Less is More - Produce - Lear Corp. puts the interiors into GM's Chevy Express IT and GMC Savana SIT in O'Fallon, MO

Automotive Design & Production, August, 2001 by Christopher A. Sawyer

Carpeted covers are placed over the rear wheelwells, and the front carpeting is installed. The rear carpet is folded in half along its width, placed on a gurney, and brought to the rear door opening like a patient to an ambulance. It is pulled inside and set in place before the front center console, lighted front door step wells and rear 'kick guards" are installed. Next come the rear seat belts and assorted trim pieces. As might be expected, the seatbelt mountings are torque monitored and marked. Again, this information is matched to the VIN number.

Next, the D-pillar and upper garnish moldings are installed, connections made for the video game port, and the lower garnish panels and front seatbelts are added. The front and rear door panels are then pressed into place, and the temporary driver's seat is reinstalled.

Now it's time to make the van look different from the outside. First, the gray plastic door handle assemblies and rear license plate bucket are removed. Locks are stripped from the assemblies, and placed in new, color-keyed pieces. As it leaves this station, the van passes between two cleaning units indexed to the van. An alcohol solution is fed to an applicator covered by a towel. The towel is always clean because it travels from one spool to another as the van passes along its surface. Meanwhile, heat lamps on either side raise the temperature of the lower side panels to 75[degrees] - 80[degrees]F.

"Heating the lower body improves the glue bond," says Bakaric. So does heating the lower body cladding to 125[degrees]F in ovens located next to the line. To install the panels correctly, the van is driven onto a hoist. Full-length tubular fixtures that align with the gutter and lower rocker panel are placed along either side of the van. Workers pull the cladding off the oven-fresh rolling carts, align it with reference points on the fixture, and press it in place. Next, a pneumatic roller attached to the fixture runs along the length of the cladding at bond height to make certain it's there for the duration.

While this is taking place, brackets for the color-keyed front fascia are installed, the fog lights placed on brackets outboard of the normal GM mounting points, a chrome and body color grille installed, the trailer hitch is sonic welded to the frame, and the front and rear bumper covers are put in place. Next comes the seat installation, and a visual and functional inspection.

"There's a lot of back and forth between Wentzville and Lear," says GM's Wheeler. "The current C-van is pretty standard, and there's a lot of room to meet the needs and desires of the buyer with more specialized versions. That could take us well beyond the 12,000 to 18,000 vehicles we will do with Lear on the luxury van." Says Bakaric: "We're ready."

RELATED ARTICLE: We've Only Just Begun

According to Tom Sundberg, Lear's director Second Stage Manufacturing, Specialty Vehicle Components, the G-van is just the tip of the iceberg. "We can literally start with our consumer research group produce a list of items which tell what it'll take to bring a vehicle close to the customer's needs, and build that vehicle For the OEM." But what's driving this desire?