what parts are plastic on the Duramax Chevies?

[Don M]

I heard body panels were plastic (hehe!) on the chevy HD trucks. Is this true?



Don~

 

[Boost]

The outer box panel on the DRW are plastic. I attended the Duramax launch tour in Boise and we all got a demo on this plastic. They had a setup where there was a bowling ball at the end of a pipe that you could swing into the side of the box. The purpose was to show how strong this plastic was. Yea right. Everyone was split into groups and when my group got to this station the side of this new dually was all cracked out with a huge portion missing. They stated someone got over zealous with the ball and broke there new chebby. Too bad. Should have stuck to sheet metal. IMO





Rob

 

[Dkevdog]

I'm not sure if it's the same plastic that GM uses in the Saturn line, but having had three Saturns, I can tell you that plastic is very strong and fends off parking lot dings and even larger. Yes if the impact is great enough (like the dumb ass proved by letting them have at it with a bowling ball) it will crack. But guess what- if it was hit hard enough to crack with it being plastic, you're gonna be replacing it if it were sheet metal too. But the plastic is gonna look a hell of alot better than the metal after a few rounds in a busy parking lot.



Kev

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

The problem is you don't put toolboxes or headache racks on a Saturn. There is a known problem with the new HD's that if you put either one on them the beds crack. There is a note in all the dealer service departments regarding this - not sure if they've fixed it for 2002.

 

[RonaldLarson]

Plastic works!

On toy trucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Even Tonka's are steel!

HEHEHEHEHEEEEEEEEEEE

Ron

 

[Briar Hopper]

Don't forget the silly little hat on top of the engine, it's plastic too. Doesn't seem to serve any useful purpose.

 

[Power Wagon]

Originally posted by Briar Hopper

Don't forget the silly little hat on top of the engine, it's plastic too. Doesn't seem to serve any useful purpose.

That little cover on the 6. 5 didn't serve any purpose either. But, the resulting heat cost GM and Stanadyne a ton of money in warranty costs, because the heat got trapped inside of it, causing a lot of "hard hot start" complaints that would never have existed otherwise.



I guess that's the price of vanity.

 

[NVR FNSH]

Sounds like GM didn't design the bed appropriately for the combination of materials/location of material - not the fault of the plastic. I'd be happier with my Dodge if it had plastic bedsides/fenders - I've got way too many shopping cart dings already. Yes, I park in the North 40 - most of the parking spaces are too small anyhow... .



Brian

 

[jjohnson1177]

After 6 weeks in the bodyshop for $6,000 dollars worth of hail damage (lucky me, all in the space of about 5 minutes) I wish every body panel on my truck was made out of the same stuff as the duelly fenders. A horse backed into one of them and bent it in almost all the way and it came back out with no damage!

 

[forr]

Well let's just say that GM must have made it to look good, but not necessarily to work well.