Since we are redoing the upholstery in leather and the headliner in suede, I decided to have my upholstery guy remove the factory gray carpet and replace it with a thicker carpet material.

He found literally a handful of bolts and/or screws just sitting on the floor pan. The bolts look like the ones used on the dash board.

I know it doesn't harm anything but WTF???

So now I've got extra dashboard bolts... anybody need some?

Now I am thinking that my truck was built late afternoon on a FRIDAY before a long weekend by BILLY BOB.

 

Finding extra bolts isn't uncommon. They probably weren't left out of your truck, but instead were dropped when installing and its easier to carry multiples and just put in another one instead of picking that bolt up. When we get cars in, its not uncommon to find various fasteners laying loose inside the truck. They never seem to be missing, just "extras"

 

Well, I understand they're extras since there's probably at least 30-50 bolts altogether scattered on the floor pan.

I am also in the automotive aftermarket business and the only difference is we work exclusively only on 2 brands of high end vehicles (Mercedes and BMW).

We've dismantled these cars to the ground and never experienced finding even one foreign bolt just sitting somewhere inside the vehicle.

What really concerns me on the Ford is that the bolts were most likely visible before they laid down the factory carpet in the assembly line (since there were tons of them), and no FORD WORKER took time to clean up the mess.

 

and it goes to show you where their extra costs go. i mean, I know a few bolts isn't all that expensive, but it can add up. not to mention that Ford keeps trying to squeeze suppliers (like my company) to give lower prices. if they would clean up their act a little bit then maybe the consumer wouldn't be paying for the waste. i love my truck, but things like this should not happen. C'mon Cleatus, get off your butt and pick up the bolts you dropped. It ain't hard. Saying that it isn't uncommon doesn't make it ok.

 

It may be cheaper to just leave them and grab another one and Go. Time is Money... They should at least clean out the floor pans before they install the carpet though...

 

Might have got fired if they did.
They have about 90 seconds to install the carpet.
There is a big red button they can use to stop the line but, when they hit it, everybody knows it and seven supervisors come running.

They might get away with saying, "I got to pick up these bolts." once but, the second time they would be on the street.

In Norfolk, the guy that installs the door windows makes a complex gyrated move to put a piece of glass into a hole that is smaller than the glass. When he calls in sick, he is replaced with two people because the line does not slow down.

They do halt the line for showstoppers, bolts under the carpet evidently isn't one. If it were, there would be even more threads about 'where's my truck' and 'check my VIN'.

I'm not saying this is a good thing, just the price of staying competitive.

 

If Ford leaves 45 bolts./screws in ther floor pan of all their F-150s alone, and they sell 1,000,000 F-150s...say a bolt costs them .01 well there you have 45 cents per truck x 1,000,000 = 450,000 dollars in bolts they leave in the F-150s alone.....now say your average F-150 is going to run around 29k...thats 15.5 Trucks they leave laying in the floor pans....interesting numbers for bolts alone thats are left in a floor plan.

 

I have to take issue with that math.
Every truck doesn't have 45 bolts under the carpet.
At most, it's every 46th truck.
Since the 45 trucks in between are missing one bolt under the dash on average, the whole thing is a wash.

 

Dude, I payed extra for those bolts in STX. It was an option listed on the sticker:

Emergency All-Weather Dashboard Fasteners $350.00

:-)


I agree, definitely a Friday afternoon assembly.