General Motors will invest $877 million to upgrade its Flint Assembly Plant to support production of its Chevrolet and GMC full-size pickups, GM has announced.

The investment will allow GM to add a new body shop and transform the plant, which is the oldest assembly plant in North America. The new body shop will be located closer to the Flint Metal Center, which supplies sheet metal and other parts used in pickup production.

The funds will also cover retooling and installation of new equipment, as well as the improvement of the general assembly area.

Opened in 1947 as part of a post-World War II building boom by GM’s Flint Assembly has produced more than 13 million vehicles.

Since 2011, GM has announced investments of $1.8 billion for Flint Assembly Plant. This includes $600 million for plant upgrades and a new standalone paint shop that's under construction and slated to open in 2016.

This completes the $5.4 billion in investments GM and the UAW announced at the end of April. Since June 2009, GM has announced U.S. facility investments of approximately $17.8 billion, including $12.4 billion since the end of the 2011 UAW-GM National Agreement. These investments have created approximately 6,250 new jobs.

Work on the 883,000-square-foot body shop is expected to begin in the first half of 2016 with completion slated for 2018. In the new body shop, trucks will be painted using a wet-coat process that results in a durable finish.