That new Ford F150 is going to cost you

It will still "rust".

I know the aluminum cab on my Freightliners did. It is not the same rust as people are used to seeing on steel, but a white powdery corrosion like on a battery.

The paint still peels, and they still look ugly. Once the paint starts to peel it is hard to fix. I couldn't get paint to stick on those spots without extensive surface prep.

Thank the salt on the winter roads........

I am drawn to the no rust ever body ,very appealing.
throw in a 'new truck smelly thingy ' every year or so ................

I think the resale will be driven by what kind of reputation the truck develops.

Reliability, and overall owner satisfaction will mean more than the cost of insurance.

Anyone want to speculate on residual value after a 3 year lease ? Its going to cost more to buy and insure will the resale be higher then a steel F150?

My 2001 f150 had an aluminum hood that never showed any weird paint issues, and it still looks like new to this day. Too much over anylizing in this thread.

MARK VANDERBENT wrote:
Interesting about the al. hood on the mustang. Like the egoboost, like to see one after 6 years and 150,000 plus miles. New ideas are great as long as it does not come back and bite you after the warranty is up and by then they are on to another great idea !!

Lots of cars have aluminium hoods. My previous 04 G35 had one and when I traded it at 6 years and 92k it had no paint issues other than the front of the whole car looked sandblasted. But that happens to all cars in 92k.

Me Again wrote:
I did not take time to read this whole thread, BUT! Airplanes are moving away from aluminum to composites! Hello Mr. Past Boeing dude! Chris

Yes, know this, but...their cost structure is much different than our
light duty trucks

Also worried more and more, as these highly technology based products
are more and more managed by bean counters without any or little or
no care for the technology requirements/metrics/etc of their decisions

It would be fun to go back to my college strength of materials class
and it's labs. These exotic materials and processes were not invented
yet.

"....I have seen class 8 truck frames in al and
they are no bigger then steel, just much thicker...."

Now I get it...I live in a different world...as 'thicker' is 'bigger'
in my world and it's laws' of physics...

Proverbs 26, 4-5 and blocked

hone eagle wrote:

BenK wrote:
Buddies bought carbon fiber fishing rods vs the blanks I use to make my stuff...theirs about five times more than any fiberglass rod. I've made bamboo fly rods, so under stand about rod materials

Same buddies went to carbon windsurfer masts...another about five times my fiberglass mast....am still faster and on a +20 year old board to boot (sinker, inter island racer)

Truck frames CAN BE MADE OF ALU....but they would HUGE vs same rated steel

Reference carbon fiber bicycles as PLASTIC for the affect...OBTW that is also a correct
Monicker. As carbon fiber is just carbon fiber strands, spun into thread, then woven into cloth, then laminated into sheets using polyester epoxy, then baked under pressure
The same as fiberglass

Like while in buddies toy and bicycle shop...customer was there yelling at his service staff
He took a very expensive carbon fiber bike on the train commute to SF and it cracked
Told him not the shops fault, but his for taking a plastic bike on a commuter train
Where others lay their steel n ALU bikes on each other...that is where coined plastic
In reference to CB

Material science....like lead is better than iron for bullet slugs. Better yet would be depleted uranium, but there are down sides...like radiation

All materials can be used just about anywhere...it is in the plus/minus decision making

Don't want to nit pik but I have never seen a high modulus fibre in a polyester matrix ,its always a epoxy and always baked in a autoclave (I have seen 80' boat in a oven)

I have seen class 8 truck frames in al and they are no bigger then steel,just much thicker.

I did not take time to read this whole thread, BUT! Airplanes are moving away from aluminum to composites! Hello Mr. Past Boeing dude! Chris

MARK VANDERBENT wrote:
What I don't understand is they are so worried about going to aluminum to save weight, just make the darn truck a touch smaller !! do we really need the size of trucks we have!! I think we need to down size trucks and the insane power they put out. Dial back on size and power a bit and get the most mpg from that. I don't need a pickup that can get to 60 in 6 seconds. If that's all we worry about, then we wont get good mpg flooring it all the time.

Lead by example.

I hear there are a couple VW Diesel PU's still out there.