I wasn't saying I think some parts of the frame will be painted steel and some parts be stainless. I do not know. All I was saying is it is possible to glue painted steel to stainless steel.
Tesla is going to do whatever makes sense from a cost/ first principals approach. If stainless isn’t required in some places, and it makes more sense from a cost perspective to use stamped steel for an internal part which is unlikely to rust regardless, they won’t hesitate to do so. If adding a paint step would make it more expensive then they won’t.
Obviously the CT will not be "steel-free", but the exoskeleton will be providing the structure.
The problem is that you haven't glued anything to the steel, you've glued to the paint. Any maybe that will work also, but it's an unequal comparison to the MY construction.
By definition, the exoskeleton will be stainless only. It would be pretty odd to have a blue quarter panel. Other, hidden structural components? Not as clear.
stop fact-checking me in real time
I didnt mention the circular cut out. i am refering to the very obvious break in the stainlessThe circular cutout in the corner is for stress-relief, and actually makes the intersection much stronger. https://www.quora.com/Why-do-ships-have-round-windows
If the Cybertruck exoskeleton is built over a steel BiW, I'll eat it.
The exoskeleton was never going to be a single folded sheet, so of course there will be seams. The manner of construction remains to be seen.
Masking, dunking and painting would be more expensive than simply using stainless steel to begin with. It would make no sense without a more compelling reason than trying to save the price difference between steel and stainless steel. What am I missing?
I agree with that, what I was disagreeing with is that any portion of the structural part of the exoskeleton would be made of painted steel. The door jambs are a structural part of the exoskeleton.
In some of the interior images of the CT with the doors open you can clearly see that the b pillar is painted. The structural battery pack housing is also painted steel and there is a lot that will be attached to that. The front and rear are aluminum castings and there is a lot attached to those. To think that this is just some thick stainless origami sitting on a skateboard doesn't complete the picture for me.
If the stainless is just panels glued on, then it's not an exoskeleton.
So you think these painted stamped pillars are stainless in the image below. Why would they pay extra money to do that other than the slight chance of galvanic corrosion which they are very good at handling. There will be at least 1500 lbs of interior stamped body panels in the truck. They are very good at interior steel stamped body panels. Why reinvent that wheel when they don't need to.
Elon really likes structural adhesives. look at the structural battery pack. probably 80% plus structurally supported with adhesives. You can definitely glues sheets of stainless together with steel gusset or other support member and would still consider that an exoskeleton. A typical stamped steel unibody vehicle could be considered a steel exoskeleton. I think the CT will load the exterior panels more than a typical unibody steel frame and it will likely have less interior body panels but there will definitely be a lot of interior adhered body parts working to hold together all those exterior body panels.
