Current Projects chat and miscellany

Not so - plain guage steel frame tubes are typically at least 0.8mm thick, car panel work is usually less than that, which is why you don't see any flat planes on car bodies - the metal is so thin that it would wobble like a stage thunder sheet without compound curvature providing some stiffness.

Nah it was an old Datsun, it was 18 gauge which is roughly 1.2mm. My Morris Minor was about 2mm thick; you could stand on the roof without it flexing! It also had a centimeter of lead filler around the rear window apertures, but from the factory, not from repair!

You're right though, modern cars are typically 20 gauge (.8mm) or 22 gauge (.7mm), or very occasionally less. I'm doing a degree in vehicle design so I gots to know these things.