Cybertruck owners say they're already rusting | Hacker News Reader

Cybertruck owners say they're already rusting

futurism.com

47 pointsc42031 comments

These examples seemed to be in California, but I'm particularly curious about how Cybertrucks in snow-prone areas that heavily salt roads during the winter will fare.

What's wild to me is that a lot of modern cars don't rust as much. Some weird black magic coatings on the undercarriages now, 'cus shit used to rust so fast decades ago.

They still rust, just not as bad it seems.

From the article though this seems way more basic than the super-caustic-road-salt rust though.

I’m shocked at how good car paint has become. Paint on many 20+ year old cars kept outside looks new.

Meanwhile you’re supposed to paint metal roofs every 5-10 years. Granted, roofs are painted in less ideal conditions and eventually it’s paint on paint on paint, but even still the difference is striking.

Once in a while they fuck up the formulation and it leads to massive recalls.

GM tried to do something to their primer in the very late 80's, I believe it was meant to improve corrosion resistance. But the unintended consequence was that the paint didn't stick to it properly, and cars parked in the hot sun just started to peel after five or six years.

Sure and matte finish is inherently problematic etc, but the point is we have the technology. I’m sure it’s not cost effective for roofs etc, but even still it’s pretty damn impressive.

> Meanwhile you’re supposed to paint metal roofs every 5-10 years.

What the what now?

We've had the same roof sheets on for 30 years, no paint, no rust, corrosion, degradation at all. Ditto for the sheet metal fencing.

    Colorbond roofing sheets display exceptional durability. They are engineered to resist severe weather conditions such as extreme heat, heavy rain, and high winds. Thanks to its exceptional resistance to corrosion, a Colorbond roof can last for decades with minimal maintenance.

https://www.metalroofingonline.com.au/products/roofing-iron/...

Painting the roof and fences isn't on the list, and we're pretty proactive on maintainance - we've just flushed out all the grey water and rain water pipes about the place to remove silt and other buildups.

The factory coating on Colorbond roofs lasts a long time, but you can’t apply that coating a second time. Paint it and you should stick to a 5-10 year cycle or accept a shorter overall roof lifespan. With cars you can get them repainted and still expect that kind of lifespan on the custom paint job.

If you want longevity without the hassle copper roofs can last 200 years without painting, just at a much higher initial cost and fixed color.

It's summer now in Australia, with 40 and 45 degree Celsius days.

In 18 months (not this winter, the next), the plan is to strip the tin off altogether, replace part of the evaporative cooler that's rusted out a bit, slide in a few extra steel trusses, and then retin the roof with extra insulation to increase the R value, redo the solar hot water placement, and cover the rest with state of the art 2025 solar panels.

That should avoid having to paint for another 30 years and give us an excuse to host the kids, grandkids, and cousins for a week - everybody loves a b̶a̶r̶n̶ ̶r̶a̶i̶s̶i̶n̶g̶ roofing party.

If you want to make it last forever, jack it up, clean, and spray a lanolin oil coating once a year.

My guess would be barring some metallurgical mistakes the stainless surface is getting contaminated during production. We do a decent chunk of stainless steel production where I work and we keep any tools that might be contaminated away from the stainless production. We also bead blast the surface and passivate it to keep it contamination-free. Just any little bits of non-stainless metal will corrode and permanently stain the surface.

Eh, it's uncoated low chrome stainless (some 300 blend). It wouldn't take much to start surface rust. In my experience low chrome stainless will rust in months if it hangs out too close to normal steel (some kind of galvanic migration?). Since they just started delivery and it's winter, you'll know for sure (by spring) whether it was contamination or if they're all doomed. Road salt is much worse than salty air.

It's called s local element, where two different metals are having reaction with each other with one reducing the other chemicaly. You also could reduce it by having a sacrificial anode metal like on ships which are all the time in the water :)

Previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39377480

Maybe they were going for the Corten steel look?

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

Arguably it would look much cooler.

I feel like everyone is overlooking how cool it might look if the entire truck rusted over.

You say rust I say patina.

It really depends if it's caused by a relatively low content of chrome overall, or by local minimas (poor alloying, local contamination, local reduction). If it's the second, it won't look cool.

Peak Stockholm Syndrome right here

The truck will blend in well on Mars.

Can you imagine landing on Mars and realizing your way back home is rusting at an alarming rate.

There are different grades of "stainless" steel, not all are truly rust/corrosion resistant. Guess which Tesla used? The cheap stuff that still corrodes.

I wonder if the DeLoreans also rust after a few months of use.

I've owned a DeLorean since 1999. It's body panels do not rust or discolor at all, and the car has been stored outdoors under a cover for most of its life. The panels are "plain" 304 stainless steel, the same grade that is used in kitchens and food preparation machinery. As far as I know the only more corrosion-resistant grade is 316, which is used in medical equipment and smaller items where cost is less of an issue. The panels on the cybertruck are some "secret" alloy called 30X. It's probably very similar to 304, but the work hardening process that Tesla says gives the panels more strength may also lower is corrosion resistance.

They do, but they owners just keep going back in time and bring the new one back.

Bad decision by Tesla to charge like $5K+ for the clear film or colored wraps. Should've come pre installed.

[dupe]

More discussion here, one of a few threads:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39354342

I saw one of these on 880 the other day.

Maybe the rust will eventually consume it?

But I'm betting on an accident before that happens, based on the "driver" heads down with his phone. Yes, he was wearing a red cap - why do you ask?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com