Under Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally, trained as an aeronautical engineer, Ford designers have mirrored planemakers in using aluminum components to take an estimated 700 pounds (318 kilograms) out of the four-door, crew-cab F-150, according to consultant Ducker Worldwide. Aluminum will represent about 20 percent of the pickup’s weight, up from about 5 percent to 6 percent today, said Richard Schultz, a Ducker managing director.

“It looked like a tough putt three years ago, but they’re getting pretty close,” said Schultz, who leads Ducker’s automotive materials practice in Troy, Michigan. “Everything you can see when you look at the truck, with the exception of the front and rear bumper, is aluminum.”

link: http://www.sfgate.com/business/bloom...as-5131697.php

 

700 pound diet is very similar to the same diet the Range Rover got for the 2013 model

 

And the tires, door handles, windows, headlights, taillights, and mirrors haha

Pretty neat though I'm all for no rusting!

 

I am surprised that the entire body will be aluminum. I thought they would weasle out and keep some of the panels steel.

More details on the frame are leaking from the NY Times:

"Ford engineers said the F-150’s body and box strength also comes from the combination of structural adhesive — basically industrial glue — and some 4,000 rivets used to join much of the aluminum, replacing about 7,000 spot welds of a steel truck.

While the bodies will shift to aluminum, F-Series models will continue to use separate steel ladder-type frames, which are the foundation of the trucks’ towing and payload capabilities. The frame of the F-150 is a new design that is stronger, yet 80 pounds lighter, than the 2014 version. Its front section is made using a process called roll forming, which results in an exceptionally robust yet lighter structure, Ron Krupitzer, head of automotive applications at the Steel Market Development Institute, said. Other parts remaining in steel include side-impact door beams and the front and rear bumpers."

link: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/12/au...diet.html?_r=0

"A version of this article appears in print on January 12, 2014, on page AU1 of the New York edition with the headline: The F-150’s Aluminum Diet ."

PS When is the new Super Duty coming? Within the next 3 years says the NYT and Ford engineers.

"The new F-150 is Ford’s first step in a broad strategy to shift all of its full-size truck bodies, including the F-250 and F-350 Super Duty pickups and the Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator S.U.V.’s, to primarily aluminum construction over the next three years, Ford engineers said. The plan will create common manufacturing processes and tooling in Ford’s three United States truck plants.

“Ford is stepping out ahead of the other truck makers with the aluminum strategy,” said Richard Schultz of Ducker Worldwide, which tracks industrial materials usage."

 

Thankee thar, Rambo!

Y'all continue to be puttin' the late-to-the-party, inaccurate paid bloggers to shame.

( And - I expect a regurgitation of this same information to appear in due course regardless, as they continue to blithely ignore the members' own forum content and contributions, lol)

Good job!

 

Very interesting! Living in the north I'll wait until it's all aluminum before buying a new truck!

 

it is....?

 

Aluminum can corrode, my hood is underneath

 

thats also because they don't paint the bottom of the hood, just the ecoat sealer.....

 

Road salt will still eat aluminum right up, it'll just take a little longer.

Those guys are mostly likely just doing their jobs. The parts I have a problem with are all of the blatantly obvious grammatical and spelling errors and that the articles don't sound like real "car guys" wrote them . . .

But I'm not trying to be mean, just complaining a little.

 

Dude??????

 

Damn straight

I ain't gettin paid to right. I be an ingineeer, screw rightin

 

Yosemite Sam is that you?

 

Ha ha, I love it! That's EXACTLY why I went to engineering school!