I turned into a snow pile when leaving my driveway today (turned too sharp). Crunch crunch crunch…Put a nice dent in the lower rocker panel. I swear the metal these days is thinner than ever before. Its like the expectation that any impact will cause damage. 2024 Silverado Crew Cab
Sheetmetal so thin these days
- Thread starter MrkofXcellence
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AZjeff
$50 Site Donor 2023
Searching (not AI) indicates auto sheet metal got thinner starting in the '80s so not really something new. One of the ways 1500 Silverados have 2000+ lb payload capacity.
They've been too thin since at least the '90s-could shut a door firmly on a late '90s Express/Savana & the door skin would pop in & out!
Gone are the days of sitting on your hood with your back leaning against the windshield.
AZjeff
$50 Site Donor 2023
Further searching shows 22 ga galvanized sheet metal is .75lb/sq ft lighter than 18 ga. A truck can have 400 sq ft of sheet metal.
Very true.
Recently I pressed my hand on my aluminum hood and briefly thought it might be plastic.
Quite a bit of flexing.
Yeah, the sheetmetal on the Toyota Land Cruiser I had was a joke. Pretty sad.
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- Jun 2, 2002
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I like to weld for a hobby so I often go to the local muffler and body shop to get scrap metal. Exhaust tubing is great fun to play with but auto body sheet metal has become so thin that it's nearly impossible to do anything with if using a MIG welder. My most recent junk fender was from a 2019 Toyota Corolla. It measured 0.021" thick. I also grabbed a Mazda hood which was thicker but not by much. I can weld the hood and have used hood sheet metal to repair mower deck erosion wear but the Toyota fender is going back to the recycle bin. It's good for nothing other than holding the paint in place.
For comparison, I cut all my spin-on oil filters apart and have used oil filter housing metal for scrap projects. Some oil filters have thicker sheet metal than car bodies.... and some don't.
For comparison, I cut all my spin-on oil filters apart and have used oil filter housing metal for scrap projects. Some oil filters have thicker sheet metal than car bodies.... and some don't.
Pretty much when CAFE mandated wringing out every additional 0.001 MPG.
Need some rock sliders!
Every component is engineered to save as much weight as possible. Every gram counts...more weight = less performance, less fuel economy.
Snow piles can also be hard as a rock. When I was in HS a friend totaled a Tercel driving into a snow pile.
Snow piles can also be hard as a rock. When I was in HS a friend totaled a Tercel driving into a snow pile.
Yeah, I know this snow is pretty dang hard. Mid-atlantic got snow that then got sleeted on and basically melts a little on top everyday then becomes rock hard every night. I basically came here to whine. It just sucks to be out $$ for a rocker panel bent due to snow. It's just definitely a first for me to have snow damage to sheet metal.
"It's good for nothing other than holding the paint in place" pretty much sums it up in my estimation. I mean, you have to be ultra-careful just loading firewood.
The Silverdao body panels are a mix. The hood is aluminum, the tail gate is as well.
Agreed. I repaired this first gen Taco but even with .023" on the lowest setting it was quite an ordeal. In some spots I was able to fit a brass backer block and that helped...some.
Post in thread 'What are you working on today?' https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/what-are-you-working-on-today.331303/post-7422795
My Hobart 210MVP was on 220V. I'm honestly not sure if going to 110V reduces the bottom output because on 110V you don't even use the first 3 or 4 lower power settings. I'm sure the actual V output is spec'd somewhere.
On several passenger cars like Foresters and Focii I've just used my hands to pull front clip/header panel/rad support/fender mounts back into place. Body work by hand......
