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Malibu Factory Tour 11/12/2012 with pics and new info!


bamabonners

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Thank you to Pirates Cove Marine for setting this up. They are a great dealership!

one house cleaning item before I begin: We only saw one wake boat today in the whole factory that did not have surfgate. WHICH ONE OF YOU PEOPLE DID NOT ORDER SURF GATE?!!! Even workers were wondering why someone didn't order it. LOL

I have a ton of pictures. I did not post them here. A few things to look for in the pictures: new tower speakers - chrome bullets, new Axis dash layout, new VTX interior, so many color layouts, tricked out engines, corvette engines, new paint colors (maybe even a metallic black :whistle: ), pro's boats, the VP of operations personal boat, more....

Here is the link to the pictures, (For description of pictures, click on "Media Info" on the right side of page). CLICK HERE FOR PICTURES

As for SURF GATE questions : surf gate is a wake setter only option at this point and no plans to expand that. All boats are fiberglassed as if they will have surfgate installed. As for if they are enforced more now in the transom compared to previous years - our guide did not know this answer.

I must say that I CANNOT stress this enough - the people at the factory do not know a stranger. They are all super nice - everyone! Everyone you pass will shake your hand and greet you. They all want to talk to you and tell you thank you for coming by. I got to meet Jack Springer (a fellow native Texan). We shared our disappointment of the Dallas Cowboys and the Texas Rangers. Very nice guy - could have talked to him all day. The lady at the front desk is a fellow University of Alabama fan and graduate! Roll Tide! Dennis, our tour guide, has been with Malibu for like 20 years and really knows his stuff. Everyone treats you like they have known you for years - a truly great bunch of people that take pride in their work and it shows!

Me, my wife, and my 10 year son arrived at 1pm. The super nice lady at the front desk (the Bama fan) handed us a bunch of FREE malibu factory tour shirts and my son got a free remote control malibu. We were given our safety goggles, stopped by the restroom, and out onto the plant floor we went. Our tour lasted for 2 hours - like I said, these people love to talk to you. They never rush you and they will answer all of your questions. They don't mind you getting in there with them and looking around. I was afraid they would not let us get close - nothing could be further from the truth. We got up close and personal with everyone and every process - truly awesome.

The plant is much bigger than it looks from outside. It was busy too! Great to see in this economy. Dennis showed us the whole process from start to finish. I will give you the condensed version with any interesting points:

1. The boats are made from the outside in. The mold is prepped, then taped off and gelcoat (color) is applied. Then, fiberglass, then interior parts. Think of a using a cake pan and building a cake starting with the frosting.

2. After gelcoat is applied in their new hi tech facility, a thin layer of fiberglass is applied with chopper guns. They explained that this was easier to ensure that there was no air bubbles between the gelcoat and fiberglass because it is easier to get the air out of the chopped up fiberglass versus the mat.

3. Then the the fiberglass mat goes in, along with various other sound deadening and strengthening material, then more fiberglass. Interesting there here - most of the fiberglass work was done by women. Today, my wife and I noticed that probably 80% of the fiberglass work was done by women! See the pics in my album if you don't believe me.

4. The hull and top deck are made separately. They are then popped out of the molds and the excess fiberglass is ground off. The hull begins getting outfitted for running gear while top deck gets wiring harness installed. Until this point, they don't know if there are any problems in the gelcoat - bugs, dust, screwups. All will be fixed.

5. The two pieces are then joined together. MALIBU - the top fits over the bottom like a shoebox lid. The two are then chemically bonded together and screwed together every six inches with stainless steel screws. AXIS - the two parts sit on top of each other with a flange sticking out. The flanges are screwed together and the rub rail is bolted on and helps hold the two together as well. This a a key difference between Axis and Malibu construction.

6. The boat then moves down the line to get engine and interior installed. The upholstery shop is amazing! These people are really skilled at what they do. Some interesting things to note here: The vinyl is cut using CNC machine. The pieces are stitched together with gortex thread (this stuff is thick). The seams are double stitched and are backed with some other strong woven material to ensure they do not split open. The tour guide dared us to yank at the seems. A couple good yanks by him and myself and nothing moved - very impressive.

