Tesla has made waves with its huge gigacast body parts. The design choice has raised questions about whether a small amount of damage could easily total a vehicle based on these large cast components. However, the benefits of a modular design with “gigacastings” is that some repairs may be much quicker and easier compared to some conventional vehicles. The Cybertruck’s bed panels are a perfect example of this.
As shared by Nic Cruz Patane on Twitter, the sail panels that make up the Cybertruck’s bedsides are simply bolted to the large casting that makes up the rear part of the chassis. Thus, in the event of damage, the panel can simply be unbolted and either panel-beat back into shape or replaced with a fresh panel, provided the casting that supports it is undamaged. It’s a process that would likely take a body shop a day at most, depending on exactly how much wiring and other bodywork had to be removed to access the right area.
We haven’t disassembled a Cybertruck ourselves, to be fair. Regardless, from what we’re seeing here, it appears to check out. The supporting structure for the rear bed is all in the large cast components, and the bed panel just bolts on the outside.
Cybertruck’s rear quarter panel AKA the “Sail” just simply bolts up to Cybertruck’s rear casting.
Traditionally, you would need to cut, rivet, weld, seal, primer, sand, then paint in any legacy style truck. This process would normally take 3-5 days to complete; but with… pic.twitter.com/TdTRwyZgen
— Nic Cruz Patane (@niccruzpatane) March 2, 2024
The same repair on a conventional truck can be much more complex and labor-intensive. Patane references an older video from YouTuber BlueCollarKyle, which involves replacing a bedside panel on a 2015 Ford F-150 (which has aluminum panels; Rams and Silverados use steel, which should be easier to replace). Removing the Ford’s panel requires grinding out a ton of rivets and spot welds, splitting off the top lip with a chisel, and heating with a blow torch to release some adhesive in the wheel arches. Reattaching the panel then requires drilling and riveting it back on, along with the application of the correct panel bond adhesive in certain spots.
This is particularly relevant for trucks. On a working vehicle, it’s common for the bedsides to pick up dents and damage. When you’re loading stuff in and out or working around wheelbarrows and other construction equipment, it’s easy to smash up a panel. There has been a lot of hullabaloo about the strength of the Cybertruck’s stainless steel panels; to that, I can’t speak of directly. However, if replacement is much easier, that could be very attractive to existing owners when it comes time to repair or sell their trucks.
The Cybertruck has one further potential benefit in this area, and that’s paint. Or more accurately, the lack of it. In theory, you could bang up a bunch of Cybertruck panels and simply swap them out for new ones. You might consider a quick rubdown with Bar Keeper’s Friend to equalize the surface finish across your new and old panels, but that’s it. In contrast, as seen in the F-150 repair above, once you’re done with panel work, you need to prep and paint to match. This is tangential to the benefits of gigacasting, however. It’s really just the benefit of Tesla selling a vehicle that only comes in one color.
It’s worth noting, though, that the repair doesn’t generalize to all Cybertruck panels. Some are likely to be far more difficult to remove than others. In particular, doors may need to be replaced wholesale if unrepairable through panel beating techniques. It’s also unclear how easy it may be to remove and replace panels like those that form the pointed roofline of the truck. [Ed Note: And lord help you if you actually crack a gigacasting! -DT].
The news that a Cybertruck bedside repair could be affordable and easy will be welcome to owners. It does come with a caveat, though. This all depends on whether or not you can readily access replacement panels for your truck in a timely fashion, and the cost of the replacement parts. Also, while it’s good that you can remove panels if you need to beat them back into shape, there’s no word how easy that is to do with the Cybertruck’s unique stainless steel panels. At the very least, due to their bare metal nature, you can’t really use weld-on dent pulling techniques, as they would unduly mar the surface.
In any case, this stands in stark contrast to the big Rivian story of 2023, where a simple fender-bender racked up $42,000 in damage. As Jason Torchinsky found out in his deep-dive explainer, this was in part due to the sheer complexity of having to tear down the whole bed just to repair seemingly minor damage to the rear.
Really, though, Patane’s post doesn’t just have us considering repairs. If it’s so easy to bolt and unbolt panels from the Cybertruck, how long is it until we see some wild body conversions? Personally, I’m getting keen for a Cybertruck panel van.
