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Detroit Ford Plant visit


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While in Detroit this past weekend I visited the Dearborn plant to see the f-150's roll off the line and saw live supercross action with my son. I must say both were impressive, but i recommend the plant visit to anyone in the area or make a special trip it is amazing to see and take in all the ford history.

The 150's on Saturday were steadily  being put together. it is hard to imagine all are waiting on the chips? or how all this is working out.

 

I have ordered a 2022 f-150 back in the beginning of December, first build date was beginning of march and now pushed to the rapidly approaching april 4th . Hard not to get my hopes up right?

 

anyway the plant was very cool and highly recommend it to everyone

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20 minutes ago, blksn8k2 said:

I did that with a few friends several years ago. We started with a tour of the Henry Ford and then took a shuttle bus to the plant. Highly recommended.

 

Too bad the tour doesn't include the new Lightning plant next door. Hopefully it will in the future as retail production begins shortly. Wonder if new plant has catwalk system to accommodate tours as ICE plant does. 

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On 3/15/2022 at 4:08 PM, HarrisonIII said:

While in Detroit this past weekend I visited the Dearborn plant to see the f-150's roll off the line and saw live supercross action with my son. I must say both were impressive, but i recommend the plant visit to anyone in the area or make a special trip it is amazing to see and take in all the ford history.

The 150's on Saturday were steadily  being put together. it is hard to imagine all are waiting on the chips? or how all this is working out.

 

I have ordered a 2022 f-150 back in the beginning of December, first build date was beginning of march and now pushed to the rapidly approaching april 4th . Hard not to get my hopes up right?

 

anyway the plant was very cool and highly recommend it to everyone

Thanks for sharing, I didn’t know you could tour the plant. I’ll have to go check it out. 

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Do they offer tours of flat rock plant?  I always wanted to see where my Mustangs were made.  I know, I guess my older one came for the Rouge plant. Some day I want to drive to Detroit area just for fun.  Been there for work many times back in the day...

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1 hour ago, Tico said:

Do they offer tours of flat rock plant?  I always wanted to see where my Mustangs were made.  I know, I guess my older one came for the Rouge plant. Some day I want to drive to Detroit area just for fun.  Been there for work many times back in the day...


Only  F150s as far as I know.

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The Rouge Tour is part of the Henry Ford. There's an actual visitor center at the Rouge that's part of this. My point is, don't think of it as "Ford offers tours to the public," but rather, "The Henry Ford works with Ford to let the museum have access to the Rouge." The Henry Ford is a separate organization from Ford Motor Company.

 

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I live close so I plan to visit with the kids the week of April 4th.  That is when my truck will be built barring any more delays.  I know the odds of me being able to identify my own build are slim.  To many moving parts and trucks?.  They only show parts of the production, but it is still awesome watching it all come together.  You have to get timed tickets for entry. So reserve ahead after planning around build schedules, lunch times, and shift changes.    It is mostly self guided and self paced.  They still sell tickets for when the line is down due to shift cuts or lunch time.  This is still interesting but clearly not nearly as cool as when everything is up and running.

 

I took my father in law a few years before the covid and we spent 3 hours in there.  The kids were going nuts and so we left but both of us could have spent twice as long.    

 

I too would love to see the lightning plant but bet that won't be part of the tour for several years if ever. 

 

Now forgive me for veering slightly off topic but someone else brought up the Henry Ford Museum and if you are coming you might want to make time to see this other stuff.

 

I highly recommend the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. I know it is not everyone's thing but I could easily spend days in there.  The museum is dedicated to the industrial revolution and has a huge collection of things from early 1760s steam engine to modern vehicles. Planes trains, lightbulb machines and all kinds of industrial stuff. They have huge coal locomotives and a great collection of automobiles.  Pre-covid they used to disassemble and reassemble a model T every day.  The kids could go and help put a light on or insert a bolt.  It was really cool for them.(  I don't know if they still do that.)  They also have an IMAX theater.

 

Greenfield village is also part of the Henry Ford Museum sight site and is a great educational place when it is open in the summer.  I think it is a separate ticket if you don't have an annual pass. They are more focused on daily life of peoples in the 18th and 19th  century.  They have glass blowing furnaces and make projects while you watch.   They have working historic farms being managed with historic techniques.  If your a city person and don't have much exposure to animals they have a great petting zoo and stable.  If you like crafts there is section where they do demonstrations of a more industrial pottery production as would have been done in the period.  They also have blacksmiths.  You can ride in a model T.  You may be lucky enough to be the kid who gets to use a train turntable to spin a 64 ton locomotive engine by hand.   They have historic houses that have been brought in from around the world like Thomas Edison's lab. The restaurants are pretty good too.  They serve historic recipes and some standard American fare.  The Eagle tavern can be hard to get a reservation for but is worth it.  Finally look at the schedules online.  They often have old time baseball games, car rallies, civil war era canon and cavalry drills and stuff like that.

https://www.thehenryford.org/

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On 3/16/2022 at 12:39 PM, FordBuyer said:

 

Too bad the tour doesn't include the new Lightning plant next door. Hopefully it will in the future as retail production begins shortly. Wonder if new plant has catwalk system to accommodate tours as ICE plant does. 

No catwalk in the new building. Possibly in the future after expansion in summer of 23

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24 minutes ago, Tangiora said:

I live close so I plan to visit with the kids the week of April 4th.  That is when my truck will be built barring any more delays.  I know the odds of me being able to identify my own build are slim.  To many moving parts and trucks?.  They only show parts of the production, but it is still awesome watching it all come together.  You have to get timed tickets for entry. So reserve ahead after planning around build schedules, lunch times, and shift changes.    It is mostly self guided and self paced.  They still sell tickets for when the line is down due to shift cuts or lunch time.  This is still interesting but clearly not nearly as cool as when everything is up and running.

