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Automotive News & Views What's with all the plastic body panels?
23 messages, Last post on May 22, 2006 at 9:06 AM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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plastic's value is dubious at best. A buddy of mine has an '04 Crown Vic that has taken a few gentle whacks to the front bumper fascia, and is now peeling and flaking off, showing the black plastic underneath. A few years back, someone bumped my Intrepid in the parking lot, pushing the rear fascia in until it contacted with the metal beam that passes for a bumper underneath. The corner of that beam pierced the plastic, and now it looks like someone put a gun to the inside of the fascia and pulled the trigger! I wonder how much weight is saved from going to plastic, anyway? I've had fenders off of cars before, such as a '68 Dart and a '69 Bonneville, and honestly, they're not THAT heavy! Especially when you figure that those old car fenders are considerably larger than the ones they have today. |
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Replying to: bottgers (Apr 04, 2006 4:16 am) "If I'm paying $30+ grand for a new vehicle, I sure as he11 don't want it to have plastic body panels." Well, let's start with the Element. The thing that I like about it is that with so much of it being plastic, if someone opens a door into one of the panels in a parking lot, it isn't going to scratch/dent. The Element is a quirky looking vehicle to begin with, so the plastic works well on it (IMO), plus it's only an $18-$21K vehicle. I think the plastic panels look better on it, than the new painted panels that are optional on it for '06. The Avalanche on the other hand is the opposite. I think the ones that do not have all of the plastic cladding (I guess that is optional), look better than the ones with the cladding. On a "tough truck", I don't think plastic panels do it. |
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Replying to: bottgers (Apr 04, 2006 4:16 am) I will say this, depending on the car and the quality of the panels it would work on some cars and not on others. |
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for the most part are actually plastic CLADDING over metal panels in the models mentioned so far, right? I remember my '88 CRX, the entire front of the car was plastic, the fenders, the front fascia, everything. It was a major pain as the car aged, because they all cracked and had to be replaced. When the whole front of the car is assembled from plastic and you have to remove pieces when the car gets older, to replace headlamps and whatnot, every piece affects every other until they are all damaged. It sucks. But I don't think there is any car today built from as much plastic as my CRX was. That was done for light weight, I am sure, which is an appropriate use of plastic on a car provided it isn't overused. Plastic bumper covers are more easily replaced after minor damage than the old chrome and metal bumpers they have replaced. In fact, oftentimes when a plastic bumper cover is dented it can be pounded back out by hand - try THAT with a metal bumper! 
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where this myth came from that plastic won't dent? Now if it's plastic that has the color molded all the way through, then if it gets dented or chipped, you won't notice it as quickly. But plastic WILL dent. And if it dents enough to form a crease, then that crease will still be there when you try to pop it back out, just like with metal. It will also chip, crack, warp, shatter, turn brittle and become dust in the wind, etc. Now one possible advantage to plastic is that if, say, you have a plastic fender and take a hit to the front, then that fender may just shatter, instead of shifting back into the door and causing damage there, too. Years ago, when I had my 1980 Malibu, I rear-ended someone and it pushed the fender back just enough that when I opened the door it would scrape. My Dart had also gotten whacked up front at some point, making it so the door would scrape when I opened it. And when my uncle hit a deer with his '03 Corolla a few years back, the fender got shoved back so far that the door couldn't be opened.
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Replying to: andre1969 (Apr 04, 2006 6:28 am) Its not that it won't dent, it won't dent as easily. Having a guy park next to you and hit your car with his door usually will not result in a dent or chip with plastic panels, having that same guy hit your parked car doing 30 MPH will cause damage.
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Replying to: snakeweasel (Apr 04, 2006 7:01 am) As for "cladding", this is a cheap and clever way of making a vehicle look like something it isn't. |
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when GM used plastic front fenders on its C- and H-bodies, and I think Chrysler used plastic front fenders on its first few years of LH car before switching over to metal. I'd be curious to see how much weight they really saved with the plastic parts.
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Replying to: andre1969 (Apr 04, 2006 9:46 am) Unfortunately, they are putting all the weight back with gadgetry, so go figure..... |
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| where weight is getting put back in is in the structure under the sheetmetal. For instance, when I took the fender off my '68 Dart, and especially my '69 Bonneville, there really wasn't much bracing beneath it. I guess the reason the Dart had a bit more substance underneath was because it's unitized. But anyway, that sheetmetal, to an extent, had to protect you in an accident. Well, try to anyway. Nowadays though, with the stronger internal structures in cars, bracing and such, stuff like fenders is just cosmetic. | |
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Automotive News & Views What's with all the plastic body panels?
