2015 Ford F-150: Aluminum Body Repairs | Hacienda Ford | New & Used Car & Truck Dealer | Edinburg TX

 

2015 Ford F-150: Aluminum Body Repairs

Edmunds editors bought the $52,000 F-150 from Galpin Ford in Van Nuys, California. The day after the truck was delivered to their Edmunds office in Santa Monica, they went to work with the BFH, intentionally denting the Ford's right quarter panel.

Crazy? Maybe. But they wanted to find out if repairing the aluminum-bodied Ford is more expensive and time-intensive than repairing traditional steel-bodied trucks. Remember, the F-150 is the first pickup truck with a lightweight aluminum body and bed. After much thought they chose to smash the bed side because it would need to be repaired, as opposed to a dented door, fender or hood, which could simply be replaced.

So in the name of consumer awareness they dented the truck with two big blows from a sledgehammer (the impact also cracked the taillight) and drove it straight from the Edmunds garage to their local Ford dealer, and asked for an estimate. Take the jump to check out the sledgehammer video.

SMARTER CAR

FORD TEAMS UP WITH FOUR UNIVERSITIES TO ENGINEER A MORE INTUITIVE VEHICLE.

By Seth Putnam

Ford has consistently established itself at the vanguard of automotive technology, often through its alliances with cutting-edge engineering departments at universities around the world. Now researchers at four universities are tackling the gray area between human and automated driving. “There’s the concept of having a virtual driver,” says Greg Stevens, Ford global manager of Driver Assistance and Active Safety Research. “In the future, we’ll effectively have a virtual driver sharing the driving tasks with us.”

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Engineers from Ford and the University of Michigan have developed a Fusion Hybrid automated research vehicle with LiDAR sensor “eyes” that take 2.8 million measurements per second. The sensors bounce lasers off physical surroundings and measure the returning light, effectively generating a three-dimensional map of the vehicle’s surroundings.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers are developing algorithms that allow the car to predict the trajectory of other vehicles and pedestrians in its path, thereby avoiding collisions. At Stanford University, researchers are working to give a virtual driver the ability to automatically maneuver to see around objects like large trucks on the road. Meanwhile, Aachen University is focused on keeping drivers engaged, exploring the best cues for informing the human driver what the virtual driver plans to do next.

TAGS: FUSION HYBRID, RESEARCH