AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Ask Jennifer Trathen about why she inspects the freshly painted body panel of a SRT Viper supercar so meticulously, and she doesn't miss a beat.
"I'm OCD," she says.
While it appears unlikely that she actually has obsessive-compulsive disorder, Trathen makes her point. She is among the last to scrutinize every square inch of glistening paint on the carbon-fiber hoods, roofs, fender or other body panels destined to become one of the the hottest cars on the planet.
That's how it goes here at an auto-industry supplier called Prefix Coatings, operating from a former Kmart store about five miles from headquarters of Chrysler Group, maker of the SRT Viper.
Unlike the robotic painting that characterizes mass-market auto production nowadays, Prefix workers painstakingly mask, sand, paint and polish each part by hand.While it might take about eight hours for the painting process at a regular auto plant, it takes up to 120 hours to paint a Viper at Prefix.
Racing stripes alone, if the buyer orders them, require multiple coats and 18 hours. But the result is a perfectly smooth finish, unlike the surface variation of the typical vinyl stripes pasted on after a car is painted.
The plant paints the panels for only six Vipers a day, showing how a company can succeed with small-volume, high-end products. Chrysler sold just 591 of the about $100,000-to-start Vipers last year, according to Autodata.