Ding resistant car?

Henry Ford built a ding resistant car body, I think that was back in the
1940's.Soybean based car body.He hit it real hard with a baseball bat.No
dings or dents.I think the color was mixed into the body material.
cuhulin

>
>> It actually had kind of a decent engine, the
>> (2.8?) from the Citation,

Actually the engine was a piece of junk. This is one of the ones
we talked about in the past that was apparently cast by John Deere,
perhaps in Africa... Essentially ALL of them of this production
line cracked above the lifter gallery into the water jacket.

(APC) Armored Personnel Carrier.I want one of those, I couldn't afford
to drive it though.
cuhulin

> wrote in message
...
> (APC) Armored Personnel Carrier.I want one of those, I couldn't afford
> to drive it though.
> cuhulin

My son's biological father has a Ferret, and has pretty much reconditioned
it. First time he drove it down Long Beach Boulevard, naturally, the
cops pulled him over.. It was perfectly street legal, but they were
curious.

> wrote in message
...
> (APC) Armored Personnel Carrier.I want one of those, I couldn't afford
> to drive it though.
> cuhulin

Here is a link to a Ferret, if you have never seen one. The one they
have in California has a fake 50 caliber machine gun fitted in place
of the original armament.

http://www.militarytrucks.ca/ferret.htm

Yep, I love those old Military vehicles.

http://bantamjeep.tripod.com

Crank up the Volume.
cuhulin

> I think all the vertical panels were plastic which could be replaced. My
> guess is that cars no longer use this type of construction because it's
> heavier than a conventional build or doesn't lend itself to mass
> production. The Pontiac Fiero my have been the first mass produced car
> to be built this way.

If memory swerves, the Fiero had body panels (made from any of four
different kinds of plastic depending on position on the car) and the
natural color of at least some of them as a sort of mustard yellow.
These were primed and painted in the desired color. The scheme was
tolerant of life's minor insults, but a gouge or a hard door-ding
would reveal the different native color of the material.

Saturn plastic body panels may have had an intrinsic color that was
close to the finish color, but then were painted -- primer, waterborne
color coat, urethane clearcoat. I think they also had some metal here
and there. Of course, the plastic was a non-stressed part; underneath
was a metal space-frame. (I almost bought a Saturn when they first
came out, after they cut one in half and put it on a pedestal in the
airport concourse hereabouts. Very impressive looking way of
countering one's reservations about the crash safety of a small
car!)

The Smart (at least Euro versions) takes an interesting approach, with
body panels that are easily replaceable, at least by a dealer or
advanced do-it-yourselfer. I seem to recall that they called this "le
fresh-up" and the intended market was boredom more than repair. Don't
recall whether the color was painted on or intrinsic to the plastic,
though some of them were in patterns rather than a solid color, which
makes me think at least some paint was involved. Supposedly they
thought about this at Saturn but didn't make much use of the
capability.

They all have to use specially formulated paints that adhere well to
plastic and are more flexible.

--Joe