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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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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. | |
| ....if weight savings is the main concern, that could be achieved by using light weight alloys. They are even lighter than plastic, stronger, and considering the high prices of today's vehicles, there's no reason they couldn't use more of it. | |
| what all is packed into cars today, I don't think they're really all that expensive. Sure, more money than I might want to pay, but for the most part your money gets you more car these days than in the past. All that stuff like airbags, emissions controls, computers controlling everything, power stuff, OHC engines, trannies with 6-7 forward gears, etc, comes with a price. And to keep the overall price of the car reasonable, they have to cut costs somewhere. So you're going to get cheaper, more plasticky interiors, more plastic in the body, etc. Using more alloys is probably still too cost prohibitive, at least in mainstream vehicles. | |
| ....and I'm told by the sales person that an absolute bottom of the line basic commuter car like the Honda Fit or Toyota Yaris is going to sell for $13K-$14K, vehicles are way too expensive. You can't buy anything worth having that's large enough to haul a family these days for less than $20K, and SUV's, full sized pickups, sports cars, and luxo vehicles sell for $35K on up. For those kinds of prices I see absolutely no reason why alloys couldn't be used in place of cheap plastic. | |
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