7. After interior, motor, and tower install they are moved to electronic testing. They are put on a computer and electronic test is run on all electronic systems on the boat and motor. Updates and revisions are applied as needed.

8. Now it is off to on the water testing. The boats are lifted onto a trailer and taken down to the nearby river and water test until all tests are complete - may take 3 hours or 3 weeks, but the boat has to pass all the tests. The water testing is done no matter the weather - sun, rain, snow, wind, etc... Today, it was like a hurricane - 35 mph winds rain. They tested 3 boats while we were there - all passed. Amazing!

9. Now they boats get a thorough cleaning, buffing, and inspection. Then graphics are applied. Boats are now wrapped and shipped to the dealer.

Any questions - fire away. I will answer if I can.

We forgot to take a family picture while at the factory, but here is us after we got home (I am behind the camera):

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Edited by bamabonners
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awesome pics... I would take an RC toy from my factory tour over going down to the local walmart anyday of the week. Your son will have an great story to tell about his boat..

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It's vapor. the "tone" of several colors including vapor can vary slightly based on colors that follow. Since that was black, the tone would be different than if was a white. In other words, as you saw, colors go on in a particular order and then tape is removed to expose a new area to do in another color and previous colors receive overspray. Hence the variation.

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yep, we already had one as well. Now we can race! LOL

haha yeah, they aren't as fast as I thought when I first tried mine though.... They need the 6.0 upgrade.... lol!

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It's vapor. the "tone" of several colors including vapor can vary slightly based on colors that follow. Since that was black, the tone would be different than if was a white. In other words, as you saw, colors go on in a particular order and then tape is removed to expose a new area to do in another color and previous colors receive overspray. Hence the variation.

Yes, that was vapor. I couldn't get the whole boat in that pic because I was looking through some big bay doors outside at it. Very pretty boat!

We were surrounded by good looking boats. Factory was in full production - 12 boats a day.

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Thanks for sharing, looks like a great tour... I had to laugh at the installer with the Ranger boat shirt on, probably a die hard fisherman building wakeboats! You know how much fisherman love our loud stereos and massive wakes :)....

That 22mxz in metallic silver, black and strataspheric blue is beautiful!

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Thanks for sharing, looks like a great tour... I had to laugh at the installer with the Ranger boat shirt on, probably a die hard fisherman building wakeboats! You know how much fisherman love our loud stereos and massive wakes :)....

Reminds me of the center consoleish response lxi the factory built a few years back for fun...looked pretty cool

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the monsoon 409 with the stainless steel header/cat is SEXY! have those always been SS?

What does SS stand for? I was thinking saltwater series. I am not sure if it is just me but it seems like all of the new engines I have seen say that so I started thinking maybe it stands for something else as they can't all be saltwater series?

Anybody enlighten me what SS stands for?

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What does SS stand for? I was thinking saltwater series. I am not sure if it is just me but it seems like all of the new engines I have seen say that so I started thinking maybe it stands for something else as they can't all be saltwater series?

Anybody enlighten me what SS stands for?

Saltwater Series

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What does SS stand for? I was thinking saltwater series. I am not sure if it is just me but it seems like all of the new engines I have seen say that so I started thinking maybe it stands for something else as they can't all be saltwater series?

Anybody enlighten me what SS stands for?

I meant Stainless Steel, not Salt water , sorry forgot about SS = saltwater series.

never heard of the 6.0L being referred to as a Monsoon!

I was just reading off the engine.

ScreenShot2012-11-13at100151AM.png

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never heard of the 6.0L being referred to as a Monsoon!

all engines in both the axis line and malibu line are referred to as monsoons this year. why? Have no idea and I think that's terrible. Now the distinctions will be apparent only by numerical denotations. (330v350 v 409 v 427 v 573) some by horsepower, some by displacement. Nonsense IMO.

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