A Tesla Cybertruck owner says there is a concerted effort to publicly shame people who drive the all-electric truck. He recounts several instances where people pointed and laughed at him while driving his Cybertruck.
Iron particles in the air land on the bare stainless steel, react with it, and rust. It’s the iron particles rusting, not the steel itself. This is called ‘fallout,’ and it mostly comes from brake rotors. It contaminates the surface of all vehicles and needs to be removed, but with paint and clearcoat in between, this reaction doesn’t happen. The ‘rust’ on Cybertrucks is just surface contamination that can be cleaned off. If you left a bunch of modern cars out in the rain for 100 years, the Cybertruck would likely be the only one with anything left of it.
There’s plenty to criticise the Cybertruck for but spreading this rusting myth is dishonest.
Anything with iron can rust, including stainless steel.
Stainless that gets scratched will rust, as well as if the mild steel (or whatever the dust is,) causes a galvanic reaction. Or any where that the stainless is exposed to lesser steel. (Which is why you can’t store stainless with mild.)(including, in point of fact to milde steel dust…)
Alternatively, exposure to corrosives- bug juice, road salt and other deicers, potentially a dozen kinds of automotive fluids.
There’s a reason the rest of the automotive industry doesn’t use exposed stainless anywhere. And that reason me is it rusts (and is difficult to work with, and is more likely to kill people in an impact.)(people at Tesla told musk this. He didn’t care. Musk is an idiot.)
A wired as a source talking about the issues in CA drivers (where there is a lot of salt in the air.)
I used to build stainless steel farming equipment for industries like fertilizers and such. The acidic nature of which, would eat through paint. Stainless steel gas to be cleaned of that “surface rust” constantly or that rust will transfer to the stainLESS steel (note: not stainPROOF steel.) 100 years in the elements and no vehicle would be recognizable. Especially knowing the reaction of lithium to water.
There are different grades with different alloys. The type of alloy of steel the CT uses is similar to kitchen grade, but reduces the chromumium to make it cheaper, but more prone to corrosion, especially around salt.
I think you’d still agree that, compared to the regular steel used in most other vehicles, one made of stainless steel would offer superior corrosion resistance, right? It may not last forever, but it sure beats the alternative.
My 17-year-old truck has its wheel arches rusting through, despite the paint and undercoating. I feel pretty confident saying this wouldn’t be the case if it were made of stainless steel.
Well that all depends. 17 years old and rusting through, I’d say you’re likely in a wet environment. Possibly near salt water. And it’s moving a lot more than one would while in a field, sitting. I bet you drive on gravel a bit, yeah? Doing that also makes wheel wells rust out faster because even minute damage to the paint will make it rust pretty fast. So from my point of view, sitting in an unprotected field, I would take the Corvette over a cybertruck. It’s a heavily painted fiberglass body over an alloy chassis. Honestly the more carbon fiber the car has, the more likely it is to be recognizable in 100 years. The point is, you’ll see badly rusted cyber trucks pretty soon because it’s actually quite a pain to maintain. Any dent or scratch will be rusted BAD if not rectified within 6 months or so in a wet environment, 18-24 if it’s dry enough.
All else being equal, stainless steel is a superior material compared to regular steel. I don’t get why that’s so difficult to admit. If my truck had been used in the exact same way but was made of stainless steel, it wouldn’t be rusting through. It might not be completely rust-free, but it would definitely be less rusty.
Sure, all things being equal, you’re right, stainless is better. But most stainless is unpainted. If it’s sitting in a field, not getting damaged by rocks and such, id honestly trust a modern paint over stainless depending on the grade. High grade stainless is great. That’s not what the cyber truck is made out of, though. Deloreans got rusty with stainless steel and they rusted without ever even going down gravel. To be fair I haven’t checked on the quality of the stainless panels in either car. But, you do know that the frame and components aren’t all stainless either, right? Also, don’t be mad at me, I’m enjoying this conversation.
I’m not mad. If I come across that way, it wasn’t my intention.
I agree about the paint - the best way to prevent rust is to keep the steel from coming into contact with water in the first place. I’m not sure how well paint adheres to stainless steel, but if I were to get a Cybertruck, wrapping it would seem like the obvious thing to do, which is what many people do with new, expensive cars anyway. Another advantage the Cybertruck has over other vehicles is that its steel is much thicker, so it’s not only less likely to dent, but it would also take much longer to rust through, even if it were made of normal steel.
I’m not saying that you are, but many people get overly emotional about this vehicle because of its controversial CEO, and I feel it’s getting a bit of unfair treatment as a result. I don’t think there’s a vehicle on the planet that would pass this level of scrutiny without criticism. Just yesterday, I watched a video of a $700k brand new Lamborghini that was never driven or washed, needing extensive paint correction due to poor quality finish straight from the factory. It seems indefensible for a vehicle of that price, but it is what it is.
