I've been in the body shop bussines for almost 10 years and I believe your body shop owner is not far off from the cost of upgrading his shop. We do a few aluminum parts right now, hoods and deck lids are already aluminum on lots of vehicles, and they do get replaced most of the time. But, we are working for insurance companies and they don't always see things like we do so we do have to repair some of the parts. Its not always easy to get things to stick to aluminum, but it can be done.

Do we like messing with bare aluminum? No. Simple answer. When we heard of these new trucks, we all just shook our heads in the shop. We see lots of factory ford aluminum hoods come in with corrosion forming under the paint after a few years. Almost like rust, but white instead of brown.

I think most parts will get replaced, but the insurance companies will not go with that when we start adding up damaged panels made out of aluminum......lol

 

Yes, I often get the comment "but aluminum doesn't rust" ? What's that white stuff ??
A primer is very important with aluminum. The wrong one or poorly applied and you will have a big problem

 

Its corrosion. We see it every once in a while. It will be something we will have to adjust too. No big deal. I will see many of them, probably a week after they hit the lots. You'd be surprised at how many vehicles we repair with paper tags on them and under 2,000 miles....lol