A good reason to avoid the new aluminum F-150

[foghorn23]

Saw this thread posted on the F-150 forum:

 

http://www.f150forum.com/f118/crash-299581/

 

Poor guy was involved in an accident in April, with no fault of his own. Still waiting on body parts to fix his truck and nothing but excuses from F*&d. Has no truck, but gets to keep sending F*&d his monthly payment.

 

On a positive note, it looks like it held up well, but in the long run, I believe I'd stick with "high strength steel."

[SnakeEyeSS]

I can understand, but IMO, Think of The miles he is saving. The other insurance should have put him in a comparable truck rental. I wouldn't be too mad, still driving a relatively new vehicle.

[foghorn23]

Reading through the thread I think they put him in a Tahoe or Yukon. Ford's launch on the F150 must be tight if they cannot get a spare bedside to a body shop customer in over two months.

[DaveH71]

I don't see a problem with aluminum. Ford saved over 700 lbs by using aluminum in the body. Sounds pretty good to me. It's a new truck with new materials being used, they are going to be hard to find for awhile.

 

GM and Chrysler will be doing it eventually with the new EPA ratings coming up, it's only a matter of time.

 

It's nice to see forward progress, without it we would still be using carburetors and bias ply tires.

[MikeNH]

This has nothing to do with aluminum and everything to do with part availability. We have a member here with a new Colorado who couldn't get body parts after an accident too.

[truckofwinandawesome]

Saw this thread posted on the F-150 forum:

 

http://www.f150forum.com/f118/crash-299581/

 

Poor guy was involved in an accident in April, with no fault of his own. Still waiting on body parts to fix his truck and nothing but excuses from F*&d. Has no truck, but gets to keep sending F*&d his monthly payment.

 

On a positive note, it looks like it held up well, but in the long run, I believe I'd stick with "high strength steel."

 

and to add insult to injury, the poor guy has the THOUSAND DOLLAR Tail Lights! I STILL Can't wrap my head around the fact that a F*YAY*ING TAILLIGHT for a Ford Garners the Same Price as a HIGHLY Engineered SIR System Part for my 5 YEAR OLD AVEO!

[BlackZ71Silverado]

It's always difficult to find parts for a newely released, first year redesign. Manufacturer of said vehicle doesn't matter, they are all the same. There are no spare parts for brand new vehicles.

.......and GM has been using aluminum on our truck hoods for years without issue. Pretty sure I read that the C7 Vette also used aluminum, the entire chassis actually.

 

The aluminum the auto industry uses is as strong as or even stronger than steel. Not sure why people are up in arms about Ford trucks having aluminum body panels, it's actually a great idea.

 

 

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using Tapatalk

[truckofwinandawesome]

It's always difficult to find parts for a newely released, first year redesign. Manufacturer of said vehicle doesn't matter, they are all the same. There are no spare parts for brand new vehicles.

.......and GM has been using aluminum on our truck hoods for years without issue. Pretty sure I read that the C7 Vette also used aluminum, the entire chassis actually.

 

The aluminum the auto industry uses is as strong as or even stronger than steel. Not sure why people are up in arms about Ford trucks having aluminum body panels, it's actually a great idea.

 

 

Sent from my crappy iPhone 6

using Tapatalk

 

as Mike mentioned before, the issue here is not the fact that Ford Chose Aluminum to make the F150 out of, the issue is the Availability (or in this case, the LACK of Availability) of repair panels to fix the poor man's truck! his truck sat in a Ford Body Shop for TWO MONTHS, because Ford Executives thought it would be cheaper to forgo having a national inventory of spare parts ready to go at the truck's Launch!

[Bad Bowtie2]

The other problem with Ford's all aluminum truck is finding a body shop with the new repair requirments.

 

Shops are required to have a seperate, stand alone facility to even repair a panel on these new F150's!! Ford even requires special approved "tools" to fix these new aluminum body panels- Otherwise their body/metal warranty is void. STUPID!!

 

I haven't heard, but one would also have to imagine the hassel of CORES now on a Ford replacement door, fender, or bedside. After all, that is a good chunk of aluminum, worth plenty good money. Ford already has cores on plastic bumpers, lamps, etc!!

 

Dealing with cores are a huge pain in the neck for already busy body shops to keep track of...

[MikeNH]

 

as Mike mentioned before, the issue here is not the fact that Ford Chose Aluminum to make the F150 out of, the issue is the Availability (or in this case, the LACK of Availability) of repair panels to fix the poor man's truck! his truck sat in a Ford Body Shop for TWO MONTHS, because Ford Executives thought it would be cheaper to forgo having a national inventory of spare parts ready to go at the truck's Launch!

 

If you read my post you'd know GM has done the same. No one has crash parts at launch.

[truckofwinandawesome]

If you read my post you'd know GM has done the same. No one has crash parts at launch.

 

you'd think the automakers would have the foresight to stock spare parts BEFORE a vehicle launch, so that horror stories like on the F150 Forum never have a chance to happen; but knowing this day and age, all the manufacturers care about is the Bottom line, and the all mighty Profit.

[MikeNH]

It happened at the dealer I worked at. A sales manager had a then all new 2006 Sonata get rear ended by a F-350 at a good speed. Basically made the trunk go away. It somehow wasn't totaled but it was ages before the body guys got parts (this was the first Hyundai built in the U.S. too so no delays in shipping from Korea). They then sold it at a discount with a notice advising about the work and as far as I know the owner never came back for anything but oil changes and the like so they did a good repair.

[06pirate]

Wait a few years until these vehicles start getting intergranular corrosion, electrolytic corrosion, etc., and all the other fatigue/chemical related things we used to deal with on aircraft. Aluminum alloys can have great benefits, and are perfect for some applications, but not without drawbacks, and do have characteristics very different from steel in the long term. The new road surface deicer chemicals are eating the aluminum parts of my motorcycles like a rat eats cheese. (Of course, also eating up the steel parts, and on my GMC and Toyota.)

[MikeNH]

Wait a few years until these vehicles start getting intergranular corrosion, electrolytic corrosion, etc., and all the other fatigue/chemical related things we used to deal with on aircraft. Aluminum alloys can have great benefits, and are perfect for some applications, but not without drawbacks, and do have characteristics very different from steel in the long term. The new road surface deicer chemicals are eating the aluminum parts of my motorcycles like a rat eats cheese. (Of course, also eating up the steel parts, and on my GMC and Toyota.)

 

Aluminum parts have been used on vehicles for decades. And Audi has done aluminum bodies for quite some time too.

[Daly]

I'd think the fitment problems they are having with the aluminum panels would be a bigger reason not to buy one. Was at a ford dealer the other day looking at Focus' for my brother, and I noticed a lot of the panel gaps are horrendous…