Interesting article about the control arm recall

[MHedges24]

Hey Guys,

Came across this article about the control arm recall on the early GTs and it was pretty interesting. Thought I would share.

I Made a Huge Engineering Mistake on the 2005 Ford GT - The Autopian

At the beginning of the 2005 Ford GT program, I made a decision that turned out to be the biggest mistake of my career. It led to a recall of all cars produced up to that time, a stop-build order, a stop-sales order, and a stop-drive order. In fact, a man who bought one of […]

www.theautopian.com

 

[2112]

Thank you for sharing this article.
.

 

[roketman]

I thought Ford handled it brilliantly

 

[GT Tech]

Hey Guys,

Came across this article about the control arm recall on the early GTs and it was pretty interesting. Thought I would share.

I Made a Huge Engineering Mistake on the 2005 Ford GT - The Autopian

At the beginning of the 2005 Ford GT program, I made a decision that turned out to be the biggest mistake of my career. It led to a recall of all cars produced up to that time, a stop-build order, a stop-sales order, and a stop-drive order. In fact, a man who bought one of […]

www.theautopian.com

Great story by my friend Huibert. I was there .

 

[Joe Dozzo]

Don't know why, but I thought it was just the fronts. Learn something new every day!

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Kpgarage]

I remember this back in the day. I agree Ford did it right and the billet arms are simply works of art visually. My 2005 has them and I still kid my son that his 2006 has the plain boring looking ones.

 

[GT Tech]

I remember that when the billets were acquired, they were all sent to Wixom as a distribution point before going to Roush & Multi-Matic for machining. One whole isle was filled up with pallets of approximately 2'x2'x 4" chunks of Aluminum blanks. A beautiful sight to see.

 

[GTinTN]

Thanks for sharing! My GT was one of the early ones and now I know something new about it!

 

[twobjshelbys]

Intriguing! I knew of the issue but never head heard any of the details. The metallurgical explanation was interesting.

 

[analogdesigner]

I remember seeing some early GTs at the dealer with "billet" machined arms. Roush did the machining of these in a timely manner. Aluminum Precision Products in Santa Ana, CA did the forgings for the balance of the production cars. It's hard to beat a good forging!

 

[PeteK]

Yeah Jay, from an engineering point of view, I’d choose the forgings, but from a mechanical jewelry point of view. It’s hard to beat the appearance of the machined pieces. Maybe if they were anodized blue!

 

[daytrayd]

Awesome to get the inside scoop, I’ve got the billet arms. One detail they didn’t mention was the Camilo prints also given out as an apology for the inconvenience!

 

[Specracer]

Great article, have been lucky enough to hear these stories along the way, from team members. The more you hear and learn about how dedicated Ford, and the entire team was to getting this car done, the more you wonder how on earth they they pull this off. Was an amazing project, and obviously we all love the result.

 

[sahlman]

I remember that when the billets were acquired, they were all sent to Wixom as a distribution point before going to Roush & Multi-Matic for machining. One whole isle was filled up with pallets of approximately 2'x2'x 4" chunks of Aluminum blanks. A beautiful sight to see.

We were battling Boeing for sourcing every certified billet of 6061-T6 and then still ultra sounding and x-raying each billet before going to Roush and Multimatic. I can't recall if Wixom held these pieces before or after this testing step.

 

[sahlman]

I remember seeing some early GTs at the dealer with "billet" machined arms. Roush did the machining of these in a timely manner. Aluminum Precision Products in Santa Ana, CA did the forgings for the balance of the production cars. It's hard to beat a good forging!

I sourced the machined upper control arms to Roush and the Lowers to Multimatic. I split them due to risk and nearing capacity limits.

 

[extrap]

That's cool historical info, Scott. Somebody needs to compile all of these types of from-the-source forum posts into a book

 

[GT Tech]

We were battling Boeing for sourcing every certified billet of 6061-T6 and then still ultra sounding and x-raying each billet before going to Roush and Multimatic. I can't recall if Wixom held these pieces before or after this testing step.

Yeah. Was not sure at which way they were headed when they were at Wixom. Our hi-lo driver said they were going to Roush and Multi-Matic, but that was all we heard

 

[sahlman]

That's cool historical info, Scott. Somebody needs to compile all of these types of from-the-source forum posts into a book

Glad you like it. There is so much.

I am looking at doing a '05-'06 Ford GT design/engineering video series from start to finish. So many details and good stories from the program. This would include interviews with many of my FGT engineering teammates (technicians and all - everyone but Camilo! LOL KIDDING!!) and owners. Interviews with Camilo about breaking his heart multiple times including 86ing his deep dish wheels at the beginning and fender clearances.

I have done enough writing so this is my preference along with on-track footage new and old. What do you think?!

 

[twobjshelbys]

Glad you like it. There is so much.

I am looking at doing a '05-'06 Ford GT design/engineering video series from start to finish. So many details and good stories from the program. This would include interviews with many of my FGT engineering teammates (technicians and all - everyone but Camilo! LOL KIDDING!!) and owners. Interviews with Camilo about breaking his heart multiple times including 86ing his deep dish wheels at the beginning and fender clearances.

I have done enough writing so this is my preference along with on-track footage new and old. What do you think?!

Oh yes!!!!!

 

[GT Tech]

Glad you like it. There is so much.

I am looking at doing a '05-'06 Ford GT design/engineering video series from start to finish. So many details and good stories from the program. This would include interviews with many of my FGT engineering teammates (technicians and all - everyone but Camilo! LOL KIDDING!!) and owners. Interviews with Camilo about breaking his heart multiple times including 86ing his deep dish wheels at the beginning and fender clearances.

I have done enough writing so this is my preference along with on-track footage new and old. What do you think?!

As Fred and I got to be pretty good pals, he would tell me stories of him and Camilo butting heads on more than a few occasions. Guess it got pretty "interesting" when it came to fixed door glass issue. Those were the days buddy. Time of our lives.