Was the SVX hand built?
 

I thought I had heard a few times before that all the SVXes were hand built. Or was it just the engine?

I did a search, but nothing came up here.

The engines are - each piston is hand fitted to its cylinder. I believe the rear quarter panels are hand fitted (leaded in).
-Bill

I also wouldn't be surprised if the side window glass was hand fitted to the frame...

-Chike

There was a lot of hand-assembly. The bodies were mostly welded together by robot, but final fitment and inspection was by hand and very thorough.

As has been said already, the rear quarters were hand-brazed and hand-polished from two pieces.

As I understand it (and I have no evidence to back this up - just hearsay) the SVX was built, one at a time, by a single team of people who took each car form start to finish along a short line.

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From what I understand, the sideglass was done by robots using a special hydroforming technique to bond the semi-molten glass to the steel body. I think Fuji patented the process. Made for good fit and finish of the "All glass canopy"

I didn't know that, but that's pretty amazing...

I wonder how many patents Subaru received during development/production of the SVX?

-Chike

At the 10th Ann. Meet in Indiana there were 2 men at the plant who were involved in the construction of the SVX. Larry III has their e-mail. Perhaps he could forward this thread to them.

What do you say Larry?:rolleyes:

I don't have the road and track book in front of me, but I think it showed some of the assembly line. :)

With all the repairs I think mine's pretty close to hand built! :eek: :rolleyes:

Fuji built them at a FHI plant rather than a Subaru plant on a special assembly line with a lot of human involvement. I too do not have my books in front of me, but I'm pretty sure there were many more human inspections of the car along its line than other cars have...:cool: It seemed like one holy experiment, we're lucky we got any cars from it...

They were built on a dedicated line at the main Subaru factory in Gunma, Japan with more "human" involvment than the other Subaru models. After production finished, the line was mothballed but a few years ago it was completely removed.

paddlesnz
back in New Zealand with my beloved SVX!