Ford Begins ‘Massive Undertaking’ to Make Aluminum Pickup

Ford Motor Co., the second-largest U.S. automaker, has begun an eight-week closure of its Dearborn, Michigan, F-150 pickup plant to overhaul it for a new, aluminum-bodied version of the top-selling vehicle line in the U.S.

“This is historic for the industry, not just for Ford,” Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s president of the Americas, told reporters today at the company’s product development center in Dearborn. “To take the No. 1 selling vehicle for 32 years -- it will be 33 soon -- and convert it like this, at this volume, to aluminum, is historic and unprecedented.”