I have an aluminum hood on a 2012 minivan. It has a couple of little corrosion bubbles at the seam, under the paint, that have not grown in 2 years of my ownership (though I do see some white powder and clean it off). My other car is steel, and when it gets a rust bubble, it is a hole within a year.

I'm sold on Al! A coworker hit a deer with his 2016 and was told all repairs for Al trucks are parts replace only, not repair.

 

Most things used in fire suppression are aluminum.
From ladders to poker poles, to hose couplers, and smoke ejector fan housings. Not too mention the helicopters and airplanes fly just over top of the roaring flames of forest fires.
But all of your common sense and logic brought into this probably has a few scratching their heads.

 

To get even a little more off topic here, remember the "aluminum" used in the F-150 is not really "aluminum", it is an alloy, and has other stuff mixed in to enhance the characteristics of the main ingredient.

 

Besides high strength, I wonder what those characteristics are, can aluminum be alloyed with other metals to be corrosion resistant?

 

Some of the elements that aluminum are alloyed with are copper, manganese, silicon, magnesium and zinc. As a general rule the stronger the alloy (the ones alloyed with copper and / or zinc) the less corrosion resistant they are. There are some aluminum alloys that are as strong or stronger than steel but they are the ones most subject to corrosion. On the other hand, some of the weakest alloys which are easy to form are also the most corrosion resistant. It becomes a balancing act depending on your proposed application as to which alloy to use. Then of course some of the alloys can also be heat treated to increase their strength after forming and machining.

 

ME??? Common sense and logic? No, that can't be.

 

Lol.

Some have just decided to hate aluminum based upon no facts.

For me I am a much larger fan of aluminum that steel for many components.
But I also have vast experience with aluminum because of where and hownI grew up as a kid....and now because of my career path in life.
Growing up on the rugged west coast of BC I saw in the salt water and harsh environment how superior aluminum is compared to steel or fiberglass the two other common boat building materials.
Or the helicopters and float planes that are aluminum and still flying when many decades old.
Now also owning a fleet of fuel trucks, so much of them is aluminum. The aluminum parts never seem to have any issues, its the parts made of other materials that are the issue.
Any accessories I can get in aluminum I always do despite the slightly higher cost over say steel.
Because they do not rust away quickly like steel parts.
They coat many of our roads in a crazy amount of salt up here in winter.
The aluminum gets a tiny bit of white residue to wash off from it.
The steel is flaking away in huge rust in no time on our roads.
Go to an auto wreckers in BC sometime and look at the cars even just 5 years old.
My Toyota Tundra I purchased new was just a pile of rust within 1 year.
I was looking around the underside of it while changing the oil before it was a year old and was horrified by the rust.
My thinking is that toyota must do even less rust protection than other truck makers. Because my previous and since fords, dodges and chevs sure never rusted as fast as that 2010 tundra did.
We pull trailers a lot here with our company pickups through all sorts of bad weather.
The aluminum parts look like new after a quick wash with the power washer.
The steel parts look like crap.
And the steel parts are not even half of the make up of the trailers.

I replaced the steel battery boxes at the 1 year old mark as they showed significant rust already.
But now 7 years later the aluminum battery boxes are still in great shape.

But maybe the harshest test of all is my jet boats.
I have 2 aluminum hulled jet boats...and boat with many others who all only have aluminum hulled river boats.
The beating they can take is truly astonishing!
I intentionally hit logs to jump them.
We aim at gravel bars to slide over them.
In general just abuse them.
Some deep scratches and some dents.
But no actual damage that is cause for concern.
Anything that can be abused and not break like our jet boats gets my vote

Maybe one day someone will find some wonderful steel and start building airplanes and helicopters out of it, instead of aluminum as they are built from now.
But since I am already 39 I doubt it will happen before i die of old age.

 

As someone who loves aviation and works in the trucking industry, I have to agree with you on the durability of aluminum, I even bought an aluminum f-150, however most of my airplane is steel tubing and fabric, infact the only aluminum is engine cases,prop, and some interior sheet metal panels and the lower cowling, all materials need to be specked to their applications.

 

So how is your aluminum rusting everyone?

 

I think I wasted my money on that roll of aluminum tape I bought for emergency repairs.

But I'm confident that the spray in bedliner and rubber bed mat will protect the bed if a stray tool box falls into the bed.

 

No rust here. I also have the factory spray-in liner plus a BedRug mat. The mat is mainly to allow us to use the bed as a super-cheap camper.

 

Brand new truck bought in July (built in January), but no corrosion, bubbles, chips, etc, so far. It's being liberally cleaned, waxed, and detailed, so it's going to last a long time looking the way it does now!

However, I noticed last night that my Dad's steel '11 Raptor has rust bubbles on the roof, rust on the bottom edge and inner lip on the bottom of his tailgate, and paint chips and subsequent rust on the rockers and door bottoms.

None of it is rusting through yet, but he's going to have to get it to the body shop before his rust gets worse during the Winter. If I have 'severe' corrosion issues (paint bubbles and paint chipping in obvious spots) it won't get to the point of rusting through. Ever. It's also going to be far easier and faster to fix, simply using body filler and paint, rather than dealing with patching or panel replacement.

Gotta say, I LOVE Aluminum so far! They can call my truck a beer can, but I can always call theirs rust buckets!

 

I've sacrificed 5 trucks and 3 trailers to the corrosion gods of the Bonneville salt flats. My last trip in 2012 with a truck I owned was the last. Only rentals today. My 2013 never went and neither will my 2018. In one trip transmissions and alternators turn to Alka-seltzer and cast iron components are on there way to distruction. I've spent many more hours on my trucks and trailers than the race cars. There are way too many connections under them now.
I will for a fact say that none of the Ford pickups going many trips there have ever had a body rust problem. The 96 F150 is still going strong as a gardener truck with absolutely no body rust at all and it spent 8 yrs going to Bonneville. All the cast iron parts under car have been replaced same wth the 04 we had. Our older Chevy were rust buckets pretty quick needing fenders, hoods, etc.
Electronics scares me today after driving thru salty water and the humidity on the salt flats all day gets into every thing.

 

I grew up beside the ocean and around boats my entire life.
The main choice for boats in salt water are aluminum for a reason.
The same boat may have gone through 6 outboard motors in the 40 years of ocean life...but the hull is still in great shape except for a few small dents.
My Dads boat just recently got outboard motor number six.
But when I was out on it the last time a few months ago I was amazed the hull is still in such great shape...the boat is older than I am.
Myself I like running rivers in jet boats.
My boats and all other jer boats I see when out are aluminum.
And we bash the crap out of them.
Next time someone sees a 50 year old Peterbilt or landrover go have a good close look at the body of it.
I think that will about end the conversation!

 

This is going to be just like the 9mm versus 45 ACP debate, it will never end. Oh, I have a 2015 F150.