Hooked On Velcro -- Industrial-Strength Hook-Loop Will Hold Future Cars Together

Here's some news that might throw you for a hook-and-loop: Within a few years, automakers may be using Velcro instead of nuts and bolts to assemble your car.

No kidding. The fascinating fastener that enables 5-year-olds to put on their own shoes could be used to attach the bumper or body panels to the family sedan.

We're talking about the same tacky stuff that TV talk show host David Letterman wore before he flung himself against a wall - and stuck.

Carmakers for years have been using Velcro to install carpeting and interior trim. More recently, they've begun using it to tie down spare tires, bundle wires, assemble instrument panels and create seats with more elaborate shapes and designs.

By 1995, predicts Velcro USA's William Kessler, automakers will be using Velcro fasteners to attach everything from bumpers to door panels.

"It could hold the Jarvik heart together, for God's sake," said Kessler, who runs Velcro's Troy, Mich.-based transportation division, which he founded in 1982.

"If Letterman used the type we use in cars, he would still be on the wall and Jay Leno would have no competition."

When Ford Motor Co. unveiled its Contour concept car at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, the car's plastic exterior door panels were attached with Velcro.

Hercules couldn't have pulled the panels off the door frame, said Chuck Haddad, Ford Motor Co.'s manager of design staff, advanced engineering.

"If you simply tried to pull it apart, it would take over one ton of brute force," he said. But by sliding a thin sheet of metal between the hooks and loops, the panel came off easily without damaging the door.

THEFT SURVEY

A nationwide motorist survey by Shell Oil Co. found the following: 61.8 percent said they or someone they knew had been a victim of auto theft. Forty-four percent said they leave their car unlocked at least occasionally. Nineteen percent said they leave their car unlocked "always" or "frequently." Thirteen percent said they have hidden their keys in their car. Fourteen percent said they had left their keys in the ignition.

Car Briefs copy provided by Times news services