Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeNoun
I would be curious as to how durable an aluminum body will. I realize the thickness of the F-150 aluminum body is not going to be as thin as it was on the old 1963-era Pontiacs, but I'd hate to be the guy that just bought an F-150, and a few teenagers are walking by and one says, "That's the truck that's made out of aluminum.", and the other kid gives it a mild punch and puts a huge dent in the fender.
Being a workhorse truck, it's going to dent easily, and frequently. Ford better make sure they aren't shooting themselves in their collective feet here. They may think it's a huge plus to have aluminum bodies, but 5 years down the road, when nearly every F-150 workhorse truck is pock marked with dents, it won't be very good advertising.
Aluminum bodies seem to be ok on exotic or rarely driven cars that are babied, but I'm not so sure it's ok on a work truck.
At least Ford is doing something with the $5.9 billion dollar ATVM government loan they received back in 2009, eh?
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Mike, if you read Ford's press release, you'll see that the company has done extensive testing for dent resistance (exterior panels and the inner surfaces of the bed), and the aluminum is actually better than the steel. A significant contributor is that it's much thicker than the steel panels. Those old aluminum Pontiacs were made of a much thinner aluminum, because Pontiac didn't make dedicated tools to form the aluminum - they just put the aluminum blanks in the steel dies.