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LowerSlowerDelaware

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Webasto? More like Webastards

Let our terrible Capitalistic system takeover the problem. This is low hanging fruit for the right company to step up and offer a competitive product if Ford is willing to give up some profit instead of trying to hold on to Webastards originally projected lower production costs per cap.
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Carolina Jim

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this isn't like an instantaneous lightening strike....its not even like a week-long hurricane track. The Webasto train has been off the track going on 3 years now.

Several Ford managers should be afforded an opportunity to "spend more time with their family".
 

BadBoyBroncoBilly

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So what are you trying to tell me???????????????????????????????????
 

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Still not sure why dual top orders (me) can’t be filled with soft tops initially, then when MIC tops are more readily available Ford then could fully fulfill those orders.
 

Bronco4lyfe85

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So future customers will get a better experience is how I’m reading this.
 

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Can anyone confirm if Ford is sending employees to assist Webasto during its 2-weeks of shutdown this month?
There is no summer shutdown at any Ford assembly factory this summer. Also, the UAW was trying to organize Webasto a few weeks ago and us FRAP production workers were kicked out of Webasto a few days later because of it.
 

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Webasto? More like Webastards

Let our terrible Capitalistic system takeover the problem. This is low hanging fruit for the right company to step up and offer a competitive product if Ford is willing to give up some profit instead of trying to hold on to Webastards originally projected lower production costs per cap.
How long do you think it would take for another company to design the top, test it, and then put together the tooling to make the top and then setup an organization and build a factory and hire the workers to provide the tops to Ford? How much of an investment would be needed do you think?
 

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There is no summer shutdown at any Ford assembly factory this summer. Also, the UAW was trying to organize Webasto a few weeks ago and us FRAP production workers were kicked out of Webasto a few days later because of it.
Ok gotcha! I was referring to the shut down this week and week of the 26th. Just wondering if they were assisting during those times.
 

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How long do you think it would take for another company to design the top, test it, and then put together the tooling to make the top and then setup an organization and build a factory and hire the workers to provide the tops to Ford? How much of an investment would be needed do you think?
Exactly this, people can say that but it’ll be another 3 years before that facility is up and running. Then you run into the issues of tops made at one manufacturer vs another.
 

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At least this report on the delays to production is fairly accurate - not blindly blaming Ford or the semiconductor shortage. They even correctly differentiated between MIC and Modular tops.
Nothing new for most of us here on B6G, but maybe it will help the confused masses a bit.
Not sure if this was already posted here or not.

https://fordauthority.com/2021/07/2...pplier-is-struggling-mightily-to-meet-demand/

2021 Ford Bronco Hardtop Supplier Is Struggling Mightily To Meet Demand

While 2021 Ford Bronco production has been less affected by the semiconductor chip shortage than most other models, it has been seriously hampered by another supply chain problem – hardtops. The Ford Bronco hardtop supplier – Webasto – has struggled mightily to produce the number of tops that Ford needs to fulfill customer orders, despite the fact that the automaker has invested millions to help fix the problem. Now, we’re learning more about the problems facing the Bronco hardtop supplier via a new report from the Detroit Free Press.

Webasto, a German company, built a brand new plant in Plymouth, Michigan back in 2019, a site that was specifically designed to support Bronco hardtop production. And it appears that another facility could be in the works to help catch up with demand as well. “We are working with Webasto to increase roof production, which could include a second facility in metro Detroit,” Ford spokesperson Said Deep told the Free Press.

Unfortunately, even that expansion won’t lead to meaningful hardtop production until 2022. In the meantime, Ford has trimmed down its available hardtop options available to customers to just one – the Carbonized Gray molded-in color (MIC) top, while delaying other options, including a painted hardtop, to the 2023 model year. The automaker hopes that this will help to right the proverbial ship more quickly than if it offered numerous choices.

Ford originally planned for an 80 percent take rate on hardtop-equipped Broncos, but hardtops are currently only making up around 60 percent of total production as Webasto simply can’t produce enough tops to satisfy customer demand. Ford recently informed order holders that switching to a soft top would make them eligible for September production, and it will include a hardtop prep kit with every soft top Bronco produced beginning that same month.

The reasons for Webasto’s struggles are somewhat complicated and multiple in nature. Part of the problem lies in the fact that much of the company’s tooling and testing equipment resides in Northern Italy and Wuhan, China, both places that were hit incredibly hard by COVID-19. On top of that, Webasto is struggling to find enough workers to make hardtops, which Ford is helping with as well, reportedly sending “many” hourly and salaried employees of its own to the top maker’s Michigan plant.

Meanwhile, Ford is admittedly frustrated by the problem, as are Bronco customers, but the automaker is working with Webasto to rectify the issue. “We’re working as fast as we can,” Deep said. “We want to make everybody happy.”
So to the best of my knowledge / reading, the soft top conversion is ONLY offered on the 4 door model. can anyone confirm,
 

Rick Astley

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meanwhile us mythical 2-door folks are SOL for options.....
I haven't found any solid info on it, but have heard grumblings that 2-doors can't be sold with factory soft top (just like Wrangler) due to some federal regs. The soft tops are an aftermarket thing.

At least every 2-door top they make goes to somebody who doesn't have an option, rather than the thinning ranks of 4-door hard top orders.

BTW, Pearland is a great city, was a ton of fun to visit family there.
Still not sure why dual top orders (me) can’t be filled with soft tops initially, then when MIC tops are more readily available Ford then could fully fulfill those orders.
A likely guess is that shipping on the hard top will be massively more than any potential profit margin on the part. It would have to be sent via crate across country.

There is no summer shutdown at any Ford assembly factory this summer. Also, the UAW was trying to organize Webasto a few weeks ago and us FRAP production workers were kicked out of Webasto a few days later because of it.
Always fun to hear about the gang wars when the UAW is involved. Maybe if all the members pool together their salaries and directly purchase whoever their current leader is who isn't already in a federal prison they can buy that person a fancy retirement home or perhaps an jet airplane?

How long do you think it would take for another company to design the top, test it, and then put together the tooling to make the top and then setup an organization and build a factory and hire the workers to provide the tops to Ford? How much of an investment would be needed do you think?
Lead time on a tested part such as this would be about 24-36 months.

Wuhan is a MASSIVE industrial region that also pairs skilled tech labor. Merging Silicone valley with Detroit (hypothetical Detroit, back when it had an industrial workforce) would be akin to modern-day Wuhan. Hundreds of industries have direct and material ties to labor in Wuhan.
 

Ryuk

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I've never had an issue with any OEM Jeep or convertible car top. I also don't go overboard on protecting them.
All of my vehicles with soft tops were owned more than 10 years.
In fact, I am taking delivery of a 2004 Jeep TJ Rubicon on Monday, and it will have both the original soft top and hard top. [kind of ironic now that I think about it]
So it's soft top will be 17 years old.
 

Coyote

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I have a 2-door Badlands reservation. I read through these forums everyday and it is still unclear to me why Ford does not allow us 2-door reservation/order holders to option out of the MIC hardtop to a soft-top. Just like the 4-door reservation/order holders got to do. Does anyone know why Ford is not allowing that same freedom for us 2-door folks?

My question also. ?? Coyote
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