Aluminum has bright future, but repairs could be pricey

Aluminum is a big part of the greener future of cars and trucks, offering lighter weight, more strength, less corrosion and improved fuel economy. However the repair work for the automotive could be quite costly too.

“It’s going to be a big shift,” says Bill Davidge, national technology manager of Carstar, a U.S.-based body shop chain with 230 outlets in Canada.

Aluminum has three qualities that make it more difficult to repair than steel.

- Unlike steel, damaged aluminum has no “memory” or “desire” to return to its original shape. It wants to remain in its new state. So repairs take more time and effort, and different techniques. For one thing, the metal must be heated while being pulled or hammered back into shape. Mixing aluminum with small amounts of other metals can create extremely strong alloys, but the tougher it’s made, the stronger the memory effect and the more difficult the repair.

- Contact with even small particles of steel leads to corrosion of aluminum. So repairs must be made in “clean” rooms with tools that never touch steel.

- Raw aluminum quickly develops a protective skin that could keep paint from adhering properly. So primer must be applied immediately after parts are sanded and cleaned.

As a result, body shops must set up separate facilities and buy new equipment to handle aluminum, Davidge says. Worse, some manufacturers insist on a particular brand of tool for their vehicles, so a shop might need several sets.

Repairs are simplest when both sides of a damaged part are accessible. But that’s less possible as vehicle structures get more complex. A special tool pulls from the exterior side. But it costs $6,000 to $40,000 for aluminum; for steel, just $500..

On average, Davidge says, aluminum repairs take 1.5 times longer than fixing the same damage in steel. That’s partly offset by aluminum’s greater strength, which means there could be less work from an equivalent accident.

Some shops charge up to twice as much per hour to fix aluminum. But that cost remains to be seen. Insurance companies, in effect, set the labour rates. While one company in Alberta allows double the rate for steel, most haven’t revealed their position. “I expect there will be some different approaches,” Davidge says.

With so few aluminum-bodied vehicles on the road, for now, there’s too little work for most body shops to recoup the costs. But that should change as the metal becomes more widely used.

“Shops that have invested in aluminum repair will not hesitate to share their equipment and training certifications with you.” He added.