I want to put to rest the idea that our trucks have thinner sheet metal than other trucks.

Does anyone have access to a few makes of truck and some calipers? About 30 seconds of measurements would do us some good around here.

 

i would like to know this as well.

 

Im interested in knowing too!

 

Amazing that we complain about the thin sheet metal but praise on how well the Ram holds up in a accident.

MikeyB

 

the dodge metal sure feels stonger/thicker (when you push on it) than the chevy I had

 

This would be good to know as I just had the paintless dent removal guy out this week to remove the pop marks from my legs as I was trying to replace my windshield wipers.

He said the Dodge basically buckles if you look at it wrong.

 

GOOD thread idea. One question though, does one of us have to dress up in a white button down shirt and queer black beret for this?

 

Hmm - according to our unofficial testing this afternoon (walkabout through the WallyWorld parking lot with a ball-pein hammer):

Rams make dimes

Chevys make nickels

Fords make quarters

We didn't happen upon any GMCs, but they're probably about 5 cents worth.

 

From a piantless-dent guy...those guys dont know their butt from a hole in the ground...having worked in body shops, I can atest to the fact that they arent flimsy-Id say the flimsiest ones were probably Fords...put a nail gun on it and youd have holes all over before you got a good bite. (A nail gun welds a little nail onto the metal then you attach the slide hammer and pull out the dents) Same with Toyotas and Nissans. The better ones wer Dodges and GM trucks(!?!) but none of the new ones can hold a candle to the 59 Edsel I worked on...

 

I cant belive they use the same thin sheet metal on the inside bed.

It dents soooo easy.

I had a 100 quart cooler on my tailgate using a bed extender and it crushed the inner tailgate metal and the outer tail gate sheet metal.

I now have two huge creases on the outside of my tailgate.

Must be why we're the cheapest.

 

If Dodge Sheet metal is so much thinner how come it weighs so much more then Ford and Chevy ?

 

i have dents in my roof and hood where i rest my hand on them while washing the truck....the sheetmetal on this dodge is definitely thinner than my 03 f-350, my 06 f-250 and all the previous fords i have had...except my 05 f-150...it was about the same as the dodge

 

Well I do think my last two dodges 2003 and 2004.5 dented much easier than any of the chevy trucks I had in the past. I don't know that the sheet metal is any thinner, I think some of the reason is the structural design. Doors, hood have larger areas that don't seem to have structural support underneath. Not necessarily structurally bad from a crash test, but not very good for a hard knuckle test on hood or door ding test. Probably what also makes the overall look better. But what do I know.

Just my .02.

 

I doubt it is the thickness of the metal , more likely the makeup of the metal . They need to make these things out of memory metal that stuff is amazing . With all the curves in a Dodge the probably used a lower carbon steel to make it easer to form .

 

Well, some good points above but no actual measurements yet. I may get some el cheapo calipers from Harbor Freght and do some baseline measurements myself to get the ball rolling.

There are really three aspects to this question:

1. Is the metal itself any thinner?
2. Is the metal itself any different in terms of composition?
3. Is the way the body panels are put together any less structurally sound than other makes?

The first is easy to measure, the second will be pretty difficult to analyze on on anything but hoods or maybe under-bed structure.

My hypothesis is that the metal itself is identical to that used with any other make, post 1980's years.