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Subaru to discontinue use of aluminum exterior panels


gfxdave99

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hey it might actually not dent so easily now.

 

Suprisingly when my Legacy got caught in a hail storm while parked, it was the roof that had dents (and lots of them) and not the hood. Makes me wonder if the alumunum is more dent resistant.

 

Nic

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Ok so for someone who doesnt know much about cars...what is the bottom lne here.....will the change effect perfomance noticably? (assuming all things equal from 2007 to 2008)....also would this actually discourage any of you from buying a 2008...i was looking at waiting for the 2008's but not if im going to lose out on performance
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Ok so for someone who doesnt know much about cars...what is the bottom lne here.....will the change effect perfomance noticably? (assuming all things equal from 2007 to 2008)....also would this actually discourage any of you from buying a 2008...i was looking at waiting for the 2008's but not if im going to lose out on performance

 

Yep. You had better jump on an 06 Spec.B if you want the fastest OEM LGT ever produced.:icon_bigg

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OEM replacement parts would remain aluminum because of the tooling is designed for aluminum. Considering the cost to make a new die to stamp out the sheets, it's not economical. Of course this also means the replacment part price will go through the roof.

 

As far as using carbon fiber. Well that's only if you can get a hold of it considering Boeing and Airbus has pretty much taken over the world supply of carbon fiber. Carbon fiber prices have doubled and even tripled in the past few years and supply has been pretty much nil. The only stuff you can find now is non-certified material. Aerospace requires tracibility on all material with full documentation on the origins. The stuff that is available if you can find it, are all non-certified material which is basically scrap material from the manufacturers.

 

What a lot of people in the aftermarket parts business are now selling as carbon fiber is not even carbon fiber. They've now have a dyed fiberglass, which looks like carbon fiber but isn't in the materials property. This material cost more than fiberglass and cost about what carbon fiber used to go for. Of course most of them still sell that stuff as carbon fiber. Even when carbon fiber was readily available, most of the aftermarket "carbon fiber" parts were not really all carbon fiber. Most of the guys made the parts by using 1 to 2 layers of carbon fiber on the outside surface, then use fiberglass for the remaining layers to build up the bulk needed for stiffness because it is significantly cheaper. If you were to make an all carbon fiber hood with the same strength properties as the orginal aluminum hood, the cost would be astronomical.

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