I’m guessing what you describe is like some of my knives (IKEA ones iirc) getting rust on them if they don’t get dried properly and are left to dry with water left on them?
Still sounds like terrible design when no car I’ve ever seen has this sort of problem.
I have an MS in mechanical engineering focused in materials and I wrote a few papers on 3d printing of stainless tool steels. I’ve read further down the thread and you are completely wrong.
It’s rusting because it’s a low grade stainless. Its low grade because stainless steel work hardens when bent or machined. Lower grades have less issues with work hardening. They made this choice to save on tooling costs I assume.
Work hardening is when you permanently deform a material it gets more brittle. Stainless is an unbelievably stupid choice for a vehicle body because it needs to be formed into complex shapes which require lots of deformation. It’s why SS cars feature mostly large flat panels and also partially why we have been moving towards aluminum body panels.
The lower the grade the faster it rusts. Forgot most people don’t know that. Its rusting because there is iron in steel (duh). It’s rusting quickly because it has low concentration of rust inhibitors like chromium or nickel. Increasing the concentration of these metals makes it rust slower. It also makes it harder to tool into a car body, making it a shifty choice for a car shell.
The article you linked is either uninformed or being misleading about “free iron”. That just means there are no rust inhibitors so they are leaving free energy available on the surface of an iron grain at the surface of the material. This makes it rust quickly where those grains are. There are millions of these grains at the surface where the metal interfaces with air. The iron particles are in the body panel, not on top of it.
The paint job on any car, especially one costing 100k+, requires an extreme level of care and maintenance if you want to keep it looking pristine. Many people who own such cars don’t even wash them themselves because they will scratch the clear coat. Personally, I have no desire to waste my time on that, but I’m also not in the market for such a car, so it doesn’t concern me. What I don’t get is why people who have no intention of buying a Cybertruck in the first place are so vocal about how difficult it is to maintain. If anything, I’d imagine these people would just be happy that Cybertruck owners have to deal with all that.
It doesn’t rust.
Iron particles in the air land on the bare stainless steel, react with it, and rust. It’s the iron particles rusting, not the steel itself. This is called ‘fallout,’ and it mostly comes from brake rotors. It contaminates the surface of all vehicles and needs to be removed, but with paint and clearcoat in between, this reaction doesn’t happen. The ‘rust’ on Cybertrucks is just surface contamination that can be cleaned off. If you left a bunch of modern cars out in the rain for 100 years, the Cybertruck would likely be the only one with anything left of it.
There’s plenty to criticise the Cybertruck for but spreading this rusting myth is dishonest.
Anything with iron can rust, including stainless steel.
Stainless that gets scratched will rust, as well as if the mild steel (or whatever the dust is,) causes a galvanic reaction. Or any where that the stainless is exposed to lesser steel. (Which is why you can’t store stainless with mild.)(including, in point of fact to milde steel dust…)
Alternatively, exposure to corrosives- bug juice, road salt and other deicers, potentially a dozen kinds of automotive fluids.
There’s a reason the rest of the automotive industry doesn’t use exposed stainless anywhere. And that reason me is it rusts (and is difficult to work with, and is more likely to kill people in an impact.)(people at Tesla told musk this. He didn’t care. Musk is an idiot.)
A wired as a source talking about the issues in CA drivers (where there is a lot of salt in the air.)
I used to build stainless steel farming equipment for industries like fertilizers and such. The acidic nature of which, would eat through paint. Stainless steel gas to be cleaned of that “surface rust” constantly or that rust will transfer to the stainLESS steel (note: not stainPROOF steel.) 100 years in the elements and no vehicle would be recognizable. Especially knowing the reaction of lithium to water.
The Cybertruck manual actually says you have to clean all bug splatter and bird shit off immediately or else.
To be fair, every car manual says that.
There are different grades with different alloys. The type of alloy of steel the CT uses is similar to kitchen grade, but reduces the chromumium to make it cheaper, but more prone to corrosion, especially around salt.
I think you’d still agree that, compared to the regular steel used in most other vehicles, one made of stainless steel would offer superior corrosion resistance, right? It may not last forever, but it sure beats the alternative.
My 17-year-old truck has its wheel arches rusting through, despite the paint and undercoating. I feel pretty confident saying this wouldn’t be the case if it were made of stainless steel.
