34 Cybertrucks vandalized in Ft. Lauderdale.

[Baitball Blogger]

[BannonsLiver]

1. Hate to see that.

[3Hotdogs]

27. Dunno, but reading about it, tickles my left testicle

.

[eShirl]

2. thought and prayers

[erronis]

3. What? Did someone spray them with water and they started to rust?

Apparently a common feature of these ugly steel boxes.

[ProfessorGAC]

9. Not In Florida

But, in states that use road salt, I'd expect some pretty unattractive stainless steel in a couple years.
Maybe in Florida if the beasts are near enough the shore to catch salt spray.
300 series stainless & salt don't play well together.

[Disaffected]

10. Why would Tesla use it?

Cheaper, more malleable than other SS types?

[Mosby]

12. No one uses SS for body panels besides Tesla

And it was a dumb choice, but the panels cost substantially more than the galvanized crap that the other auto makers use. Road salt doesn't destroy SS like the other shit, it just discolors it.

[Disaffected]

13. OK, but I was wondering

why that type of SS rather than some other SS that might be more resistant to discolouring.

[Mosby]

17. Tesla is using 301 ss.

It has a high tensile strength but is not as corrosion resistant as 304 or 316. Both of those have a higher cost than 301.

There are knife steels like LC200N and H1 that are virtually impossible to rust, but you would never use it for car panels because of the cost. LC200N has a Rockwell rating of 60+!

Eta - you could leave this knife sitting in salt water and it wouldn't rust.

https://www.spyderco.com/catalog/details/C88FGR2/Salt-reg-2-Green-LC200N/2083

[Disaffected]

28. OK, thanks. nt

[ProfessorGAC]

19. 300 Series SS...

...has high tensile strength, a pretty high coefficient of restitution for stainless, and high surface hardness.
304 is about the cheapest 300 series, but most 400 series steel is cheaper.
But, that metal is terrible for welding applications.
18 series SS is good for chloride, but lacks tensile strength.
The obvious solution was to use carbon steel & paint the stupid car!

[Disaffected]

29. OK, thanks.

With Musk/Tesla there has to be some sort of high-tech wiz-bang gimmick - if he had made the thing of painted steel however, I expect sales would be even lower.

I wonder if there are any plastics or composite materials nowadays that might compete with painted steel?

BTW, there's an uncoloured Cybertruck around here I've seen several times lately that shows no signs of staining even though there's lots of road salt about. I dunno, maybe he washes it a lot or would it be sea salt that causes most of the problem?

[ProfessorGAC]

32. It Takes A While

What happens is a chemical process called metathesis, where some of the chloride infiltrates tye steel crystal structure forming nickel or chromium chloride.
The former is green, the latter is purple. Mix green & purple & we get brown.
Worse, as the alloy metals get extracted, the crystal structure is compromised with micro or nano cracks.
Over time, the tensile strength gets compromised & there's no way to reverse it.
I've seen entire reactors, rated for 150psig & full vacuum get so compromised that they collapsed under their own weight at atmospheric pressure and only 100°F.
In another case, I saw the bottom nozzle of a stainless steel storage simply break off by opening the valve.
Chloride stress corrosion is a well-researched & fully understood phenomenon.
As to the use of polymers, I'd say probably yes. Maybe even carbon fiber like a Lamborghini. Not a clue as to the cost, though

[Disaffected]

33. OK, which poses the question of how long

Cybertruck bodies, especially those in high ambient chloride areas, can be expected to last.

Maybe they can be painted.

[ProfessorGAC]

35. Couldn't Guess

Depends on the pH of the rain in that locale, the amount of salt, and how much sun, because the more solubility chloride solution sits the worse it is.
I'm going to be surprised if we don't see unattractive patinas on these thing in 4 or 5 years.

[Jacoby365]

4. That happened seven months ago.

More to come, I'm sure.

[Baitball Blogger]

6. Didn't notice that. Good catch.

[Jacoby365]

8. The only reason I noticed is because I remembered seeing it seven months ago, lol.

[magicarpet]

5. Someone customized the vehicles,...

... wasn't that thoughtful ?

[dalton99a]

7. How can you vandalize a dumpster?

[madinmaryland]

20. You could paint over the "Waste Management" or "Rumpke" logo.

[ck4829]

30. Total insult to Rumpke though

[C0RI0LANUS]

11. What a terrible shame. My wife just handed me a Kleenex.

[sinkingfeeling]

14. There's several hundred of them sitting in the unused parking lot at State Farm's HQ.

[Bengus81]

15. And.....they did thousands of $$$ of improvements

[kacekwl]

16. Oppps.

[sarisataka]

21. Hi Burt, welcome to DU

I look forward to your long stay...

[sarisataka]

24. LOL

You are funny. Honestly, I wish you would stick around, it would be entertaining. However, I don't think that is in the cards.

Until the next time

[bluesbassman]

26. He didn't even last a micro Scaramucci!

[ck4829]

23. "No, criminals are bad"... "let's elect a criminal as president though"

Not replying to sari

[sarisataka]

25. and *poof*

They'll be back- again

[JCMach1]

31. Be a shame if something happened to them there Teslas

Be a right shame...


************************
If I owned any Tesla, I would ditch it ASAP. It's about to get ugly and they will be a very easy target.

[LauraInLA]

36. You're lucky that you are in a position to replace your car on a dime.

We can’t afford to replace our Tesla right now, especially with the extra cost of fuel if we had to go that route. I guess I’ll just have to hope people in my area don’t support vandalism.

[JCMach1]

37. I don't have resources like that, but I would seriously

Replace it if I had one.

I don't want either the smoke,.or the headache.

[LauraInLA]

38. We're trying but can't for the foreseeable. At least it's still a very useful and "clean" car.

[Blue Owl]

34. Sorry officer, I thought it was a dumpster!