- cross-posted to:
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- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
Despite the recent release of these Tesla EVs — and the little road time they’ve been subjected to — Cybertrucks are already developing imperfections on their body panels, leading owners to debate what’s causing the early signs of rust on forums. From Futurism:
One Cybertruck Owners Club forum member says they started noticing small orange flecks appearing on his truck after driving it in the rain for just two days.
“Just picked up my Cybertruck today,” they wrote. “The advisor specifically mentioned the cybertrucks develop orange rust marks in the rain and that required the vehicle to be buffed out.”
The Cybertruck owner posted followup photos after washing the vehicle down with soap, and they didn’t inspire much confidence, showing body panels already pockmarked with small orange spots.
Cross post from https://lemmy.world/comment/7544395
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There’s a reason unpainted metal bicycle frames tend to be the titanium ones, and not steel.
How did they not foresee this? I mean, leave a body panel out for a few months and see what happens to it.
It really depends on the type of stainless. My stainless grill which I leave out in the elements year round has not rusted, it’s made of 304 stainless which is corrosion resistant but not as much at Marine grade 316. There are thousands of slightly different alloys under the stainless umbrella some are better than others as far as rust goes.
Many manufacturers use ferritic types of stainless as sheets can be moved with magnets, many of these are cheaper and less corrosion resistant.
I get all that, I’m just saying, Tesla should have foreseen this.
They were too busy using calipers to measure door gaps to the micron level to focus on materials lmao
There’s a bunch of Deloreans out there still rustless. Meanwhile at Tesla…
Waiting for a back to the future reboot using a Tesla truck where it breaks down in the past because of no electricity.
They need a bolt of lightning to get the car going, but the time machine runs on unleaded gas, which hasn’t been invented yet.
Wow, up until today I thought the DeLorean body panels were aluminum. TIL DeLorean body panels are stainless steel. I’ve had the opportunity to view them up close several times (auto auctions, car shows, etc.), and never noticed any signs of rust or discoloration.
Delorean body panels are made out of 304 stainless steel.
It’s more expensive, but highly corrosion resistant.
Cyber truck uses 301 stainless, which is meant more for industrial and commercial environments where the steel is kept out of the elements or will be painted with a weather resistant coating.
Why does Tesla use 301? Probably because Starship uses 301 steel body panels for the skin on the booster and vehicle. Bulk purchasing material like that will drive down the cost for them and make a little more profit. 301 is also very strong, and one of the design points of Cyber truck was that it with be bulletproof, for some reason. I’ve yet to see anyone actually shoot their cyber truck, but I doubt those body panels are stopping anything more energetic than a .32 ACP.
Now why is a spacecraft covered in steel? I have no idea. Rockets should be as light as possible to maximize the amount of energy you get out of the fuel.
Thanks for the info!
They shot it here
Because steel is cheap and “good enough” for whatever Starship’s application is. Titanium would be lighter but far, far, more expensive. And the cost of the titanium would probably out weight the extra fuel costs.
Which is why most rockets today use aluminum for their fuel tanks, not steel.
And you’ve just accidentally stumbled into the Rocket Equation! My favorite.
So you want to make a rocket with enough energy to get to orbit. Okay so my engine puts out X amount of thrust at sea level. I’ll need Y fuel to get to orbit. But because the fuel weighs something, now I need 2 engines to lift the weight of the fuel and tanks. But because I have 2 engines, now my craft weighs more and I need more fuel to feed both engines. This cycle repeats until you can either balance them, or decide to say fuck it and move over to building bridges.
One way you can balance the rocket equation is by making the dry, or empty, weight of your vehicle lighter. Now you can lift more fuel on the engines you have and get higher and faster.
So again, why the hell are they using one of the most dense building materials to make up most of the rocket. Sure manufacturing is cheaper and easier, but that only counts if the thing can actually reach orbit and be useful.
Well they’ve made it pretty clear why they’re using this particular steel. The goal is to create a relatively cheap, reusable rocket. The strength of the steel helps make up for the increased density since you can use thinner panels. They also don’t have to paint them. This leads to a small difference in total weight.
The compromise they’re going for is giving up a slight amount of capacity to decrease cost of materials, increase production volume, and hopefully improve the reusability and lower the total maintenance.
They’re not trying to build the highest performance rockets, they want the lowest cost for the level of performance they’re targeting. That’s not to say it will necessarily work out, but they’ve obviously done the math on the compromise and think it’s beneficial in the long run.
Of the many issues Starship has had, it doesn’t seem like the steel skin is one of them. It’s just one of a million design choices you have to make for any rocket.
Original prototype of The Homer had 3mm thick panels, which obviously they changed to under 1.4mm because of silly things like weight, actual ability to mfg, oh and those silly crash test, though the Cybertruck is literally designed to kill pedestrians (which is why it will never appear in Europe)
Doc Brown specifically brings up the stainless steel construction early in Back to the Future as part of why the DeLorean was chosen. That and style.
And if memory serves the manual told you to clean the steel with gasoline.
