The car body materials we see in use today are lightweight, strong, and advanced materials that developed from years of using heavier and more cumbersome items.
Car bodies have changed a great deal throughout the years. In the early days, cars were made of much heavier and stronger materials than what we see today. With a new automotive world filled with impressive vehicles with the goal of squeezing every ounce of fuel, power, and driving range out of them, automakers are using advanced materials.
With that said it can be interesting to see how these car bodies have evolved over the years.
Early cars used wood in the construction
In today’s world, we couldn’t imagine a car with wood as part of the structure of a vehicle, but it was used in the early days. Considering the first cars were a transition from a horse-drawn wooden carriage to a vehicle with a small electric or gas engine, it makes sense for wood to be the foundational material used in early vehicles. Strange as it may seem, some wood body panels are making a comeback in the auto industry.
The Ford Model T was built with a combination of wood and metal, and Hanomag of the 1920 experimented by using a wicker body, which would be deathly in a crash, but was much lighter than wood or steel.
Even when steel frames became the norm, many automakers sent the unfinished product to coachbuilders to build a wood body on the frame. Among car body materials used throughout the years, wood has been one of the longest-lasting, appearing in early models and making a comeback today.
Body and frame combined using steel
Although some early automakers used steel frames and wood bodies, others did just the opposite, fitting steel bodies on wood frames. The process of making bodies separate from the frames quickly became a memory when H. Jay Hayes announced he would build 3,000 cars that combined the body and frame into one unit. This announcement at an early Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) conference led to a greater use of steel in cars.
The change to a body and frame combination reduced cost and vibrations while making the cars smaller and lighter. Although the combination proved itself, it was difficult for many automakers to abandon the frame and body separate concept. Eventually, unibody and monocoque became terms we use regularly, but this was many years down the road.
The strongest and most durable of the car body materials used throughout most of automotive history is steel. In fact, steel bodies were the norm in most vehicles from the 1940s through the 1980s.
Fiberglass and aluminum became useful
Various alloys involving steel were created to make vehicles lighter. Automakers understood the need to have lighter cars for better performance. It wasn’t until the 1970s, when the oil crisis hit, that anyone thought about lighter cars for better efficiency.
Automakers were experimenting with various materials, and fiberglass bodies became popular. Aluminum was another car body material that had become extremely popular as well. Before modern safety systems were installed, both fiberglass and aluminum were mired with challenges, most of which involved the lack of durability in a crash. Still, automakers continued to utilize these lighter materials in sports cars.
Eventually, most automakers abandoned fiberglass bodies because this material takes hours to cure and harden, which isn’t an efficient way to build cars.
More aluminum and onto carbon fiber
Carbon fiber is one of the most popular and most expensive car body materials used today. This material is formed by laying sheets across each other to gain the desired shape and thickness. Carbon fiber is lightweight, extremely durable, and impressively strong. Of course, it’s also expensive, which is why we see it mostly in high-priced vehicles and not as often in mainstream models.
Aluminum has come a long way from the early days of car bodies. Ford embraced the use of aluminum in the F-150 by using it for every body panel on this popular truck. Today, most automakers use some form of high-strength lightweight steel and aluminum to build frames and bodies that can withstand the impact of collision while also being lighter than ever before.
What materials will be next?
The transition from wood to steel, fiberglass, aluminum, and carbon fiber that have been the car body materials used throughout automotive history takes us from the early times to modern times. What materials will car bodies be made of in the future? Could body panels include electronics? We’re already seeing this in some cars with solar roof panels that can add power to hybrid and EV batteries.
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