Aluminum: Why Jeep Body Shops May Suffer

Aluminum is a metal that can be hard to work with if you don’t know what you’re doing. We all know this and know that new tools and training are coming if the new Wrangler ends up using the lightweight metal, but what about the rest of the body shop? There is one additional hidden cost: aluminum dust containment.

If you’re going to be working on any aluminum body and you’re a body shop, you’ll want to plan on one other item besides the special tools and the specific training to work and shape aluminum. Because of the fire and explosion hazard of mixing steel and aluminum dust, body shops that are going to deal with aluminum vehicles are going to have to install a containment booth. When aluminum and steel dust gets mixed it creates thermite. Thermite can get hot enough to melt through an engine block, or worse, it can cause an uncontrollable fire hazard as it spreads through the air.

How much will that containment booth potentially cost the body shop? “It looks to cost the dealership about $100,000 or more,” said a service director I spoke to at one body shop.

Jeep dealers: get ready to pay some big bucks for new capital.

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