Aluminum vs Steel truck bodies

[Renze]

Well I'll put it this way:

My 5 year old steel body F-150 had cab corners rusting out, I sold it before it got terrible.

My brother's 5 year old F-150 had entire rocker panels rusting out not long after he got it, finally got it repaired last year.

My other F-150 steel body is going to the shop for rocker panel replacement after Christmas.

Currently I'm driving an aluminum body F-250 that's 5 years old now and has 98k miles and it's pristine. No rust or corrosion anywhere. Frame even looks new thanks to the electrostatic treatment they do to them now.

I'll never own anything except aluminum from now on.

You might as well buy a vehicle from a manufacturer that has his paint system figured out...

 

[RayIN]

Vegas have to be among the worst cars ever produced in the U.S.

Yup, remember the year Chevy put a V8 engine in? Had to pull the engine to replace spark plugs.

 

[BravoXray]

Yup, remember the year Chevy put a V8 engine in? Had to pull the engine to replace spark plugs.

Chevy never offered a V8 in the Vega, only four bangers. There were a lot of them installed by others after they left the factory, though.

 

[WinterDeere]

Yup, remember the year Chevy put a V8 engine in? Had to pull the engine to replace spark plugs.

I think there are a lot of cars today, in which the engine mounts need to be undone to lean the engine one way or t'other far enough to change spark plugs. Of course plug change intervals today are 5x longer than they used to be.

I jammed a 7 liter Ford 429 into a little Mustang LX body in my 20's. The thing ran like a raped date, but you did have to lean the motor to get to some of the plugs. Getting the 1-7/8" headers between the shock towers was a bit of work on that one, I had 1/16" clearance on each side, and had to run solid motor mounts to keep them from smacking the body.

 

[DarkBlack]

Chevy never offered a V8 in the Vega, only four bangers. There were a lot of them installed by others after they left the factory, though.

The Vega turned into the Monza, which was , offered with V8’s. Buddy of mine had one with a 262 small block.

 

[LightningCamaroGuy]

Aluminum, and composite body panels are nothing new. My 03 F150 has an aluminum hood. Several panels on my old SN95 Mustangs and GEN4 Fbody Camaro/Firebirds were either aluminum or composite. It's not a new thing. My wifes 17 F150, and my 18 F150's are holding up great. Aluminum can corrode, but comparing unprotected aluminum to unprotected steel in the outside elements, the aluminum with resist corrosion way better, unless you're talking about some quality stainless. I do prefer the bed being composite like how you can option on the 19+ Sierra's, and like comes standard on the 22+ Tundras. The composite bed is a good idea IMHO.

The big draw with the F-Series using aluminum was weight savings. It saved over 700 lbs on the crewcabs compared to an all steel body, and it reduced the F-Series weight a several hundred lbs, while allowing Ford to add weight to the chassis and other area's to beef them up without having to increase the trucks weight over the steel body trucks, or compromise on the GVWR. The new GEN13/GEN14 F150's only weigh 300-350 lbs less than the GEN12 trucks because Ford took some of the weight saving in the body, and gave some weight back to other area's in the trucks.