Bronze is a pretty strong lloy (copper and tin), and it is attractive as it oxidizes. Could you make atomobiles from it? What wold be the cost differnce (from steel body panels)?
And, since the scrap value of a bronze car would be so high, would such cars b immediately recycled (instead of abandoned)?
Would bronze body cars be “greener” than steel?
You could make car body panels out of rice paper if you really wanted to. They’re made out of steel for obvious reasons. Think about it.
Don’t tell the Corvette that.
I believe that Bronze is usually melted down and poured into a mold of the desired shape (casting). I don’t think it this would be possible for shapes such as car body panels. Also, bronze is more brittle than steel, so instead of bending when hit, it would break or shatter.
The exception (with the Fiero) that proves the rule. How much does it cost to repair a corvette involved in a minor accident?
What is the Fiero made of?
Well, it doesn’t have to be. Steel can be formed the same way; in fact, it is to make engine blocks and other car parts.
Bronze has been used since ancient times for springs and even rare archery bows. Highly curvaceous bracelets etc. have also been hammered to shape from flat bronze stock in the past couple thousand years. I think it’d be plenty flexible enough for sundry auto parts. Quite a bit weaker and heavier than steel, though.
The Fiero was (it’s long gone) made with a space-frame of steel, and plastic panels hung from it. The technology has always had proponents, but it never seems to be able to meet all the objectives you want in a mass-produced car: Cheap, easy to manufacture, strong, easy to repair.
How about cloth?
Yes, they would be immediately recycled. You would wake up the next morning and find your skinless vehicle because metal thieves would have been there during the night stealing the panels to sell at the scrap yard later in the day.
The Corvette for years (and maybe now) used fiberglass rather than plastic. At least some of the parts for cars such as this are now carbon composites.
Saturn also had/has composite/plastic body panels. Remember the commercial of the shopping cart rolling toward the door and bouncing off, to the relief of the hausfrau who had been dreading the big dent?
Most of the crash protection comes from the structural frame members, not the body panels. To take an extreme example, imagine a dune buggy with roll cage. Not much in the way of body panels at all, but still not wildly unsafe.
Early airplane wings were made using cloth.
On the most recent Top Gear they tested Commie cars made out of leather and cotton. The Commie cars . . . tested poorly.
None of which invalidates what I said.
The Corvette is a niche-market sports car.
Saturn has never been profitable.
The Fiero was a one-off.
Find me a mass-market (let’s say 75,000 units/year) car that’s currently in production that uses something other than steel for its body panels.
Well, I wasn’t trying to invalidate what you said, so I’m okay with what you note about the commercial unviability. My only point was that from a structural integrity/safety standpoint, those cars aren’t disintegrating as they drive down the road or killing all their drivers when they get into a crash.
Not sure if the Audi A8 counts as mass-market, but it’s all-aluminium. The recent Audi A2 hatchback sold in reasonable numbers and was aluminium too.
Then there’s the plastic Smart car and roadster.
Given that people wish their cars to be painted rather than being the color of the panel material, attractiveness of the unpainted bronze isn’t an issue, and the paint provides protection from oxidation, making that a less critical feature. But all the listed disadvantages still apply. Delorean tried selling unpainted stainless steel cars. Some people painted them anyway, in spite of the fact that the brushed stainless panels made it difficult.
And so, according to this (well worth watching) video, were early spacesuits. (at 5:50).
Aluminum is certainly a reasonable choice, and has advantages, especially reduced weight. It still costs significantly more than steel does, though. According to an Australian article from 2006:
http://www.csiro.au/science/ps1jb.html
Obviously, that quote may be a bit misleading if you wind up using fewer pounds of aluminum per car body than you would steel, but the aluminum body is still going to cost more.