Well that all depends. 17 years old and rusting through, I’d say you’re likely in a wet environment. Possibly near salt water. And it’s moving a lot more than one would while in a field, sitting. I bet you drive on gravel a bit, yeah? Doing that also makes wheel wells rust out faster because even minute damage to the paint will make it rust pretty fast. So from my point of view, sitting in an unprotected field, I would take the Corvette over a cybertruck. It’s a heavily painted fiberglass body over an alloy chassis. Honestly the more carbon fiber the car has, the more likely it is to be recognizable in 100 years. The point is, you’ll see badly rusted cyber trucks pretty soon because it’s actually quite a pain to maintain. Any dent or scratch will be rusted BAD if not rectified within 6 months or so in a wet environment, 18-24 if it’s dry enough.
All else being equal, stainless steel is a superior material compared to regular steel. I don’t get why that’s so difficult to admit. If my truck had been used in the exact same way but was made of stainless steel, it wouldn’t be rusting through. It might not be completely rust-free, but it would definitely be less rusty.
Sure, all things being equal, you’re right, stainless is better. But most stainless is unpainted. If it’s sitting in a field, not getting damaged by rocks and such, id honestly trust a modern paint over stainless depending on the grade. High grade stainless is great. That’s not what the cyber truck is made out of, though. Deloreans got rusty with stainless steel and they rusted without ever even going down gravel. To be fair I haven’t checked on the quality of the stainless panels in either car. But, you do know that the frame and components aren’t all stainless either, right? Also, don’t be mad at me, I’m enjoying this conversation.
I’m not mad. If I come across that way, it wasn’t my intention.
I agree about the paint - the best way to prevent rust is to keep the steel from coming into contact with water in the first place. I’m not sure how well paint adheres to stainless steel, but if I were to get a Cybertruck, wrapping it would seem like the obvious thing to do, which is what many people do with new, expensive cars anyway. Another advantage the Cybertruck has over other vehicles is that its steel is much thicker, so it’s not only less likely to dent, but it would also take much longer to rust through, even if it were made of normal steel.
I’m not saying that you are, but many people get overly emotional about this vehicle because of its controversial CEO, and I feel it’s getting a bit of unfair treatment as a result. I don’t think there’s a vehicle on the planet that would pass this level of scrutiny without criticism. Just yesterday, I watched a video of a $700k brand new Lamborghini that was never driven or washed, needing extensive paint correction due to poor quality finish straight from the factory. It seems indefensible for a vehicle of that price, but it is what it is.
I’m guessing what you describe is like some of my knives (IKEA ones iirc) getting rust on them if they don’t get dried properly and are left to dry with water left on them?
Still sounds like terrible design when no car I’ve ever seen has this sort of problem.
I have an MS in mechanical engineering focused in materials and I wrote a few papers on 3d printing of stainless tool steels. I’ve read further down the thread and you are completely wrong.
It’s rusting because it’s a low grade stainless. Its low grade because stainless steel work hardens when bent or machined. Lower grades have less issues with work hardening. They made this choice to save on tooling costs I assume.
Work hardening is when you permanently deform a material it gets more brittle. Stainless is an unbelievably stupid choice for a vehicle body because it needs to be formed into complex shapes which require lots of deformation. It’s why SS cars feature mostly large flat panels and also partially why we have been moving towards aluminum body panels.
What am I completely wrong about exactly? I haven’t made any claims about the quality of the steel.
Most of the articles I find when googling about the rusting points towards iron particles.
The lower the grade the faster it rusts. Forgot most people don’t know that. Its rusting because there is iron in steel (duh). It’s rusting quickly because it has low concentration of rust inhibitors like chromium or nickel. Increasing the concentration of these metals makes it rust slower. It also makes it harder to tool into a car body, making it a shifty choice for a car shell.
The article you linked is either uninformed or being misleading about “free iron”. That just means there are no rust inhibitors so they are leaving free energy available on the surface of an iron grain at the surface of the material. This makes it rust quickly where those grains are. There are millions of these grains at the surface where the metal interfaces with air. The iron particles are in the body panel, not on top of it.
It does rust.
And you have to wash the car every time it rains? No thanks.
Left untreated, rust can form pitting and become extremely difficult to impossible to restore.
https://bssa.org.uk/bssa_articles/iron-contamination-and-rust-staining-on-stainless-steel/
The paint job on any car, especially one costing 100k+, requires an extreme level of care and maintenance if you want to keep it looking pristine. Many people who own such cars don’t even wash them themselves because they will scratch the clear coat. Personally, I have no desire to waste my time on that, but I’m also not in the market for such a car, so it doesn’t concern me. What I don’t get is why people who have no intention of buying a Cybertruck in the first place are so vocal about how difficult it is to maintain. If anything, I’d imagine these people would just be happy that Cybertruck owners have to deal with all that.
Sure Elon let’s get you to bed