I guess they should’ve coated the cyber trucks in cocaine.
*They should have allegedly coated in cocaine,
acquitted of all charges.
I miss the 80s
I don’t remember them well enough to miss them. lol
Ha that was my question…. How did the Deloreans fair
Seems like from modern reviews I’ve seen pretty well in terms of body panel rust. Some frame rust on some but that wasn’t stainless so I suppose that’d be expected.
It’s not rust, it’s patina.
Yeah, a patina of iron oxide.
Best reason I could find for this is related to the DeLorean since it also uses stainless steel. Apparently, the reason it doesn’t rust easily is because of a high chromium content in the steel, so maybe tesla used cheaper stainless steel.
Tesla cutting costs and using inferior materials? Just another day.
maybe tesla used cheaper stainless steel
Actually uh its because chromium doesn’t do as good a job of uh um… stopping bullets.
Idiot.
So which is it, stainless steel or bullet proof?
Listen, Elon Musk said it was both and if you don’t believe his Joe Rogan YouTube video then you don’t care about climate change and are probably a pedophile.
Ok, genuinely fuck you for that one. Maybe if Elon wasn’t using giant lithium batteries to power his cars we wouldn’t have so much damn electrical waste from cars, and he’s actively trying to leave the planet so he clearly doesn’t care about it.
I think you’re missing OP’s irony.
he’s actively trying to leave the planet so he clearly doesn’t care about it.
And when he gets to Mars - which he definitely will, very soon now! - you’re not going to be invited.
Not unless you want to subscribe to Twitter Blue! Just $8/mo! So many benefits!
Can I sign other people up, like say, my boss?
Is Elon doing coke and playing in a wedding band too? John Deloreon played my mom and dad’s wedding.
Fairly certain he’s doing coke.
Maybe the owners should stop using Firefox then.
It’s called “stainless” because you can remove the rust without leaving stains. Where’s the problem? Just rub down your useless, horribly expensive pile of crap with steel wool every few days. And oil it. There are several kinds of"stainless" steel, too. We can safely assume, they took the cheapest. Ah the 2020s, the apex decade of scams. And like always, the scammers are not the problem, they were here at any time and they will be. The stupidity that falls for it is. Is all evolving so painfully slow…
I doubt you can really buff that thing properly. The panels are under tension and if the clips give, the bumper just flies off.
Imagine buffing that car.
Had this issue with kitchen knives; having the components properly mixed is apparently hard. At least that’s what the supporter said, he said nothing to the life-long warranty.
FYI, lifetime warranty usually means the lifetime of the product, not yours. What the manufacturer deems to be expected lifetime of the product under general use is arbitrary.
So where’s the photo of this rust?
https://www.cybertruckownersclub.com/forum/threads/rust-spots-corrosion-is-the-norm.11988/page-2
Looks like pollen or other road crap. Some people are saying rail dust from train transport
Looks like this pics got removed.
Lol barkeeper’s friend to de-rust your expensive vehicle
That company is having an unexpected payday, methinks…at very least they’re getting tons of free press lately
I love that some guy suggested tho just cover the car while transporting via rail. And then? Never get vlose to a railway ever again? I used to work next to a railway, and the white cars were super dusty from the breaking dust. Everything rusts like crazy that gets in contact with it.
This is just fitting for people who were so afraid of other people damaging their cars that they go stainless steel cars, only for them to rust in every day rain. Hahaha cyber truck is a gift that keeps giving
Grift that keeps on grifting
StainLESS, not stainPROOF.
Tesla likely uses an incorrect grade/family for the truck. Think bare minimum to be classified as stainless steel. Quality stainless steel is not cheap. A good example is surgical equipment and the DeLorean pointed out earlier in this thread.
https://www.unifiedalloys.com/blog/stainless-grades-families
Do you not understand what “less” means in this context? It’s pretty basic English.
Yes, I understand exactly what it means. It means that the steel is less prone to corrosion but it does not mean that it won’t corrode. It’s pretty basic metallurgy.
Half the joke is how the paint also corrodes the metal, just from the underside so it isn’t quite as obvious until it starts flaking off in big chunks.
Man, who would have thought that it would be garbage
Already?
Yup. One response said this …
“They documented the corrosion, and told me they’ll give me a call next month when the tools have arrived and they can perform the service/repair,” the user wrote after taking their vehicle to their local service center. “The Cybertruck has 381 miles on it, and has spent much of the 11 days in my custody parked in front of my house.”
Bro got the “stainless” steel.
Jesus Christ!
These are, and forever will be, talismans of stupidity. Anyone seen driving one should be mocked until they feel the appropriate amount of shame for having bought one.
I want to trademark the “pt cruiser? Still not a cyber truck” or maybe the outline of one so musk can’t try to get it taken down via lawsuit. (Also make one for Aztec, vw bus, pinto and Prius, maybe even have one for other Tesla models XD)
I’m with you for all but the VW bus. That thing’s charming.
Swap it for the Multipla
I’d prefer to not pay them any attention at all. Shaming people is too much effort.
