Milestone Reached in Construction of the Corvette Assembly Plant’s New Paint Shop

Photo Credit: Austin Anthony/BG Daily News

All you Corvette enthusiasts excited about the new paint shop at the Corvette Assembly Plant in Bowling Green can rest a little easier today.

General Motors announced that the final piece of steel in the $439 million paint shop was installed Wednesday, and construction remains on track for the first Corvette to be painted in the new facility on April 1, 2017.

“That’s our major goal,” said Marc Roberts, site project manager, “and we are on schedule.”

GM broke ground for the new state-of-the-art facility in September, and the first piece of steel was installed in December.

“It’s amazing how much construction has gone on in four months,” said Nora Roper, assistant plant manager. “We’re thrilled with the continued success of the Bowling Green Assembly Plant.”

The final piece of steel, an I-beam that had been signed by many construction workers and staff, was lifted to the top of the three-story building and bolted into place.

That I-beam was one of the 6,800 pieces of steel in the structure “safely and on schedule,” according to Roberts. The structure also includes 3,000 feet of walls and 200,000 square feet of concrete floor in the massive 870,000-square-foot building being constructed next to the existing facility where Corvettes have been assembled since 1981.

Of course, the most important part of the new facility has yet to be installed – the actual painting equipment that is expected to greatly improve the quality of the paint jobs on some 2017 Corvettes.

Plant Manager Kai Spande explained the need for the new facility by noting: ‘What’s different for the Corvette is we’re painting plastic and composite materials and doing panel painting (separately), and they all need to match.”

Source:
Bowling Green Daily News

Related:
Corvette Museum to Manage Tours of the Corvette Assembly Plant
First Beam Set for the New Corvette Paint Shop at the Bowling Green Assembly Plant
GM to Invest $439 Million for a New Corvette Paint Shop