Just off the hoist and awaiting its hood. This is Firehawk #403. The bodies on the earlier cars are covered by white plastic. #403 has a spray on coating which was introduced mid-year. It looks like cracks in the photo. The coating protects the paint during yard storage and shipping. Note the two extra decals on the passenger window. From left to right are the GM sheet, SLP shipping info, SLP Firehawk window sticker. Hey, in 20 years someone will want to know this! (95/5)
The North end or the assembly building was full of parts. On the left are the take off exhausts. I have no idea what they did with them. New 3" exhausts are in the back. They asked me if I wanted to buy them. In the centre are new Camaro SS wheels which were just arriving at that time for the as yet unannounced SS models. I did see a pile of reject Firehawk wheels off to the side. If the wheels had any flaws or marks they were not used. Quality of the SLP work was very important. (95/5)
This is the hood assembly area at Zeke's Automotive in Lachine. Hoods are bonded together from a patented sheet molded compound. Reinforcing is installed in the hoods to prevent cracking and make sure that in the case of an accident, the hood does not enter the passenger compartment. There is more work here than you think. The building had flawed Firehawk hoods stuffed everywhere. They even have the original mold off in the corner. Apparently 93, 94 and 95 hoods are slightly different. The differences are pretty subtle. (95/5)
Body work is done on each hood. This guy is actually working on a WS6 prototype hood. The hood group, approximately five workers, was working hard this Saturday to make hoods for all the cars in the previous photos as well as a batch of WS6 hoods. Rock music was playing and they were singing along. Zeke's had been working very hard to keep up with the demand. I think they thought I was strange for coming all the way to Montreal to see them work.
Hoods are painted in batches of six and placed on special racks for shipment to the assembly building. These are the guys who had all the headaches trying to match all the colors. They are not able to use the same paint or process. Just getting some of the colors was a problem. I now appreciate why some colors are not available. (95/5)
South end of assembly building. New Firestones on right. Take off Goodyearr axle housing and differential are unpainted. (Terry Maxwell, 95/4)
View of underbody showing the optional 3" exhaust. Note that the underbody does not have the pearl and clear coats. For the future restoration detail freaks, the SLP froned at the assembly building. Zeke's kept the whole car at the hood building in Lachine P.Q. to make sure the paint matched. Yellow patch on floor locates the car for the hoist. (Terry Maxwell, 95/4)
Maple Leaf Firehawk #04. One of 13 made for Canada in 1995. First regular production Canadian Firehawk. Canadian Firehawks have shipping code R6Z. It was the first Blue-Green Chameleon Firehawk made. Matching all of the different shades in this color caused SLP quite a bit of problems. It was received at SLP in late November 1994 and completed the following April. SLP canceled the availability of this color, but honored the orders that they had received to that point. (Terry Maxwell, 95/4)
I hope you enjoyed the story and photo tour. If you feel any of the information is inaccurate or have additional questions just drop me a note at . If you have a Firehawk, I would like to hear about it.
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