First Look Inside New Volkswagen Paint Shop

This first steel beam is a small part of the 3.5 million pounds of steel here when the paint shop is finished.

General Contractor EISENMANN's Executive Director Ralf Voellinger feels confindent the project is proceeding as planned.  "We have to be up and running pretty much by mid next year to try to do quality testing for the cars," he said Monday.

Everything is on track for this weather-tight building to be completely fitted by that time. And when it's done, this paint shop will be the first of its kind.  "I think we can say this is one of the greenest paint shops that's going to be installed world-wide," Voellinger said.  "We have the newest technologies from all the plants world-wide we are having here now, in one plant together," adds Grensemann.

While the current plan is still only for the New Midsize Sedan to roll off the assembly line, this new approach to the paint shop could lead to expansion in the future.  "It's a new shuttle system that will be installed first time world-wide. It's very flexible so all kinds of different cars can be painted here," explained Voellinger.

The first Chattanooga-built Volkswagen is still expected to roll off the assembly line in January of 2011.