How much money to setup a Kit Car production line?

[vlc]

if i wanted to create a modern production-line facility an a small factory to house it, an through which a kit car model could be produced, but to a volume-car makers quaility standard, then how much would that 'roughly' cost?

Note - i'm only talking about a simple hand-built or semi-handbuilt operation, that would build 100 cars per year, but with a rig that would help prevent panel gap an similar probs from occuring in the production process.

would £1,000,000 be an approx estimate?

ie- for factory + tooling etc.

>>> Edited by vlc on Monday 4th October 04:27

[fast jenn]

There was a company in late 90's that never got in to production fully and spent 18,000,000 and sold about 20 cars before it stopped,

Would need 3to4 mill just to get started!

Vince RVD (the boyfriend) was going to do something on the nemesis in Northern Ireland with the IDB in 1997 and a budget was around 6,000,000 to make 100 a year and that was not starting from scratch!!!

[D-Angle]

Another "How long is a piece of string" question unfortunately. You could keep costs down with the kind of common sense some manufacturers don't bother with, i.e. do we actually need that machine or not. A lot depends on how the car is put together too, whether you are assembling the main components on-site to bolt together or off-site from a supplier -for example, would you fabricate and bolt together the front suspension sub-assembly yourself and then wheel it over to the car, or get someone else to do it and deliver to you, ready to bolt on? There can be some good buys on machinery at liquidation auctions too from what I hear.

By the way, if it's fit and finish you're mainly worried about, in several cases a jig can be used to guide a component in, in exactly the right position. Doing so also makes it an unskilled job, which is an advantage.

[vlc]

D-Angl said: A lot depends on how the car is put together too, whether you are assembling the main components on-site to bolt together or off-site from a supplier


ah yes, i'm talking about where you would get another company to make the panels to your design, then you'd buy-in all you needed for final assembly, tho the frame an chassis would be self-made inside a rig-setup that would ensure a best fit.

But how much would an assembly rig cost for a kit-car maker to buy for their workshop/factory - on 'average'.

figure £1,000,000 for the full setup?

is there a company out there who could produce these for kit-car companies, as to a general design, but that could be adjusted to suit eachs needs?

after all, 90% of kit-cars have roughly the same dimensions, so one assembly rig should fit most i say.

[D-Angle]

The only companies doing that kind of work that I know of make the overhead cradle production lines for the volume manufacturers, and they cost a bit more than a million. Example here:

www.made-in-china.com/showrooms/tongguang00/3/Tk4Mzc1M/mic/mic/mic/Motor_Vehicle_Installation_Assembly_Line.html

If you're serious, then look into what machines you would need for each process, then make a list and cost them up. I'm afraid a lot of things in automotive manufacturing are made to measure and quoted individually.

[vlc]

yeh i took a look at that last link, an it seemed moreover for volume makers.

what gets me tho, is that no one in the uk has invented a universal assembly line rig setup, that the many low volume makers would benefit from, as over the usual an simplistic shed based DIY setup.

[D-Angle]

vlc said:

yeh i took a look at that last link, an it seemed moreover for volume makers. what gets me tho, is that no one in the uk has invented a universal assembly line rig setup, that the many low volume makers would benefit from, as over the usual an simplistic shed based DIY setup.

I think it's because it's not really warranted for the numbers involved. For the cost of the machinery to make a 'moving' line, you could probably hire some people to push it along on a trolley. This same piece of 'machinery' cuts, welds, paints and trims as well!

To just get it moving on a conveyor system isn't expensive in the grand scheme of things, but each process needs a machine as well. Also a conveyor system only really has any benefit if you're turning out high volumes every day.

[Dave Brookes]

I assemble Cobra kits for a living and with one assistant I can build around 17 cars per year. The kit comes from a manufacturer with around 20 staff and they produce somewhere around the 100 mark kits per year. They are jigged up for the manufacturing side well enough and for 17 builds per year I used some paterns and templates for marking out and drilling etc. For me to be able to turn out 100 fully built cars per year I still would not use a conveyor system as parts supply will cause too many hold ups.
For that sort of quantity though you could use mostly un skilled labour with around 20% charge hands to oversee the monkeys.
I would say that you would need at least 20 assembly staff (They will never work as hard as you) plus 3 good painters and two trimmers.
I would estimate that you would need around 15-20,000 sq ft of work space.......And this is if everything goes to plan.
if you take a look at at the factory five website, they build quite a few Cobras.
www.factoryfive.com/table/company/phototour.html

[Wacky Racer]

Dave Brookes said:

if you take a look at at the factory five website, they build quite a few Cobras. www.factoryfive.com/table/company/phototour.html

Very interesting Dave,

Thanks for that...

[Dave Brookes]

Hi Wacky.
I still can't quite get my head around what he is looking for here, but this is how I'd see the best way of acheiving 100 cars per year based on compromise between productivity and tooling costs.

As for £1M for set up then if you were going to jump in with both feet then I'd say you wouldn't have enough but if you used as many outside suppliers as possible (Warts n' all) then you could do it for considerably less.

Have I answered the question that was asked by VLC?

[coenstrijdom]

Hi Gents,
I was the designer of the cheaper Shelby 427 S/C Cobra (Real one) that was to be built in South Africa.
About the beginning of this year I set up a rough plan for someone who was looking to start a "supercar" project in Cape Town, South Africa.
I still have the data, as the project did not start and would forward it to anyone interested.

Regards
Coenraad Strijdom
Automotive and Sportscar Design engineer.

[coenstrijdom]

Sorry,
Here my E-Mail if needed:
[e-mail]

Keep on Gassing

[reddog]

I don't know if this will help, but here goes.
I don't know much about building kits.
But there is a company World Transport Authority based in the US which is marketing a concept of micro-factories which builds a utility vehicle the worldstar for 3rd world countries and is supposed to be very rugged. Some of the former officers of the company have been arrested for unethical business practices, but you will find out that when you search the web.
The idea is pretty cool. The micro-factory about the size of 2 basketball courts and capable of building a vehicle a day cost around 400,000 USD. One such factory is located in the Clark Special Economic Zone.
www.clark.com.ph/business.asp
The company is Pitbull Cars.
www.yupangconet.com/pitbull/concept.html
I like the vehicle, but not everyone will.
With some engineering consulting from someone like
www.automotivecomposites.com/AD&C/page2.htm
you could build just about anything.
The originator of the WTA and worldstar concept is Composite Automotive Research, but I can find no website for them.
I have always wanted to build cars myself and this seems to be a relatively inexpensive way to get to do it.
For what its worth I hope I have contributed.
Good luck.

[eliot]

You could probably give yourself a really good deal on a rover factory right now!