Factory Tour
Here's an artists conception of the factory your about to tour. As you already know your in Detroit, Michigan 1923. At this time the company is ramping up production to produce 100+ cars a day. Sales is growing across the USA and the advertising department is in full swing selling adds all around the country. The Saturday Evening Post is one of the company's favorite pieces to advertise in. Okay put your safety glasses on and lets head in for the tour.
Gather around close please it's very loud down here on the factory floor. Here you can see our rough cast iron blocks getting some of their first machine work done to them. The end surfaces are being ground flat now by the operator which will later be key points to reference other machining process from. Also take note of our new fluorescent lighting we're installing in the factory. We find this style lighting to give off better light with less shadows. Fluorescent lights haven't been on the mar
This large machine here is just for boring the camshaft bearing holes. Once the block is loaded into the machine a series of boring bars are used to bore four perfectly aligned holes which the camshaft bearings will be placed into. Then later the camshaft itself will ride perfectly on these bearings.
In this area we do most the valve cavity machining. Each block is hand loaded into the machine by a rope hoist. You can see Joe's rope hoist here at the first station. Once Joe has the block in the machine he still has to align it, this is down by hand with small pry bars. Then each machine operator does their certain task to the block, it's then unloaded, and moved down the rollers to the next work station. As you can see the machine closest to us requires a lot of downward force during the mil
Behind us here you'll see the guys getting the valve lifter guides prepared to be installed and milled. The large skid of parts in the lower left is freshly cast lifter guides. In this area the guys will drill the mounting holes into these lifter assemblies, and then bore all twelve holes for each lifter. The Rickenbacker engine has a unique, 2 piece removable lifter system which is easily assessable for any maintenance work or replacement that might be needed during your ownership.
Moving down the line a bit we can see Ward doing the final mill work that is required on our valve train. Wards machine is boring the valve guides and valve seat at the same time. Doing these at the same time helps keep the guide true with the seat, and that helps make your engine perform day in and day out.
Here we have a couple young boys running our babbitt station. They take each connecting rod and prep it, then installed it into a fixture to pour the babbitt into. This fixture simulates the crank shaft diameter where the connecting rod is going to ride. Once the babbitt is pour into the fixture it cools and then the connecting rod is popped out with it's new babbitt bearing installed. After each connecting rod is cleaned it's then laid on the wood trays in the left center. Each tray holds enoug
Here is one of my favorite machines, we bore all six cylinder holes at once with very little effect. Bob here loads a new block into the Bridgeford boring machine and then has to attach alignment fixturing onto the machine head and the engine block. Also you can see the importance of that first work station we saw where we face the engine blocks edges. The alignment fixture used here bolt into some of those earlier machined places. You can see the size of the machine, and the floor is shaking ri
Say HI to our crankshaft gang...opps just kidding, remember we can't talk with the help!!! The gang here does all our crankshaft work. One guy here will only turn the main bearings on the cranks, while the other guy only turns the journal bearings. The guys just got a new shipment in yesterday of raw crankshafts and you can see they have plenty of catching up. You know I've always wanted to play a joke on these guys buy just pushing over one of these crankshaft. I'm guessing at least 90% of them
This area is where all our clutches are turned and faced, along with both flywheels. As you can see we have piles of clutches yet to face, and here in front of that pile is about twenty front flywheels for our 1923 models. Over head you can see our very large power distribution system which runs through this building. These pulleys and belts run all day and sometimes all night. There are clutch pulleys either in the ceiling or at the machine so each machine can be turned on to run, or shut off
John and Allen run our balancing equipment here. John is new here (on the left) and is learning the tricks of the trade from Allen. Right now they are working on balancing our engine crankshafts, but these guys are also responsible for all the flywheels and clutch assemblies we need. You can see about six flywheels on the floor, and beside them is a taller stack of clutch assemblies. There is a true art to running one of these machines, and Allen is one of the best here in Detroit.
Now it's all coming together. Here you can see we're starting to assemble the engines which will go into the car. The engine block is mounted on a rail system so we can transport it smoothly through out the engine assembly area and then to the chassis area to be mounted into the frame. About half way done Edward and Michael are working on installing pistons into the engine blocks. Just after that is where the transmissions get bolted on the rear of the Rickenbacker Power Plants. Here's a good vi
After the engine is assembled they travel into our engine run in room. The same rail system is used and the engines are rolled into place with ease. Each engine is pre-fired and run for a period of time before it gets installed into the vehicle. Water and exhaust are piped to and from the engine during the run in period, even with those items hook up this room still is very loud and gets warm in a hurrying during a normal day of run in.
Here is another testing and run in area. We do more testing of oils and long term run-ins at these station. Operators here spend a lot of time taking down information on how well items are running. Again you can see our engine rail transfer system. To the right center you can see the main incoming rail. On the floor running in front of all the engines are two rails that an engine dolly rolls on. This dolly will line up with the main incoming rail so the engine will transfer easily onto the dolly
In the next room here we see once the engine passes all the run-in testing they come here. This place is our stockroom for main assembly. As you can see we have quite a few engines sitting, waiting to be installed into a nice set of frame rails. In the back ground you can see car bodies just in from the coach factory and stand ready for assembly. Another good view of our clean brick floor.
As we make our way to the final assembly area we are going to pass through large areas of storage. We just walked by our engines and bodies. Here's our storage area of rims. This neat stacking design isn't just for looks either. By interlocking them this way they won't fall over when stacked to these heights. Not sure who ever figured this out, but it makes for a neat looking wall.
Just behind us you'll see stacks of our stamped steel wheels awaiting final assemble. Okay enough of the storage areas, lets head into the final assembly area. Please stick together so we aren't getting in the way of the workers, it's a very busy area where we're going next.
The chassis and engine have already been installed at this point. This team of workers main job is to install the front fenders and steering column. In the background to the left you'll see more body storage.
Looking behind us you'll see the bodies are now going onto the cars and some interior parts are going in after the body is set in place. You can see some seats sitting on the floor waiting to be installed. The next body to be installed is hanging to the right and ready to be rolled into place. Lets go down on the floor now and watch them set a body in place.
The lighting isn't very good from this point of view, but you can see a touring body to the left center here. It's hanging in the air attached to our overhead carrier system. It will be rolled over the chassis and get lowered right into place. Notice at this point we cover our fenders to protect the high gloss finish that you'll find on our Rickenbacker Autos.
Here your looking at the end of the line. Final assembly is almost complete and the cars are taking shape. Right in front of us is a 4 passenger coupe, just behind it is a pair of touring cars. As you can see our body finishes are highly glossed just like our rims. We believe in the highest quality finish for all our Rickenbacker cars.
Moving over to our final area before the cars head outside the factory. This is the final inspection each car will get. As you can see here Fred, Henry and Merle are inspecting the under side of this Rickenbacker sedan. Everything is checked for alignment, tightness, and any oil leaks are also looked for. Well now you have seen the Rickenbacker Factory, lets make our way over to the door and we'll step outside to finish the tour and say our good-byes.
Hey what a surprise. Our car show girl is here today to wish us a farewell. She has been to all of the auto shows this springs helping promote our fine automobiles. So on behalf of Rickenbacker Motors we'd like to wish you a safe trip home, and when you get there find that local Rickenbacker dealer to take one of these cars for a test drive...we know it's a Car Worthy of its Name.
This is a picture of the Rickenbacker Factory taken in October 2003. The building still stands today but is rough shape. In the back ground you can even see the old water tower.....again it's in very rough shape.
Picture Courteous of Google
Picture Courteous of Google
Picture Courteous of Google