so now all bets are off and it is all fair game for overthinking minds. (the car is 38 yrs old and 45K miles so it is not unused)...
Maybe the motor was pulled for some reason and that area was whacked and repaired....but like I said, the spot 2 welds 100% missed where they are supposed to be and I believe that all to be original factory steel. Is there a way to tell (there are stamped numbers on all of it)

Yes, I am tempted to whack it back into place myself but I wont do it bc it is not that noticeable to a normal person.

@emery yes you would think they would whack it back...LOL

I did also notice that the "Emissions Idle..." sticker is not in the right place. It is just outboard of the DS radiator hold down and other cars show it inboard of that hold down but then again sometimes things are not always so consistent. More to the mystery. The harness that runs along the radiator and under the support has NEVER been messed with and has no overspray any where...

Maybe the support was resprayed but if so it was done perfect BUT the same perfectionist left the lip bent like that....IDK looks like union work to me...

My niece's husbands father worked as an engineer on the Fox platform and I emailed him some of these pics and some questions so I would like to hear what he thinks. I would think he knows a few guys that worked the line assembling...maybe

I would like to know only bc this is an ultra rare SVO (1 of 81) and I like to know the history. I dont care if it has had work done bc if it did it was done real good and the car still presents as excellent. I wish you all could see it in person

[mrmustang]

The overspray on the plastics is a tell tale sign of an aftermarket type repair and respray. Even working for Ford, the car would never have been allowed to leave with the overspray, especially since those items were installed after the car left the paint line.


Bill S.
Retired bodyshop owner

[emerygt350]

That's also tough. I noticed the hood stops are sprayed on all cars that I have seen although much of the rubber elsewhere is not. Perhaps that's added before paint to ensure proper lineup before spraying begins?

[bluemax]

This is an interesting picture because of the overspray pattern on the hood bumper. Yes, these are painted with the body, so why do we see the gray primer? Has the hood bumper been moved/adjusted for some reason?

[scenarioL113]

This is an interesting picture because of the overspray pattern on the hood bumper. Yes, these are painted with the body, so why do we see the gray primer? Has the hood bumper been moved/adjusted for some reason?

Maybe, I honestly do not know. It is tough to not see it in person. That might be the case tho. The gray primer is correct from Ford. I cant stress enough how every thing in the engine compartment is not messed with. Hopefully I can get in touch with original owner and find out just for knowing. It does not really matter and this is more of a WTH is with this thread...

I do believe that parts of this car were touched up and or painted but nothing that stands out. There is tons of molding and trim all over this car that would show overspray here and there especially in the tight areas and there is none to be seen. The paint is consistent in texture, smoothness, and appearance on 99% of the car. Either they are touchups or the whole car had work and the work was done very good.

I am gonna take a video of the car but idk how good it will look on youtube but maybe that can show a little more for all to see

[emerygt350]

I do all kinds of quick sand-blasting and touch ups on my car. The paint is 40 years old so I just keep ahead of any rust and some day, I, my kids, the next owner, can worry about a quality paint job. Probably pretty common on the more collectable of the fox bodies.

[scenarioL113]

here is a pic and video folder of the car

https://photos.app.goo.gl/XSyc1R97DwWFwNnE8

[emerygt350]

looks very nice.

[KevinK]

Ford did make some mistakes and some warrant pulling the car from the line to repair properly. Often you could find some QC docs under the carpet, etc. You car certainly seems noticeable enough to it repaired at the assembly line. That factory repair should be fairly unnoticeable. Not sure what happened with your car. It almost looks like something hooked it. I would side with the repair being after the factory. Most body shops are capable of making nearly invisible repairs but unfortunately, too often they take short cuts.

My 84 has runs in the paint below the molding line. My header panel came cracked. The turbo line leaked 5 quarts of oil in the 10 miles round trip to the dealer.

[scenarioL113]

From what I know the car sat from 2002 til 2022 in storage. This repair would have been prior to that. Hopefully I can contact the original owner and find out.

[gr79]

Looks like the hood bumper was painted before it was adjusted and locked down by twisting.
Coud have been replaced then painted to match the other one. They break or become loose in apron.
Humans or robots painted the car shell. In factory, close touch up match from same batch of paint.
Paint matching and detailing are clues as to guessing time frame and if a repair was involved.

While working at Chrysler, one new zero-mile station wagon got tagged good in the rear quarter right at the end of the final line.
Seen new Cadillac chrome exhaust tips being sprayed after entire system was welded and before shipment.
OE exhaust sys. supplier to plant. QC simply used BBQ Black to fix any scratched blacked out part of the tips.

