Karmann manufacturing pics.

[Neokitz 0]

Hey all.

 

I spent many years working in the Car Engine manufacturing game so vehicle assembly plants and assembly lines kinda float my boat. I know from experience that manufacturers are keen to keep insider photos to a minimum as to safeguard their processes, technology and products...I saw a you tube video going through the generations of superchargers.. towards the end of the video it showed some of the original early concepts of the corrado and even some footage of the casting and machining processes of the G-lader... then it showed some snapshots of the corrado going thru Karmann's Osnabruck's welding shop and a photo of final assembly.. the video is foreign and i have included a link but my question is ........does anyone have any more pictures or videos of the corrado manufacturing process at Karmann as im really keen on finding out more..... :D

 

[davidwort 0]

excellent!

 

who's is this do you reckon?

c_in_factory.jpg[/attachment:1o3mzrt8]

[Neokitz 0]

lol...I would like to think it was mine :)

[V-Dubstar 0]

Awesome vid!! Would love to know what's being said though lol

[Neokitz 0]

So would I.. despite the lack of comprehension.. the pics speak a thousand words!!

 

Diggin the guy with the mop and dungers spraying the casting mould.

[domwells27 0]

Wow great find. Interesting to see the charger being cast and machined

[RW1 0]

A lot of those factory photo stills are in a book - Das Grosse VW-Corrado-Bush, Heinz Horrmann/Georg Grützner/Joachim Hack, ISBN 3-89365-187-X , hardback, sadly out of print but copies do occassionally appear on the German Ebay...... expect £100. Very sort after.

Written in German only, no English verion, tells the storyline of Karmann leading to the Corrado develpment and production. Also covers the VW engine developments used in the Corrado and various Corrado model developments including the specials - ie. Cabrio and others. Written in 1992.

 

Big book physically, not far short of A3 paper size. Doesn't fit any of my bookshelves.

 

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[The_Dude 0]

Right, a bit of GCSE Spanish and a bit of google translate has led me to this translation. Its not quite word for word, but its good enough.

 

The G60 volumetric compressor began to be installed in VW cars in the late 80s. However what many did not know was that this marvel of mechanical engineering was conceived much earlier, specifically in 1905.

 

In 1930 Daimler manufactured supercharged cars, unfortunately the technology of the time was not sufficent for the G type charger, that would have to wait for the 80s.

 

It would be more than half a century until one of the brilliant engineers in Germany would realise (conceive) the G charger.

 

And thanks to those brilliant engineers, capable of making impossible ideas into reality, a myth was born.

 

Today more than 2 decades later there are G chargers that are still blowing at full power. This is an homage to those who made that reality.

 

 

 

 

Great video!!!

Pic of the designer of the Corrado having a look under the bonnet of the Scirocco not long after launch in Sept 2008

[Neokitz 0]

Ahh thanks guys, esp. The_Dude for the translation and RW1 for info about the book. I know some of you have already been to the Karmann museum and one day I will go as well. I will keep researching more info and when i have collated enough info i will create a Karmann/Corrado information and media thread.. something that could maybe be added to the forum wiki....

 

The G-lader is a fantastic bit of kit and hats off to Karmann for producing the car we all love and praise. I know it was a joint effort between Karmann and VW but if it had just rolled down a VW production line without Karmann's influence i'm not sure it would have come out as good as it did.

[Tempest 0]

Very interesting video.

 

I am still hoping to lay my hands on some internal Karmann videos detailing the production run of the Rado, after having met a further ex-Karmann employee in the rehab clinic that my Mum was staying at back in July :D

 

Pic of the designer of the Corrado having a look under the bonnet of the Scirocco not long after launch in Sept 2008

 

Indeed, but the next pic would have been more in teresting, when Schwebe walked away from the Iroc just waving his hands at it, saying ¨Karmann would have never got away with that, we would have lost the contract!¨ Schwebe on the rear tailgate hinges was even more delightful, pulling out his patent document on how he solved the problem of not having to use ugly bumps like on the Iroc.

 

Do a search on the EPO (European Patent Office) website and search for Schwebe :D .

 

Tempest

[Neokitz 0]

I guess many of you will have already seen this photo from Karmann. For those who haven't...enjoy :clap:

[Abdul 0]

I guess many of you will have already seen this photo from Karmann. For those who haven't...enjoy :clap:

 

Is it just me or do corrado's come with really good paint from factory? Ive been very impressed with my last 2 and those in that pic look amazing.

 

What i'd do for a brand new corrado!!!! :(

[RW1 0]

Erm..... no they didn't, particulalry the later post 1990 ones. Paint depth gauge always show Karmann applied a total depth of paint at 50% of VW's spec. Plus if you really look closely, you will find flecks of coloured paint. I have red flecks on a green car. On some Corrados I've seen shadows (lack of paint) where the sprayers have missed a bit on the upper surfaces due to tooling holding up the bonnet or tailgate.

 

The surface finish was poor as well compared to the Golf out Wolfsburg. Solid colours fair better than metallics.

 

This was because the cars were hand sprayed by two sprayers, one either side of the track and lacquer applied by a spray bridge the cars passed through.

