Ford F-150 Aluminum Body Issues

big_g wrote:

A lighter truck will get better mileage period. Put 700 pounds in the back of one and I guarantee you will lose efficiency. It’s physics. They did it for several reasons, one is $$$. One is the corrosion above the rear wheels… they all do it, so it will be interesting to see these aluminum bodies in 10 years.

so is the general consensus that all truck bodies will be aluminum in the coming years? Will cars make the switch too? Not sure im a huge fan of the idea. I like less rust but the underbody will still be rusty and personally I want an affordable truck (kind of an oxymoron I know) not an extremely expensive rust free truck.

I honestly think they did it mostly for CAFE requirements. If they can get the F150 (their number one selling model) at even 1 mpg better, that really helps them out across their whole spectrum of vehicles. That is just my opinion.

biggill wrote:

But do be aware that engine, transmission and rear end gear can all affect your mileage equally. It also affects your towing efficiency as well.

nail on the head gill. I purposely purchased a 5.0 with 3.73 as I don’t daily drive it and wanted towing capability and didn’t want to deal with the higher cost of turbo repair. A buddy has almost the same truck with 3.31’s and gets 1.5-2mpg better in most cases.

So after speaking to an engineer where I work, it seems that aluminum will outlast steel 10:1 regarding oxidation.

Salt or salty water alone will not cause aluminum to corrode. Aluminum is greatly affected by galvanic corrosion. This happens when an electrical charge is created by dissimilar metals in an electrolytic (salty) bath. One thing to stop this is having a good, durable coating (paint).

This supports what others have said about poorly prepped aluminum as the main factor for failure prior to paint. I guess I’ll see.

Why don’t they anodize?

Who cares? that’s what insurance is for, and no it is not any higher. And no I do not drop stuff in my box of my aluminum 2015

Eelpoutguy wrote:

Why don’t they anodize?

It would look awesome, but super costly I’d imagine. Also anodizing has many issues as well, it must still be clearcoated as it is porous and the aluminum will corrode through the pores. Also if the manufacturers use different grades of aluminum (as they most likely do) to save money and use the grades that suit best for specific locations, they will never be able to match colors properly as different grades accept anodizing differently. Also forget a quick/cheap weld/bondo/paint repair, you’d need to replace the entire panel. In order to color match properly all the parts must be put in the same tank at the same time at the same temperature for the same duration in order to get anything to match, then what happens when you need to replace a panel?

Way too many issues, but I’m sure the auto manufacturers are still looking into it.

Digging this one back up…Did the 2015 & newer aluminum bodies on the F150s fix the cab corner rot issues? Found a 2014 with only 45K miles on it but both cab corners are bubbling already and it would cost $2000-$3000 to repair.

tornadochaser wrote:

Digging this one back up…Did the 2015 & newer aluminum bodies on the F150s fix the cab corner rot issues? Found a 2014 with only 45K miles on it but both cab corners are bubbling already and it would cost $2000-$3000 to repair.

2014 would be a steel body.If the manufacturers would let the EDP coating reach all parts of the chassis before painting,you would have much less rust issues.Where you see the rust perforation on GM trucks,those areas never got coated during the dip process.