Have you ever wondered where limousines come from? Many people think that limos are specialty vehicles that come completely built from major vehicle manufacturers, such as Cadillac, Lincoln, or Mercedes Benz just to name a few. While this is not entirely untrue, it is in fact only the base, or "donor chassis", of the vehicle that comes from a major vehicle manufacturer. Some of the major car manufacturers sell special uncompleted vehicles, on which they have included certain heavy duty components such as brakes, transmissions, etc., to special companies called "Coach Builders" who then take these incomplete vehicles and turn them into limousines, limo busses, ambulances, and hearses. Cadillac provides limousine builders with "Cadillac Master Coachbuilder" or CMC vehciles. Lincoln provides limo builders with "QVM" or Qualified Vehcile Modifier chassis.
In the case of limousines, the donor chassis is placed on a special custom frame, or "jig", then cut by the particular limousine coach builders special method.
Some coach builders use a laser that rotates around the jig to cut the car in half! Others believe in the good old fashioned way and use a cutting torch and manually cut the soon to be limo in half.
Once the donor chassis has been cut in approximately half, it is then up to the jig to separate the two halves of the limo while still keeping them aligned.
Once stretched (as in "stretch limousine") the limousine builder then welds steel rails to the bottom and sides of the two halves of the limo joining them together again.
Once the two halves have been joined the coach builder then extends the exhaust system, the differential to the transmission, brake lines, and various other electrical wiring and air conditioning components.
After the skeleton of the limousine has been completed it comes time to wrap the limo in special floor, roof and body panels. Cheap limousine manufacturers will use fiber glass for the limousines body panels, resulting in a lighter limo, but one that is probably not as safe in accident. Higher end limousine builders will use some type of aluminum or other metal for the body panels, or a combination of metal panels for the floor and sides and fiber glass for the roof. At LimoLimo.ca we only use limousines of the highest quality with our Vancouver limo service.
Once the limousine has its body panels in place it's off to the paint booth to get a coat of high quality paint; usually black or white, the most common limousine colors. Cheap limo manufacturers will paint only the stretched section of the limousine, while higher end limo manufacturers will paint the whole limousine, resulting in a finer color match and more even paint job on the limo. Normally the underside of the limousine is sprayed with a rubberized type of undercoating to help defend against corrosion and break down of the limos structure. At LimoLimo.ca our limousines are inspected every 6 months by a special government licensed limousine inspection facility and technician to ensure the structural integrity of our limos in order to help provide the safest limousine service possible to our clients.
After the vehicle is painted it either waits until it is purchased, usually by a limousine company, before the interior is completed (this way the limo company can choose the options it gets inside), or, it heads off to the interior detailing department to get fitted with the latest in lighting, bars, LCD TV screens, and sound systems.
As the limousine is completed it goes back to the original vehicle manufacturer to get an inspection to make sure the limo is structurally safe and sound, and to ensure that critical component such as the brakes, are in perfect working order and not malfunctioning due to the stretching of the limousine.
Once the limousine passes the inspection it goes to a limousine dealer, and possibly to LimoLimo.ca to provide luxury limo service in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland area!
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