 

In fact in 1999 when Karmann were producing the Mercedes CLK drop coupe, Merc shipped the bare bodyshells by train back to the main Merc factory for painting before returning them by rail for furnishings, electrics and finishings to be completed. That was Merc's view Karmann's paint finish.

 

If a Corrado paint finish looks really good and deep, then it suggests a respray at some point.

 

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[Neokitz 0]

I found another 2 pics. apologies for the poor quality.

[Neokitz 0]

Early prototypes. 1st one is a bit ermmmmm... well, Im glad they progressed from that one.

[Neokitz 0]

Some pics from the C welding shop at Karmann. Black and white stills im afraid. Again, sorry for the poor quality.

[Abdul 0]

Erm..... no they didn't, particulalry the later post 1990 ones. Paint depth gauge always show Karmann applied a total depth of paint at 50% of VW's spec. Plus if you really look closely, you will find flecks of coloured paint. I have red flecks on a green car. On some Corrados I've seen shadows (lack of paint) where the sprayers have missed a bit on the upper surfaces due to tooling holding up the bonnet or tailgate.

 

The surface finish was poor as well compared to the Golf out Wolfsburg. Solid colours fair better than metallics.

 

This was because the cars were hand sprayed by two sprayers, one either side of the track and lacquer applied by a spray bridge the cars passed through.

 

In fact in 1999 when Karmann were producing the Mercedes CLK drop coupe, Merc shipped the bare bodyshells by train back to the main Merc factory for painting before returning them by rail for furnishings, electrics and finishings to be completed. That was Merc's view Karmann's paint finish.

 

If a Corrado paint finish looks really good and deep, then it suggests a respray at some point.

 

.

 

 

I know my valver had a little bit of paint so it looked good but my vr has only had the front bumper done by a previous owner (Shit job, doesn't match lol) and its paint is pretty good actually for a car with 150k on it. Its far from perfect and not nearly as good as the factory jobs you get these days but none the less after a good machine polish it does look pretty damn good if i must say so myself. The pearl effect is pretty damn nice... Im also yet to notice any other colours in the paint work that shouldn't be there....

[Kempy 0]

black and white pics make me think I got a proper old classic lol

[Bullfinch 0]

How much of a Corrado was hand-built as opposed to put together by robots at Karmann ( don't know if this is good or bad thing :shrug: )? Obviously I've read the comments about dodgy paint out of the factory but was anything ahead of it's time? In terms of production how many hours was a Corrado build back in the 90's compared to a modern day Scirrocco. I guess VW lost money on the car as it didn't sell too well.

[Neokitz 0]

Dont forget that Karmann had full vehicle manufacturing facilities including stamping of body panels to a full automated welding line. some processes needed automation while others areas of the plant used skilled coach builders. There was always more than one project going on at Karmann at any one time. The Scirocco was still being built at the same time as the corrado so in terms of efficiency and to meet production targets, Karmann had to tool up. Im not sure of the Build time for a corrado but it was much longer than most cars of the time from VW. I worked for Toyota and in Derby they were banging cars out at the rate of 1 every 70 secs when they were at full capacity and thats running 24/7. only 97,521 corrado's were built between 1st September 1988 and 31st July 1995. So it was kind of an exclusive production run. VW did lose money on the project as they contracted out the production to karmann and with the high cost of buying a C at the time you can imagine that VW didn't make much profit.. VW now owns Karmann as of 2009 because karmann almost went bankrupt.

 

Kempy...the pics were fom a book previously mentioned in an earlier post.

[RW1 0]

If you look at the production figures for both the Corrado & Scirocco Mk2 at the time, the latter end of 1988 - 1995 was a period of economic depression as now. Production figures reflect that period.

 

Between 1990 - 1992 for the Scirocco it was about 15,500 units in 3 years when earlier it was 25,000 ish unit per year.

 

The Corrado was much the same reducing from 25,000 ish units in 1990 down to 16,000 - 17,000ish units per year in 1991 - 1992 and then 12,000ish, 5,000 ish & 4,000ish in 1993, '94 & '95.

 

The economy didn't pick up until 1995 and by that time Karmann's build price was too much for VW to market. RIP.

 

Karmann's role with VW was niche market model mass porduction, or as in the case of the VW Golf Estate, production line/tooling proving before the line going to Wolfsburg. I remember one Karmann line employee saying to me that Wolfsburg couldn't build the Golf 3 Estate like they did at Osnabrück. Very unhappy about VW taking it away from Karmann. Very labour intensive production lines.

 

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[VeeDub Geezer 0]

 

Karmann's role with VW was niche market model mass porduction, or as in the case of the VW Golf Estate, production line/tooling proving before the line going to Wolfsburg. I remember one Karmann line employee saying to me that Wolfsburg couldn't build the Golf 3 Estate like they did at Osnabrück. Very unhappy about VW taking it away from Karmann. Very labour intensive production lines.

 

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Anyone got a spare Karmann badge for my Mk3 Golf estate? :lol:

[VR6 Lee 0]

Early prototypes. 1st one is a bit ermmmmm... well, Im glad they progressed from that one.

 

God thats bad!!! :ignore: :ignore: