HondaPro Jason has just uploaded a walkthrough video of the NSX production process at Honda’s new Performance Manufacturing Center in Marysville, Ohio.

Not everything was made in house at the Marysville plant. The NSX engine is first hand built by master technicians at the nearby engine factory in Anna, Ohio and dyno tested before moving on to the NSX assembly facility. Its body and chassis panels are cut and stamped outside of the factory and then sent to the NSX assembly plant for welding.

There the chassis components mounted onto a rotating platform and welded by two robotic arms that are overseen by a team of experts who routinely checks the robot’s work and are ready to repair any imperfect welds. After the NSX has undergone all 860 welds, the completed chassis is then inspected by a CMM machine which measures everything the welders have done with a laser. This machine is accurate to somewhere within 30 microns, which is about a third of the width of a human hair.

After all the welding is done and before the painting process begins, the frame and body panels are dipped in vats of various compounds to protect it. One of them contains Zirconium, an environmentally friendly chemical to protect it from corrosion and this is Honda’s first time using such a chemical. Once the dipping process is completed, the frame and body panels are baked at high temperatures for 50 minutes before the panels are painted.

Acura mixes the paint in very small batches, one bucket at a time, and it’s only enough for 2 cars and a little leftover for touch-ups if needed. That means no two batches of paint are exactly the same even if they look identical to us. Robotic arms spray on the Enduro paint in the paint booth, all 11 coats of it. Normally, primer and clear coat are done in separated booths but in the NSX factory both are done in the same booth. After painting comes more baking before everything is assembled. Once painted, anyone who’s going to touch any of the painted panels must wear gloves so no scratching will occur. It left the paint booth perfect and it’ll leave the factory in perfect condition too.

Unlike the factories of high unit models where the car moves down a production line automatically, the NSX is actually wheeled from one station to another for assembly. At the engine station, the NSX is lowered onto the V6 twin turbo engine for installation. Everything needs to be perfect and Acura has even developed two new ways to align the wheels of the NSX; a device that fixes the center cap of the wheel and a cool floating swivel chair for technicians to do a four corner weight and ride height check.

After that is a dyno run for brake and throttle calibration and then it’s ready for you to go on track right after purchase, no break in required.

Isn't the welding process brand new? Is that right?

Isn't it just normal welding but on a platform that rotates? Maybe the weld checking process is new with the fancy 1/3 hair width machine.

I can't say if the process is brand new, maybe new to Acura, but it's just a process of going about those welds that help Acura/Honda achieve what they're looking for which the following will explain:

So cleaner welds? Not too sure about the ablation process even with that description.
Also a neat little tidbit, the NSx is the most expensive car built in the US.

Clean welds are a fundamental of welding, this is in relation to welding with the type metals and construction they're dealing with all without negatively impacting it;

I think I get it now. Those shorter stitch welds don't look like the generic welds where you see large bumps like these:



On a side note, the reason the NSX is track ready out of factory is because the car goes through a simulated 150 mile break in. I actually thought all new NSX were physically driven for a while at the factory to break them in.

It still amazes me that you can take delivery and right away kill it on the track, all in the same day.

Great for Acura since people get to see its potential instantly which is important during a time where we want thing instantly and need results ASAP. It should go a long way in getting more interest in the NSX.

Anyone know what the suspension test includes? The NSX looks pretty stationary to me.

part of that is live testing on a track, like the Nurburgring which is what they had the 2017 NSX on. With all those intense turns where they do a lot of braking and weight transfers, it puts the the entire suspension setup through its paces.