Sail Panel Replacement Didn't Fix Alignment Issue - Try Tesla Body Shop next?

[TeslaKen]

I had my Cybertruck in for the recalls on the wiper motor and the sail panels this past week. I pointed out to the technician working on the truck that the sail panel on the passenger side dips down so low near the upper cross bar mounting point that the MARS bars that I have are difficult to mount there and I had to modify my mounting bracket to account for this almost 1/4" dip.

When I picked up my truck the dip was still there so I asked the technician why he didn't raise the sail panel in that area and his response was that the cross bar mounting points are WELDED to the structure of the car and he cannot move them. Obviously, this one was welded a bit too low.

We have a Tesla repair center (body shop) in my city, do you think if I took it there that they could cut and re-weld this item to get it into proper alignment? I will attach a picture so you can see the dip in the sail panel.

I should note that on the drivers side the sail panel is almost flush with the outside edge of the vertical rear quarter panel of the truck. The passenger side is significantly lower.

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[TeslaKen]

I took my Cybertruck to the Tesla Body Shop facility in my city and they looked at it and agreed that it was lower on the passenger side than normal, unfortunately the mounting area is part of a black steel plate that is welded to the outer stainless panel and once that is done you cannot change it without replacing the entire stainless steel rear quarter panel / sail panel assembly which Tesla isn't going to do because it is within specs. They did offer to take out the pins and install bolts there instead that could be of a longer length or have welded nuts on the bottom that you would screw down into. Before doing that I decided to try and fabricate a 1/8" spacer for my cross bar mounting bracket and see if I can be successful with it first before going to greater measures. It will be interesting to see what sort of adjustability Tesla offers in their mounting points for their own cross bars in the future.

 

[TeslaKen]

As a follow up, the 1/8" spacer worked to get the mount high enough to clear the side sail panel stainless edge, 3/16" likely would have been perfect but I could only find 1/8" aluminum bar in stock locally. My advice is that anyone thinking of doing crossbars should examine their mounting system thoroughly and make sure it will adapt to the not always perfect mounting locations on the Cybertruck.

 

[Jack27]

I’m a little confused when you say “aluminum bar” for your spacer ? Are you saying that the bracket the plastic mounts to is flat against the back of that so you were able to add a 1/8
Spacer between it and the mount ? If that’s the case you could also go to the tile section of your Home Depot and get plastic horse shoe shims in a variety of sizes 1/8-1/16-1/4. But maybe I’m not understanding exactly. Glad you fixed it enough to be happy with it though

 

[TeslaKen]

I’m a little confused when you say “aluminum bar” for your spacer ? Are you saying that the bracket the plastic mounts to is flat against the back of that so you were able to add a 1/8
Spacer between it and the mount ? If that’s the case you could also go to the tile section of your Home Depot and get plastic horse shoe shims in a variety of sizes 1/8-1/16-1/4. But maybe I’m not understanding exactly. Glad you fixed it enough to be happy with it though

Take the plastic cover off and you will see 2 threaded pins sticking up (may or may not have factory nuts on them) I created an aluminum bar (rectangle) that goes over those 2 pins and is 1/8" thick. I drilled 2 holes in the rectangular piece of aluminum, 1 for each pin to go through. I drop the bar over the pins and it sits in the bottom of the mounting cavity.

I then take the MARS mounting bracket and place it over the same 2 pins. The bracket now sits up 1/8" higher because it has the aluminum spacer underneath it. This allows the bracket to clear the side of the truck and to be able to mount the cover plate on the bracket, the one with 5 screws that holds it onto the bracket.

I took some pics, here

This pic shows the bracket sitting up high enough so that the bracket and cover plate are able to clear the edge. Prior to this the bracket itself was right up against the edge and there was no way to mount the cover plate.

Make sense?

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