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This Is Why Tesla’s Stainless Steel Cybertrucks May Be Rusting
(www.wired.com)
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this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2024
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DeLorean is 304 Stainless. Cyber truck is 30? stainless. As in Tesla doesn't want to say, which is why they write it "30X".
given how hard the steel is purported to be, it's likely a variant of 304N, instead of 304 or 304L. (basic stainless like in commercial kitchen equipment and 18/10 stainless, like in high end cooking pans). 304N is harder to work with cold due to it's hardness and gets harder when worked, both properties Tesla has reported as belonging to the cybertruck's steel. 304N is considered a marine grade stainless steel.
There have been a lot of developments in stainless steel production in the 40ish years since the DeLorean came out, so I highly doubt it's the same steel.
304N is not marine grade. It is 304 with a little extra nitrogen for hardness.
Marine grade steels have molybdenum for chloride resistance like 316L.
I was going to say that. 304 is the cheap "marine grade" sold at the hardware store that will rust. 316 is sold at the Chandelry and won't rust.
To put it another way, 304 is freshwater stainless, 316 is ocean grade.
in that fanboy forum linked elsewhere earlier they confirmed it's a cheaper steel. My mind says 302 but that's based on not much.
Maybe, and likely, given all the other cuts they made, but as far as I know it's not actually known, which is frustrating. That said the article calls it an SUV and isn't exactly riddles with facts, so.
The pictures from the cybertruckowners forum show something on the surface causing discoloration, like road grime or dust disintegrating in the rain, not like rust forming on metal. I've restored a few rusty stainless kitchen knives in my day, absolutely abused ones, and even cheap stainless doesn't rust like that, that fast. I'd expect rust pin spots that bad on a chipped paint job over mild steel, on stainless that's had iron embedded in it (like from scrubbing a sink with steel wool, or on chemically altered steel (like filling a stainless sink with bleach and putting an iron pan in the same sink for a while).
All we need is somebody to drive by a pressure vessel fabrication shop and get the panels zapped by a PMI gun. We'd know instantly.
Which makes the fact that DeLorean managed to get it right but Tesla couldn't all the more embarrassing.
That's what I'm trying to get across, it's very unlikely Tesla got it wrong. Bare stainless will eventually rust, but not in a few days of freshwater rain, sheesh.
300 are all austenitic*, they could have been heating it or either working it too much and sensitized it, both lowering its strength and its corrosion resistance
Heh, even more reason to never buy version 1. I doubt they're doing anything but pulling steel off a roll, cutting it, stamping it, and spot welding a reinforcing piece to the back.
Does marine grade stainless rust in the rain?
Eventually, yes. Especially around salt. Not in 2 days though. Maybe take the trash click bait article with some of that salt.
I'd love to see someone sacrifice a body panel and do a 3.5% salt solution test like knifenerd does.
Someone just needs to XRF a panel
Yes!
Even if you don’t have one an XRF gun, you can just visit a local junkyard and ask the owner to use theirs.