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Comment by scrumper | Hacker News Reader

John DeLorean managed to make a fleet of stainless cars in the 1980s, in troubles-torn Belfast, financed mostly by cocaine deals. And his cars didn't rust.

Don't want to risk Dang's ire here with a snarky dismissal so here's some substantive comment: the DeLorean used 304 grade steel; the CT is 301 which has more carbon and less chromium, so probably is a bit worse at resisting corrosion, but has some desirable strength properties over 304 and is cheaper.

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Deloreans notoriously have terrible frame rust issues.

https://www.deloreanguide.com/new-posts/frame-rustquite-poss...

Is that really relevant considering the frame on a delorean isn't the SS part?

I think it helps adjust the “deloreans were perfect cars” tone of the comment. Also, the panels of the car definitely rust too.

304 also rusts - especially in the presence of salt water which is why we don’t use it on the exterior of boats (unless you want rust stains) but instead use 316.

Same with cutlery..cheap cutlery uses 304 (18-8) and will develop rust spots and better cutlery uses 316 (18-10).

Yep - I cheaped out on some 304 grade fixers in the engine room on my saltwater boat and they were rusty garbage inside of a season. And that was just salty air, no direct water contact.

I’ve seen very few DeLoreans and imagine they were mostly well kept, garaged and driven in good weather.

CT is supposed to be a rugged space ship on wheels, bulletproof, arrowproof, fjording streams and climbing mountains.

I can see Elon musk telling us that there is no rain on Mars, which is where it's really designed for, so it's ok and continue to order please.

Will you get free shipping to Mars when the time comes?

...yes

True, they're bona fide classics these days. but what is telling is that an image search for "rusty delorean" returns a lot of broken cars, but none covered in rust. Here's the worst I could find: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/fb/54/1a/fb541a90e6e0d2176c6a...

The only actually rusty car photos were artists' impressions or stable diffusion output.

I don't know a lot about metal, I'm not sure if you do either, but I'm curious, would Tesla be able to use the 301 steel for the majority of the panel and then somehow use 304 on the surface only as a coating? Would the whole panel need to be the same material because if that 301 corroded the 304 steel would flake off?

Not a huge amount. I don't think you can "coat" (i.e. electroplate) one type of steel over another. You might consider chrome or nickel plating the thing but the costs would be quite high and it'd flake off in time anyway. Not much benefit for a big increase in manufacturing complexity. At that point, just paint it.

I'm sure there are sound reasons for picking a lower grade of stainless. This is not something that's unforeseeable. My guess is that it's somewhat intentional; the aesthetics of the thing are already a bit Mad Max-y so a bit of surface rust is cool.

I only think it would be cool if it stays on the car, ie you don't get yourself and other things rusty, including your driveway. I agree though, it could end up looking "cool" but I don't think that it would be for everyone, I imagine many people who buy a cyber truck want it to be shiny and silver. I personally love old looking things so it wouldn't bother me but I highly doubt that goes with the futuristic aesthetic of the car, time will tell I guess.

The "rusty steel" look is somewhat popular in architecture, but it's corten steel, not stainless steel. The idea is to have a stable rust layer instead of paint.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weathering_steel

yeah, the other thing is, on a car, I'd imagine dirt would be really good at adhering to rust, so the car would look pretty freaking bad if you took it anywhere near mud. If it maintained the nice stainless slick finish, a hose off would be enough to keep it looking nice.

Different grades of stainless steel respond differently to temperature changes. They would either warp or sheer apart depending on how well the two layers were bonded.

The same principal is how many thermometers work https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bimetallic_strip

It's my understanding that the Delorean steel has some kind of clearcoat on it. Tesla's steel is uncoated.

IIRC, the official DeLorean manual recommends using gasoline to clean the exterior.

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