During the 1960's, Heinz
Prechter (1943-2001) attended school in Germany with the son of Dr. Golde, who
was the head of the family that owned Golde Schiebedächer (German for
"sunshine roof" or "sunroofs"), a company located in
Germany. Golde built and installed a high quality, cable driven sliding steel
sunroof panel that could be cranked open and closed, or could be operated by an
electric motor.
In 1963, Prechter moved to
San Francisco, California to attend San Francisco State University. While a
student, he worked part-time in an automotive shop. This shop did quite a bit
of work for local car dealers to install Golde sunroof kits imported from
Germany for customers who wanted the benefits of a convertible without any of
the disadvantages. While there, Prechter learned how to install the sunroof
kits and became convinced it was a feature with great commercial potential.
Prechter met George Barris
of Barris Kustom City in North Hollywood, California, who was very busy
creating custom show cars and street rods, as well as doing special projects
for Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler. Before long, Prechter found himself in
Barris' shop in Los Angeles installing sunroofs in some of the customs and show
cars, and the idea was beginning to catch on with the public. Barris introduced
Prechter to Ford Motor Company executives, and subsequently Prechter was in talks with Ford about
installing Golde sunroofs in new Ford cars as a factory option. In 1965,
American Sunroof Corporation was established in Detroit. Prechter started with
a $764 in cash, and he purchased used sewing machine, an old door converted
into a work bench, and other items—many of them scrap parts.
Ford had previously
experimented with offering a sunroof back in 1960 as a factory option for its popular
Thunderbird, and it was obtained from Golde. Once testing by Ford had been
completed and the decision had been made to offer the option, Ford promoted it
heavily. An advertising campaign that emphasized the availability of the 1960
Thunderbird Hard Top with Sunroof followed, and the open roof feature was
displayed prominently in brochures, magazine advertisements, and a television
commercial was even filmed showing a Diamond Blue Thunderbird with the sunroof.
Unfortunately, the sunroof option was not a popular one with the Thunderbird's
customers, and Ford only sold about half as many as projected. Cars with the
sunroof had to be moved to a separate section of the assembly plant for
installation of the special sunroof parts as well as unique trim, such as
headliners, which increased production costs and slowed the assembly line.
Subsequently the option was dropped for 1961, but this reversal proved to be
only a minor setback
Prechter kept in touch
with Ford and continued to install the Golde sunroof kits in cars at the
request of dealers and individuals who desired the feature. In 1966, plans were
put in place to grow the business by focusing on working with the automobile
manufacturers in Michigan to install sunroofs in new vehicles as original equipment.
By 1967, Ford was again interested in offering a sunroof on some of its
production cars. Convertible sales were beginning to slow since more and more
people decided they preferred the look of vinyl tops and the comfort of factory
air conditioning and stereo sound systems in their cars, and a sunroof was
perfect for those requirements since when shut the vehicle was basically a
normal closed car. For 1967, a power-operated Golde sunroof was offered as a
factory option on Mercury's new 1967 Cougar, which was incredibly popular and
became Motor Trend Magazine's Car of the Year for 1967. Enough 1967 Cougars
were sold that the option was continued for 1968 on the Cougar, with plans to
expand it to the Thunderbird line as well for 1969.
Advertising for the 1969
Thunderbird was virtually dedicated to the sunroof option, as every print ad
depicted the car with an open sunroof with an attractive young lady standing up
through the opening. For 1970, factory power sunroofs were being installed in
not only Cougars and Thunderbirds, but also in Cadillac Fleetwood Eldorados,
Fleetwood Broughams, Sedan deVilles, and Coupe deVilles. The Continental Mark
III also began offering it in late 1969 (it was a late year offering on the
1969 Cadillac Eldorado as well). In 1971, with the power sunroof option being
offered on Ford LTDs, Buick Rivieras, and other cars. It would only become more
popular in the coming years.
Working with the Lincoln
Division, Prechter designed a power glass panel Moonroof for installation in
the 1973 Continental Mark IV. The silver-tinted, tempered glass panel featured
a sunshade that could be opened to allow light in with the panel closed.? At
this point, American Sunroof Corporation was doing quite well, and demand for
their services was steadily increasing in the North American market, as well as
in other parts of the world. It was later acquired by North American Rockwell,
and is still an OEM supplier to many automotive manufacturers in the United
States and Europe.
Today, ASC is a supplier of highly engineered and
designed roof systems, body systems and other specialty-vehicle systems for the
world’s automakers. Headquartered in Michigan, the company employs
approximately 1,000 employees at facilities throughout the U.S.
In addition to ASC, Prechter founded Heritage Network
Inc., a group of Michigan companies involved in the transportation, hospitality
and communications industries. His Heritage Network group included a weekly
newspaper chain (one of the largest in the state of Michigan) real estate development
company and a beef cattle business. In early 1997, he created Prechter
Holdings, which owned the ASC and Heritage businesses. Heinz Prechter was
recognized for his entrepreneurial accomplishments, broad community involvement
and political achievements.He was named Entrepreneur of the Year by the Harvard
Business Club and received the Automotive Hall of Fame's Automotive Industry
Leader of the Year award. Prechter committed on July 6, 2001, after battling
intermittent bipolar disorder for most of his adult life.
No comments:
Post a Comment