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Road & Track: Some Cybertruck Owners Say Their Trucks Are Shedding Body Panels; One Thinks He Knows Why [View all]
Road & Track - Some Cybertruck Owners Say Their Trucks Are Shedding Body Panels; One Thinks He Knows Why
A Tesla owner who wraps the vehicles for a living has come up with a hypothesis as to why his truck lost a piece of its bodywork at speed.
By Fred Smith
Published: Feb 21, 2025 11:56 AM EST
Every example of the Tesla Cybertruck on the road comes with two boomerang-shaped pieces of metal attached along its roofline, completing a unique sharp point at the top of the car's windshield. In at least two cases reported to the federal government, drivers have stated this part or a similar one has flown off the car at speed — and one Cybertruck owner even says he has video of it jettisoning a boomerang-shaped piece of metal into the the road at highway speeds.
(video at link)
The clip, recorded by the on-board cameras of owner Reid Tomasko's Cybertruck and shared with Road & Track, appears to show that trim piece flying off of the driver's side of the truck. The trim piece then seems to fly into the lane behind the vehicle.
Tomasko owns Shock Auto Styling, a New Hampshire-based car-wrapping business that he says has worked on dozens of Cybertrucks, and says he has seen many of the trucks up close and removed so many of the vehicle's panels while wrapping them. He says he has encountered the problem on multiple trucks owned by other customers. In a video shared to YouTube two weeks ago, Tomasko detailed what he has seen happening with both his own Cybertruck and another truck suffering from similar problems.
As the video illustrates, the trim piece that flew off of his truck is connected to a plastic frame bolted directly to the car; that trim piece, he says, is stuck to the frame with adhesive rather than welded or bolted to anything. That adhesive has seemingly failed in multiple places on his truck, leading to the loosened roofline trim panels.
The trim piece may not be the only part of the truck that is effectively secured only with adhesive: Tomasko says he believes other components, including the truck's quarter panels, also seem to be held on this way, and that those components maybe vulnerable to the same sort of failure. Tomasko's video illustrates a similar adhesive problem on different parts of each of his truck's two quarter panels. The customer-owned truck in his video also appears to show similar adhesive problems on both of its quarter panels, as well as the tailgate, but the latter is also welded on at points.
/snip
A Tesla owner who wraps the vehicles for a living has come up with a hypothesis as to why his truck lost a piece of its bodywork at speed.
By Fred Smith
Published: Feb 21, 2025 11:56 AM EST
Every example of the Tesla Cybertruck on the road comes with two boomerang-shaped pieces of metal attached along its roofline, completing a unique sharp point at the top of the car's windshield. In at least two cases reported to the federal government, drivers have stated this part or a similar one has flown off the car at speed — and one Cybertruck owner even says he has video of it jettisoning a boomerang-shaped piece of metal into the the road at highway speeds.
(video at link)
The clip, recorded by the on-board cameras of owner Reid Tomasko's Cybertruck and shared with Road & Track, appears to show that trim piece flying off of the driver's side of the truck. The trim piece then seems to fly into the lane behind the vehicle.
Tomasko owns Shock Auto Styling, a New Hampshire-based car-wrapping business that he says has worked on dozens of Cybertrucks, and says he has seen many of the trucks up close and removed so many of the vehicle's panels while wrapping them. He says he has encountered the problem on multiple trucks owned by other customers. In a video shared to YouTube two weeks ago, Tomasko detailed what he has seen happening with both his own Cybertruck and another truck suffering from similar problems.
As the video illustrates, the trim piece that flew off of his truck is connected to a plastic frame bolted directly to the car; that trim piece, he says, is stuck to the frame with adhesive rather than welded or bolted to anything. That adhesive has seemingly failed in multiple places on his truck, leading to the loosened roofline trim panels.
The trim piece may not be the only part of the truck that is effectively secured only with adhesive: Tomasko says he believes other components, including the truck's quarter panels, also seem to be held on this way, and that those components maybe vulnerable to the same sort of failure. Tomasko's video illustrates a similar adhesive problem on different parts of each of his truck's two quarter panels. The customer-owned truck in his video also appears to show similar adhesive problems on both of its quarter panels, as well as the tailgate, but the latter is also welded on at points.
/snip
Their reputation for being pieces of shit is earned!
9 replies
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= new reply since forum marked as read