Not a riveting topic ('scuse pun), but the thickness of sheet-metal used
for
body-panels, used to be quite thick compared to many cars today.
I can remember the old cars I had, which were significantly thicker:
Holden,
large body cars up until the Commodore, all Valiants period and Falcons up
until the EA?
What I have noticed with lighter gauge cars, such as the '75 Corona and
the
'95 Camry I've had, were the greater amount of dings, collected over time
in
the body. It seems that from the get-go, the Japs used lighter gauge
sheet-metal for their offerings.
The tank body Valiants were indeed like *tanks*. One lady who somehow was
stalled on a rail-way crossing in town, walked away from a decent shunt by
a
locomotive. The VH Val was banana shaped,..fortunately it hit her on the
passengers side. I don't think the lighter gauge vehicles, in that type of
stack,.would have faired as well for the driver.
It could be argued, that the subframes are of "normal" thickness in all
cars,..but that doesn't help the monocoque design, which relies on
virtually
the whole body for strength.
Jason
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