Pay Me Now or Pay Me Later

Lets see what the insurance premiums are.

I see this was commented on in the 'comments' section of the link.

I can see one issue that aluminum is much more unforgiving for welding. As well the skill needed to perform weld operation.

I know as a home hobbyist with a TIG machine, you need lot's of practice to butt weld two pieces together. Easier if they are 1/8 inch or more. Much harder for stuff less then 0.040 inch. learn-able skill.

Then is FORD going to put some sort of plating that reduces corrosion, and makes welding an impossible task without grinding. Then how does a body shop re-plate to provide original equivalence of corrosion protection.

I think there will be a lot more panel replacement than repair.

I like the tech but wonder about true cost of ownership? It should be interesting

You guys are correct: there is very little dent repair to be done, it's replace panels.

No different than some older trucks. My PU has plastic bed side panels. They are $1,000.00 each. Nobody will repair them. They replace.

Now that you say that, I recall a friend of mine had a boo-boo on his mid to late '80s pickup (Ford?) box, and it was plastic/fiberglass. As you say, nobody would fix it, it was a replace the panel repair, and was in the neighborhood of a thousand bucks. I had a '86 Dodge 1/2 ton 4WD, and all body parts were steel.

There does seem to a sort of false economy at work here.

Spot check: Unlead regular self serve gasoline in Cheyenne WY: $3.50/gallon.

I'm in Hendricks now. Looks like it could snow. $3.37 here. I'm driving a Ford hybrid. It claims to be getting 38.2 mpg no matter the speed I'm driving.

Just drove through Harrisonburg, VA and a gasoline chain called Pilot had 87 unleaded for $3.03.

Three bucks a gallon. I can't figure out the petroleum business.

Three and a half bucks here in Cheyenne, home of the Cheyenne HollyFrontier Refinery. I can see the flare stack from my house. According to Lyn, you can see it from outer space!

"I can't figure out the petroleum business." Yes I can.

Gas was $3.47 when I came to work at 7:00 this morning, back up to $3.50 at lunchtime.

I put up 20 quarts of Palisade peaches yesterday. If your itinerary allows, stop by on your way home and pick up a few of them.

Too late, I'm already back in Phoenix preparing for the next flood.

This one may be worse than last week's. Oh, joy.

NOBODY has sandbags. I just had the hardware store call to tell us not to send anybody to them for sand bags.

We had 100's of homes flooded when they pumped water out of the flooded freeways that are below grade into a neighborhood. They could have pumped it into a nearby canal, but, go figure, they didn't. Of course the homes were not in a flood zone and none had flood insurance.

People are walking away from them because they have no money to fix them and they are upside down on their mortgages, so they can't borrow money.

Your tax dollars at work.

That sucks. Maybe they didn't want a lot of silt going into the canal so they dumped it "in the street"? Sounds like people might be able to take legal action for the localized flooding due to pumping out freeways.

Ooooooh...

I'm acquainted with one of the engineers from City of Fargo. He knows quite a bit about municipal flooding. I have a feeling it's too late, but do you want his contact info?

If nothing else he can steer you toward a sandbag supplier. We are, of course, talking about several millions of them. I think he told me that he guessed how many he might need, doubled that estimate twice and ordered, and almost had half enough.

No, thanks. That's outside my area of responsibility and the city guys would be offended if I butted in, even to help.

The City of Mesa and Arizona Department of Transportation are supposed to have it all worked out so it doesn't happen.

I see a class action lawsuit coming, but that'll take 10 years to resolve.

I testified once in one. The trial took place over 20 years after the damage. Most of the injured parties had died of old age.

"I testified once in one. The trial took place over 20 years after the damage. Most of the injured parties had died of old age." So, the Grand Plan is working. Wait 'em out, starve 'em out... Delay, delay, stall, delay, continue ad nauseam.

Jaguar, Land Rover and other British cars used aluminium panels over 50 yrs ago. Has that experience taught anybody what the pitfalls are and how to overcome them? Lots of Brits on here who can answer this.

Jim

Regular here is as low as $3.13.

Are they going to polish these like the wildly popular Delorean?

Just a guess, but I think the first thing that people should brace themselves for, is paint failure...right out of the factory.

Kinda like the "save the planet" water based primer that was incompatable with the topcoat. Seemed that white Ford trucks were hit the hardest. The paint was blowing off in the wind

The real neat part is that the extra .0005% increase in mileage will help save our planet. Thank God for Obama and his boldness to increase CAFE standards into the realm of impossibility.

There's nothing like nice "green" aluminum.

Proper paint, properly applied will not peel or flake. Jet aircraft, flying at 600 mph don't seem to have a paint problem.

The EPA would never let the auto industry use the kinds of paint they use in the aviation industry. DuPont Imron which is a catalyzed polyurethane was originally formulated for aircraft. Back in the 80's I painted my motorcycle with the Imron with deep clear coat. That paint was hard to shoot but tough as nails once it cured. It would orange peel on you in an instant.

http://www.axaltacs.com/content/dam/NA/US/Public/Aviation/Documents/EnglishMSDS/US_en_GNRC_1.2_RFN.pdf

http://www.axaltacs.com/content/dam/NA/HQ/Public/aviation/documents/tds/AVI-System-Recommendations-Jets-Eng.pdf

The first thing that will happen is the owner of an aluminum body Ford is going to get a crappy body job after his dent. Poor straightening, and more bondo. Where is the smaller body shop going to learn? On the next customer's truck. I have seen way too many poor body shops. The dealers will send their body shop people to the factory schools. The techniques will trickle down to those that want to learn. JMHO.