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

      • VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        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.

      • Zron@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        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.

        • bluewing@lemm.ee
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          5 months ago

          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.

          • Zron@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            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.

        • derphurr@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          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)

    • mx_smith@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Waiting for a back to the future reboot using a Tesla truck where it breaks down in the past because of no electricity.

      • VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        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.

      • FireTower@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        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.

  • theodewere@kbin.social
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    5 months ago

    professional metallurgists feel free to chime in and back me up on this, but i think rusting at the first sign of rain is an indication those panels are made of junk

    • Milk_Sheikh@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      It’s stain**less** steel, not no-rust steel. All stainless oxidizes, faster or slower depending on the chromium percentage. Normally we call it “tarnish” and it comes right off, but if you cheap out with a low grade stainless steel and/or inferior coating, stainless steel will rust like carbon steel, just slower and less completely

      • theodewere@kbin.social
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        5 months ago

        thanks for that explanation

        just slower and less completely

        so their post-apocalyptic survival trucks will sport the look a little early

  • Sarsaparilla@kbin.social
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    5 months ago

    “Weathered steel” was all the rage on brand new buildings a few years ago, why not on a “truck”? 😏

  • no banana @lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    stainless ≠ rust free

    That’s literally why it’s called stainless instead of rust free. All stainless isn’t made equal and actual rust free steel is expensive.

    • Pietson@kbin.social
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      5 months ago

      In Dutch stainless steel is actually translated to rust free steel. Guess that’s a misnomer.

      • no banana @lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        It is in Swedish as well. But “rostfritt stål” isn’t necessarily rust free, which many products make clear on their packaging if they’re products that come into contact with water a lot, especially salt water. There are high end knives (as an example) actually sold as rust free that do not rust (generally) under the most brutal conditions. Those steels are much more expensive than regular stainless you’d find in most things.

        The more rust resistant a steel is, the more brittle it tends to be and harder to work with. Elon has already discussed the problems of working with the steel they’re using. It’s a choice you have to make when making a product and we do know that Tesla tends to be iffy on quality control.

  • darkmatternoodlecow@programming.dev
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    5 months ago

    Imagine what kind of clown you’d have to be to buy a Tesla in 2024. I mean, Jesus Christ. They might as well tattoo the word TWAT onto their forehead in flashing, fluorescent ink.

  • THE MASTERMIND@feddit.ch
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    5 months ago

    Let’s spread a rumor that elon pisses on each and every cybertruck before it leaves factory to mark dominance and his drug induced piss is the reason of rust.

  • HollandJim@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    This was inane from the start and calling rust a “patina”…

    I swear, if this doesn’t certify them as a cult, I don’t know what will.

    • bluewing@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      What is often referred to as “patina” is a form of rust/corrosion layer that provides a natural protection from active rust/corrosion that will ruin whatever steel alloy it forms on and is actively applied to many steel alloy surfaces. And even metals like aluminum and titanium naturally form a “patina” to prevent corrosion also.

      See: Blued/browned gun barrels or case colored steels. All forms of protecting patina that can be quite striking to look at. Particularly case colored steels.

      • HollandJim@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Perhaps - but that bluing is not whats on the truck, hence my comment about rust. And this was never mentioned by Tesla, which is another concern.

        Anyway, let’s revisit this in 6 months and see how the “patina” is working out.

        • bluewing@lemm.ee
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          5 months ago

          No, but that “patina” does form a protective coating. Now, evidently Tesla doesn’t provide any type of coating and the ship their truck in the “bright”. But a patina would definitely help to provide some protection.

          I would think most of the uproar is simply about the the loss of the shiny bright look of the factory new look that simple time and use made go away. And that’s why your Grandmother spent all that time polishing that silver coffee service she had. It looked crappy and she didn’t like it.

  • 21Cabbage@lemmynsfw.com
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    5 months ago

    For what it’s worth you don’t have to spend much time around stainless steel to realize the word ‘stainless’ isn’t literal. I bet you exactly 0 knife nerds actually believed this thing wasn’t going to rust.

    • Kbobabob@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Stainless doesn’t rust. Stainless alloys do. Knives are an alloy because they need certain properties to be able to sharpen them properly and hold an edge.

      Medical stainless doesn’t rust and whatever the hell my kitchen sink is doesn’t either.

      • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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        5 months ago

        Good knives rust, bad knives don’t. You need high iron to hone a perfect edge properly. You can still resharpen a shitty knife, your grocery butcher will likely do it for free, but it will never have the same edge as a properly honed good knife.

      • bluewing@lemm.ee
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        5 months ago

        “Surgical” stainless - a marketing term - will rust simply because it’s still an alloy of chromium and steels - it just takes far longer than the higher carbon steel alloys because of the lower carbon content. And yes, scalpel blades are made from high carbon stainless alloys that WILL rust if not properly stored - they are single use items and tossed when done being used once.

        Your stainless sink is probably made from some 304 stainless alloy due to it’s deep draw properties thanks to the extra nickle content. Things marked “Surgical” stainless would fall into this type of alloy. But 300 series stainless steels still contain about .05% carbon which is still enough to cause eventual rusting or staining.

        • Kbobabob@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          You do know that more than scalpels are used right? Things that are put into autoclaves and used over and over and over again.

    • Creat@discuss.tchncs.de
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      5 months ago

      Knifes are different though, as that is a different stainless steel alloy. I don’t remember the specifics, but something about higher carbon content so it can be hardened? This is why you shouldn’t put knifes into a dishwasher, they don’t like the salt and will get pitted over time.

      Nevertheless, no “normal” stainless is actually immune to rust or general corrosion anyway. It also depends on the environment (ask boat folks about this one), specifically if oxygen can get to it. And salt just makes everything 100x worse, too.

      • 21Cabbage@lemmynsfw.com
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        5 months ago

        Closest you get to real rust proof steel is nitrogen steels, which are used for diving knives. Super super hard though, doubt it’d make a good auto body, I’d imagine such a thing would be prone to cracking. Expensive too. I’m gonna say Daddy Elon’s best bet is to slap regular painted body panels on it and take the hit. I think we all know what he’s not going to do though.

        • bluewing@lemm.ee
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          5 months ago

          Even the nitrogen alloy steels used for diving knives will corrode. It just takes a lot longer than the normal high carbon stainless alloys.

          Water is the universal solvent…

  • Steak@lemmy.ca
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    5 months ago

    In b4 elon musks dicksuckers say they like the look and want it to rust.

    • girlfreddy@lemmy.caOP
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      5 months ago

      The already did, in the article.

      Others are in favor of their Cybertrucks developing orange stains, saying that they’re looking forward to the patina the stainless steel may develop.

  • corstian@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Ah yes rusted down cybertrucks on the road. That’s more like the dystopian future I imagined.