Okay how many folks here really knew that the flareside body panels were fiberglass.???
I asked 3 other owners today and none of them knew. You would think the dealer would have told them at the time they bought it.

 

I knew it when I bought my first flareside, the 01, and the Lightning has the same bed...

 

Umm what are they supposed to be? Is fiberglass good?

 

From what I have heard, the only the bed is fiberglass. The doors and the rest of the body are made from a different material.

 

Just the rear bodypanels are fiberglass. the rest is steel except the hood which is aluminum.

 

I knew, but that's because I saw one after hit in an accident.

 

our hoods are aluminum?

 

Yes they are.

 

i knew mine was

 

Known it since 1995.

 

Yep I knew. Read it somewhere when they first came out. As stated though, just the box outsides, bed is galvinized. Now a good idea would be if ford made the tailgate aluminum.

Buddy of mine has a flareside 4x4, he put in in the ditch, cracked the passanger side of the box pretty bad. Cost to replace that side was $600, not including labor. Thats when he found out it
was fiberglass.

 

flareside and the screw bedsides are fiberglass..

 

 

Yes, it is considerably lighter then metal, it also has more give to it (to a point). I believe that it might also be easier to produce, The older body style was also fiberglass, with the sharper corners of the wheel wells it might have been tough to stamp body panels without getting creases and tares in the metal. Fiberglass is not stamped like sheet metal, it is a cloth that is layed in a mold to produce the desired shape.

 

I knew, I broke mine on a tree one time.