 

I took my father in law a few years before the covid and we spent 3 hours in there.  The kids were going nuts and so we left but both of us could have spent twice as long.    

 

I too would love to see the lightning plant but bet that won't be part of the tour for several years if ever. 

 

Now forgive me for veering slightly off topic but someone else brought up the Henry Ford Museum and if you are coming you might want to make time to see this other stuff.

 

I highly recommend the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. I know it is not everyone's thing but I could easily spend days in there.  The museum is dedicated to the industrial revolution and has a huge collection of things from early 1760s steam engine to modern vehicles. Planes trains, lightbulb machines and all kinds of industrial stuff. They have huge coal locomotives and a great collection of automobiles.  Pre-covid they used to disassemble and reassemble a model T every day.  The kids could go and help put a light on or insert a bolt.  It was really cool for them.(  I don't know if they still do that.)  They also have an IMAX theater.

 

Greenfield village is also part of the Henry Ford Museum sight site and is a great educational place when it is open in the summer.  I think it is a separate ticket if you don't have an annual pass. They are more focused on daily life of peoples in the 18th and 19th  century.  They have glass blowing furnaces and make projects while you watch.   They have working historic farms being managed with historic techniques.  If your a city person and don't have much exposure to animals they have a great petting zoo and stable.  If you like crafts there is section where they do demonstrations of a more industrial pottery production as would have been done in the period.  They also have blacksmiths.  You can ride in a model T.  You may be lucky enough to be the kid who gets to use a train turntable to spin a 64 ton locomotive engine by hand.   They have historic houses that have been brought in from around the world like Thomas Edison's lab. The restaurants are pretty good too.  They serve historic recipes and some standard American fare.  The Eagle tavern can be hard to get a reservation for but is worth it.  Finally look at the schedules online.  They often have old time baseball games, car rallies, civil war era canon and cavalry drills and stuff like that.

https://www.thehenryford.org/

 

Grea, informative post. Thanks. And don't forget the Ford test track right across the street. With a little creativity, you can catch some interesting action despite the wall. And the car shows there during the warmer months are incredible. Seeing Jimmy Clark's winning Lotus is priceless. 

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25 minutes ago, FordBuyer said:

 

Grea, informative post. Thanks. And don't forget the Ford test track right across the street. With a little creativity, you can catch some interesting action despite the wall. And the car shows there during the warmer months are incredible. Seeing Jimmy Clark's winning Lotus is priceless. 

I have seen some vehicles going over the hill on the test track in years past but will have to look around more next time I am there.  Thanks.  My favorite car from the museum is always a toss up between the Gurney gt40 and the lotus.  I have never been to the car shows there but have heard they are amazing. 

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40 minutes ago, muse3115 said:

No catwalk in the new building. Possibly in the future after expansion in summer of 23

So I am going to be putting on my rampant speculation hat here,? but I bet the parts of the lightning plant that they would be willing to show are not much different than what you can see in the ICE plant.  I would guess the big differences would be "secret" for a few years.  I am holding out hope still that a limited tour could be created.  I never underestimate the power of doing it for the publicity while hiding the proprietary stuff behind walls.   It is more about the experience than seeing every detail.

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42 minutes ago, Tangiora said:

So I am going to be putting on my rampant speculation hat here,? but I bet the parts of the lightning plant that they would be willing to show are not much different than what you can see in the ICE plant.  I would guess the big differences would be "secret" for a few years.  I am holding out hope still that a limited tour could be created.  I never underestimate the power of doing it for the publicity while hiding the proprietary stuff behind walls.   It is more about the experience than seeing every detail.

 

The big difference is that they use skids in the Lightning plant. Don't think any other Ford assembly plant uses moving skids like this plant does.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 3/21/2022 at 11:58 AM, FordBuyer said:

 

The big difference is that they use skids in the Lightning plant. Don't think any other Ford assembly plant uses moving skids like this plant does.


Some plants use versions of those to shuttle parts around. At MAP back in the days of the Focus the engine line had a fleet of them that would be used for part kitting. Once they reached the end of the line they would loop back around so they could be reloaded with parts. Wouldn't surprise me if the dearborn plant had something like that. 

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On 3/17/2022 at 9:15 AM, Tico said:

Do they offer tours of flat rock plant?  I always wanted to see where my Mustangs were made.  I know, I guess my older one came for the Rouge plant. Some day I want to drive to Detroit area just for fun.  Been there for work many times back in the day...

 

I was trying to find that out also but it seems that as the poster below said, only the Rouge (F150) plant.  I was hoping they did offer FR as I have a car on order and would have loved to try and get a tour on the day it was scheduled to be built.  GM has a new option with the C8 Z06 where you can help build your engine.  THAT would be so cool if you could do that with the GT500.

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On 4/5/2022 at 7:22 PM, fuzzymoomoo said:


Some plants use versions of those to shuttle parts around. At MAP back in the days of the Focus the engine line had a fleet of them that would be used for part kitting. Once they reached the end of the line they would loop back around so they could be reloaded with parts. Wouldn't surprise me if the dearborn plant had something like that. 

 

What are you guys calling skids? The thing we call skids are used everywhere. In body, we transfer from pallets to skids before sending units to Paint.

 

 

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