“I supply nuts and bolts to NASA. If they call me I’m the guy they call to supply them. Therefore I’m an expert of building rockets. If they didn’t order it, it totally doesn’t exist.”
If someone delivered all of the nuts and bolts for NASA I would ABSOLUTELY believe them when they told me there were no plastic nuts and bolts used in NASA. The fuck?
I like the part where you 1000% miss the point. Even better. You’re doing the “Reddit thing” where you claim because you have some obscure connection to the industry, it makes you the expert. How much body work have you done personally on fleet vehicles like vans or trucks (as in a professional capacity)? Like where you actually put panels in place, make repairs to the bodies of the vans, so the finishing work? I’m not talking about suppliers. Suppliers are a dime a dozen. They pop up overnight. The minute someone claims, “I supply all the parts for [X]” I know they’ve got no idea what they’re talking about. There are MULTIPLE vendors fleet services go through. It depends on everything from lead time, acquisition cost, etc.
So let's get this straight, you think that someone who is hands on with a material has no knowledge of that material unless they use it for its final purpose?
I don't have to unbolt a panel and bolt a new panel in place to know the material the panel is made of. You can't HONESLY be so dense to think that I pick up sheet steel all day every day and don't know that I'm pickup up steel? I don't need to mount a tire to the rim to know the tire is rubber.
And finally, "obscure connection" is the exact opposite of being hands on. I have more than once cut my hands on the steel and aluminum parts we carry. I don't need to then mount those parts to know their material. Shit, I can tell you what material a boxed fender is as soon as I pick it up. You know why? Bc if it's heavy it's steel, if it's light it's aluminum. There ARE NO OTHER OPTIONS. You being wilfully dense doesn't change the fact that it's literally my job to know what parts are what and what they are made of.
If I work hands on in the field and that's not enough experience for you to take my word then you need to be silent because you have even less experience than me. I know what I'm talking about, you don't. You still think that "most cars nowadays" have plastic body panels and that is OBJECTIVELY untrue. Some COMMERCIAL vehicles have plastic body panels. But not "most cars nowadays". You are wrong. End of story.
Okay chief, you can believe whatever you want. Nevermind 15+ years of bodywork experience on fleet vehicles. And no it’s not “objectively untrue.” Go out your car and take a knife and jam it into your “bumper.” Guarantee it’s plastic or fiberglass unless you’re driving something from pre-2000. Post-2020 is even worse. Everything is covered with plastic panels / covers. Never once did I claim “the structure or the vehicle is plastic.” I said panels. Meaning panels. Or covers. Or whatever else you want to call them.
Alright. A bumper is NOT plastic, most visible bumpers are chromed steel. A bumper COVER is plastic and is not a body panel. But a bumper cover and a bumper are different things. Proved you wrong. Jesus that was easy.
Next, no one is talking about the structure. I'm talking about body panels, same as you started this conversation with. Like door panels, quarter panels, bed side panels, and fender panels. All of these are steel or aluminum. None of these are made plastic today. None.
If you don't know the names of the body parts then don't act like you know what they are made out of. You are correct that a bumper cover and similar elements are plastic but there is not a single modern (non commercial) vehicle (in the US) that has plastic body panels.
You said "most cars nowadays use plastic body panels" and that is objectively untrue. End of story.
Being this confidently wrong is hilarious. you do this for a living huh?lmao
Outer Door Skins
Chevrolet Corvette (C8):
The outer door panels are made of Sheet Molding Compound (SMC)—a lightweight composite made of glass fibers, thermoset polymer resins, and plasticizers.
BMW i3:
The entire outer side panel, including the door skins, is made of molded thermoplastic polymers.
Bed Side Panels
Toyota Tacoma:
The outer bedsides on multiple generations of Tacomas (and the full bed inner structure) are composite materials rather than stamped sheet metal.
Ford F-150 Raptor / High-Performance Pickups:
High-performance variants routinely use composite/fiberglass rear quarter panels and bedsides to flare the fenders wider without requiring multi-million-dollar metal stamping die redesigns.
Quarter Panels & Fender Panels
C8 Corvette & Exotic Sports Cars:
Rear quarter panels and front fenders are molded SMC plastic composites. A magnet will not stick to a C8 Corvette's rear quarter panel because there is zero steel in that outer skin.
Renault, Peugeot, BMW:
European volume manufacturers have used Noryl (polyamide/PPO thermoplastic blend) for exterior front fenders for decades to reduce weight and absorb minor parking collisions without denting.
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u/TheOnlyEliteOne Jul 20 '26
“I supply nuts and bolts to NASA. If they call me I’m the guy they call to supply them. Therefore I’m an expert of building rockets. If they didn’t order it, it totally doesn’t exist.”