material used to make car bodies

vivek · Post by **vivek** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 9:11 pm

was just wondering :

what is the material used to make car body parts such as hood, front bumper, spoilers, doors etc

is it fiberglass alone or is there some kind of steel.

Post by **Supplanter** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 9:20 pm

As far as I know, factory bodykits are made of plastic. After market parts are generally made of fibre glass because it is cheaper and easier to repair.

Post by **Bennoz** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 9:39 pm

And the car steel is generally 18 gauge mild steel. Aka: 1.2mm sheet steel.

Nacho · Post by **Nacho** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 8:11 am

The car steel meaning the frame/chassis?

Post by **Bennoz** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 8:28 am

No, the car 'skin' I should have specified.... Outer panels

Chassis & sub frame components can be made from anywhere upto 3mm steel.

Nacho · Post by **Nacho** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 8:37 am

Up to 3mm........hmmm interesting. I've been musing over my old physics notes back when it was my major and I'm trying to do some calculations on stress and strain of the chassis when say travelling at 100km/h or at 300km/h. Also when cornering at a certain speed when there is centrifugal force applied to the chassis. It would be interesting to know how much strengthening and lowering is required to make the FTO handle like the Formula 1 car in Gran Turismo 3. Hehehe......

Gives me something to do while I save up some money for my chassis modifications.

FTO338 · Post by **FTO338** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 12:36 pm

Well most exotic super cars use carbon fibre. NSX use full aluminium body/chassis.

Nacho · Post by **Nacho** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 4:57 pm

I wonder what the costs are to fabricate a full FTO body in carbon fibre? Is that stuff expensive? Can't seem to find wholesale price for carbon fibre.....