My 93 Ranger has three resprayed panels done sometime after factory and Ford dealer car lot, with only 5k on it.
Slight but noticeable paint shade mismatch. Clear coat has peeled, revealing respray on top of unsanded oe paint.
Still am puzzled as to why. Dealer did not know why or was not talking. XLT fender badge was glued crooked- a clue.

Every factory has repairs every day. Assy workers tagged flaw and moved on to the next unit. No stopping.
Now bar code scanners, cameras, worker, at each workstation, QC, can stop the line if any error is detected.
Dearborn Assy and others have a large area of the factory, after the final line, for repairs.
Hoists, tools, parts. There was a special area where body graphic decals were done after build.
Cars are tagged as to what needs to be done and signed off before leaving the plant. No brakes, etc.
No doubt there are areas spaced on the build lines for repairs before continuing on to the next line.
A robot welder may have gone out of adjustment and all its mistakes were not caught in time.
After delivery to the dealer, repairs, corrections, are done there in the service bays or body shop.

[Turbosvo86]

Nice Pictures. If you are trying to find out if the car was delivered this way to the dealership. You would have to find the " Dearborn Assembly Plant - Inspection Traveler " build sheet. This documentation includes all inspections as Paint/Metal Inspection / FA1 Inspection Report / Chassis / High Line-South Pit-North Pit Water Test. The SVO's did have a extra Certification list added to the Build Sheet records but only covered about 8 extra inspections.
It sounds like a good mystery and will be hard to pin point unless the original owner could verify.

[scenarioL113]

Looks like the hood bumper was painted before it was adjusted and locked down by twisting.
Coud have been replaced then painted to match the other one. They break or become loose in apron.
Humans or robots painted the car shell. In factory, close touch up match from same batch of paint.
Paint matching and detailing are clues as to guessing time frame and if a repair was involved.

While working at Chrysler, one new zero-mile station wagon got tagged good in the rear quarter right at the end of the final line.
Seen new Cadillac chrome exhaust tips being sprayed after entire system was welded and before shipment.
OE exhaust sys. supplier to plant. QC simply used BBQ Black to fix any scratched blacked out part of the tips.

My 93 Ranger has three resprayed panels done sometime after factory and Ford dealer car lot, with only 5k on it.
Slight but noticeable paint shade mismatch. Clear coat has peeled, revealing respray on top of unsanded oe paint.
Still am puzzled as to why. Dealer did not know why or was not talking. XLT fender badge was glued crooked- a clue.

Every factory has repairs every day. Assy workers tagged flaw and moved on to the next unit. No stopping.
Now bar code scanners, cameras, worker, at each workstation, QC, can stop the line if any error is detected.
Dearborn Assy and others have a large area of the factory, after the final line, for repairs.
Hoists, tools, parts. There was a special area where body graphic decals were done after build.
Cars are tagged as to what needs to be done and signed off before leaving the plant. No brakes, etc.
No doubt there are areas spaced on the build lines for repairs before continuing on to the next line.
A robot welder may have gone out of adjustment and all its mistakes were not caught in time.
After delivery to the dealer, repairs, corrections, are done there in the service bays or body shop.

This is what I was thinking and hearing it from a line worker.

With that said, I am pretty sure that this particular 85.5 has been worked on AFTER and during its life. I have found a few too many shreds of evidence to point to wards paint correction and or respraying on different parts of the car. (not easily noticeable by an avg guy like me but maybe for a body shop person) I am totally OK with whatever it is bc it shows awesome. The car is mint.

The spotweld / blob welds that started this thread still makes no-sense whatsoever. Why would all of the other spotwelds that hold these particular panels (frames or whatever they are called) together be just as they should and perfect and not to mention difficult to access and then do this to the most accessible area where it could have been done neatly. I do wonder if it was done at the dealer. Its a shame there are no records database like you can get on more modern cars.

I will say tho, the type of welds on this repair are exactly like the SVO hood reinforcements on the underside of hood and also the front swaybar mounts have a blob weld on both sides. BOTH my SVOs are consistent with that and I am sure all Foxs as well

Any pro welders out there? What kind of weld does this look like? The repair pic above in this thread TIG MIG HeliArc ??? (I would say the repar was from back years ago possibly 80's)

[bwguardian]

I didn't read through all the posts...but did look at your pictures. I just want to say what an absolutely beautiful example your fox is relative to the un-faded dark charcoal accent paint.

[webestang]

Showed the pics to my body buddy and he said it does look to have been worked on after it left the factory more than likely it was done at the dealer. For what reason he was not sure but he has had to re-repair work done at dealers.

[emerygt350]

it is mig welding that made that slug. I seriously don't think it was a kosher weld job, any real welder would have just clamped the metal plates together and spotted it nicely, not boogered across the gap like that. It would not be an expensive repair to get it cleaned up if you want to do that some day. It's not going anywhere.