New Aluminum F-150 SAE Presentation Nov. 18th

[AJB]

I am attending an SAE presentation at Ford Conference and Events Center in Dearborn this Tuesday November 18th evening.

Presentation will on the New Ford F-150 Aluminum Vehicle. Several Ford VP's and Chief engineers to present.
I ordered a Blue 2015 F-150 Super Crew Cab for this year...

Is anyone else from the FGT Forum attending.?
I will look for you if so...

andy (ajb)

 

[Cobrar]

"I'll be there...." (Jackson 5). Sorry, sitting at Motown intermission. ;-))

Should be a great presentation, the vehicle structure is quite innovative construction. And they really paid attention to serviceability. Kudos to Pete Reyes and Mike Berardi, a great Team effort! Look for some great CAFE and towing numbers.

 

[fjpikul]

I already drove a 3.5 and 2.7 ecoboost. The pickup on the 2.7 was just OK, but the gas mileage should be great.

 

[AJB]

ok Rex - I will look for you. I have "open seating"

Frank... you know who to contact when you need X-plan paperwork to BUY your new F-150 !!

andy (ajb)

 

[PeteK]

I am attending an SAE presentation at Ford Conference and Events Center in Dearborn this Tuesday November 18th evening.

Presentation will on the New Ford F-150 Aluminum Vehicle. Several Ford VP's and Chief engineers to present.
I ordered a Blue 2015 F-150 Super Crew Cab for this year...

Is anyone else from the FGT Forum attending.?
I will look for you if so...

andy (ajb)

Andy: I won't be there, but if I were, the burning question I'd want to ask is how they are doing corrosion protection on the aluminum. Corrosion protection on steel is easy--galvanize it (although a lot of manufacturers still don't because it adds to cost). But, there is no equivalent galvanic protection process for aluminum. I've had the experience of corrosion getting under the paint with an aluminum body part (my 2006 Mustang hood) and proceeding to run under the paint quickly. Salt, of course, greatly accelerates aluminum corrosion. Those of us with experience in Navy flying know that a large portion of the maintenance effort of aircraft on a ship is washing and protecting aluminum from the effects of salt-enhanced corrosion.

So, PLEASE dig into how they are doing corrosion protection, and how they know it will hold up over the long term (and if you can pry anything out of them about how they did it with our FGT's so much the better). Otherwise, I'm not inclined to be an early adopter of the F-150.

 

[Indy GT]

Very good point Pete.:thumbsup

I too am aware of this type of corrosion on aircraft structures as well.
Believe what you describe is filiform corrosion.
http://www.corrosionpedia.com/definition/502/filiform-corrosion

Andy, this might be a good question for the Q&A session if they do take questions.

 

[AJB]

Ok Pete and Bill . I will gather information on the Corrosion protection and answer your questions after the review.
andy (ajb)

 

[Ed Sims]

I know one of the reasons my dealer decided to retire was he didn't like the cost of the equipment, tools, training to be done at his shop to work on aluminum trucks. Progress is inevitable. I am getting an aluminum 2016 Raptor.

Ed

 

[PeteK]

I know one of the reasons my dealer decided to retire was he didn't like the cost of the equipment, tools, training to be done at his shop to work on aluminum trucks. Progress is inevitable. I am getting an aluminum 2016 Raptor.

Ed

Steel will still comprise a large portion of cars long after we're gone.

 

[AJB]

It was a great presentation. Sold-out at over 600 people. Met Rex and we had some good discussion. They did not have a formal Q&A but afterwards I had the opportunity to meet with several of the presenters. It was great to see Engineers who I worked with at Ford Motor Company and in some cases worked for me earlier in their careers, become Chief Engineers, Vehicle Line Directors and Vice Presidents.

Paint / corrosion... in general , the process is unchanged from the aluminum body panels Ford has been painting since the early 1990's .. clean, phosphate wash, e-coat , primer , paint , clear coat.
particular attention will continue to be paid to the hem flanging and sealing to prevent moisture ingress.
That is all I can add. In general, the issue of 'aluminum automobile painting' seems to have been solved by the industry since everyone is making some
percentage of body panels from aluminum...nothing new here. I still however don't fully understand the advantage of a 'flat plane crank ' V-8 that goes to the new Shelby Mustang

The 'bare aluminum' and fully painted F-150's on display look great. I hope to have mine in a few weeks.

ajb - andy

 

[GT35065]

I know Audi has been making their A8 almost entirely out of aluminum since the late 90's. They are a very popular car in MN because of the quattro all wheel drive system. I am not aware of any problems Audi has had with corrosion up there and they use a lot of salt on the roads. I own a 1999 A8, and the paint looks great still. Another family member has a 2005 A8, paint looks great on it too.

 

[twobjshelbys]

Ford had some trouble with the aluminum hoods on Mustangs a while ago. Said it was a handling problem from people not wearing gloves or something like that. They replaced (or repainted, not sure).

 

[Xcentric]

So, PLEASE dig into how they are doing corrosion protection, and how they know it will hold up over the long term (and if you can pry anything out of them about how they did it with our FGT's so much the better). Otherwise, I'm not inclined to be an early adopter of the F-150.

GT bodies and frames were electrocoated.