Image credits: Tesla
Will you really notice a dent given how incredibly wavy those “flat” panels are?
How is this any different from any other car with a spaceframe? Legitimately asking.
With the exception of the front fenders that can almost always can be unbolted in a couple of minutes, most vehicle panels are basically a unitary piece with the underlying vehicle structure. To separate you need to cut welds, grind, etc. It can take hours to separate and hours to reattach after a repair is made.
That’s true for any regular unibody car, yes.
But the Cybertruck uses a spaceframe for its chassis, so other than using steel instead of some sort of composite that is more typical how is the Cybertruck panel replacement process outlined here different vs replacing rear body panels on any post-C4 Corvette (or, indeed, the DeLorean)? I think the sail panels on the Audi R8 are affixed the same way as well. My question is more is the article actually talking about the main benefit of a spaceframe chassis in general rather than anything inherent to the Cybertruck specifically.
There are almost no other vehicles in production with this kind of construction. I can’t really think of one that isn’t some sort of hypercar.
My very first post on this topic stated what kind of construction it was. That’s the entire reason why I was asking if there was something about the Cybertruck that made affixing non-stressed external body panels to an internal spaceframe chassis different from other cars that affixed non-stressed external body panels to an internal spaceframe chassis. For examples that aren’t “some sort of hypercar” there’s the Fiero, every Corvette made since 1984 (though some of the C4 body is glued in place), every Saturn made in that brand’s first 15 years, the Audi R8, every Lotus since the Elise…
Again, I was asking if there was something beyond the fact that Tesla used stainless steel instead of composites or aluminum (notwithstanding that the DeLorean also has fairly easily removable exterior body panels even though it wasn’t a spaceframe) to differentiate the thing being talked about in this article with other cars that use spaceframes with non-bonded body panels. That no other manufacturers have thought to design a car with a spaceframe so they can utilize lightweight materials for the body and then attach heavy stainless steel body panels to it anyway is neither here nor there for my question.
Have you seen the fit and finish of vehicles with bolt-on panels? It’s very expensive to get right and the Cyber truck doesn’t even get it right. It’s not an ideal method of manufacturing and the Tesla only has it because the panel material – you don’t want to see weld marks and stainless can’t easily be stamped into compound curves.
Saturn also did this and they weren’t terrible cars but the exterior finish was never up to modern standards. And the panels were plastic.
I don’t know about bolt-ons, but I could definitely see Elon getting into strap-ons.
Ok sure, but there are a few points worth mentioning here:
The fanboy speak is ugh. Tesla has invented a few novel devices but otherwise walk on well-treaded ground. Their seeming immunity from obvious cost/quality problems is the only thing they have really going on.
Everyone else abandoned easily removeable panels for good reason(s).
They make controlling NVH more difficult (no one really cared about NVH in the 50s and 60s when the most important part of a car is that it would start the first time you twisted the key)
Panel tolerancing becomes even more difficult and the laws of production dictate that the panels must either be very expensive (lots of waste stampings) or slow to produce and expensive because the tooling and overhead involved is much more expensive. Which either may be acceptable for a 100k base price ‘truck’ but not one that has to make a profit on the 35k work truck model. Not to mention the volume with which other truck lines need panels. Imagine hammering out ~4,500 perfect quarter panels every day just to keep up with sales volume.
Good thing they did… because I have a feeling the body panels will need to removed from this vehicle more vs. every other pickup.
It’s a truck. Dents add character.
That’s what I said after a bull to offence to my 3500, dents lots of dents and other damage
Forgive my ignorance here, but is this unique to “gigacasting” or would it be possible to design easily replaceable panels on other vehicles? Because I suspect the latter, especially given that there are vehicles with at least some panels that are fairly easy to replace.
Regardless, as My Goat Ate My Homework already mentioned, the ability to replace the whole bed might be a better selling point for a pickup that sees work that could beat it up. The kind of damage you sometimes see would likely be well beyond a panel replacement, but not enough to damage the frame the traditional bed rides on.
My 2 cents.
It could, but that would add cost that gigacasting supposedly offsets. Plus, manufacturers most certainly have strong relationships with their dealers, who often have body shops, so making things easier for the consumer is counter productive to the current status quo of automotive sales and service. Tesla sells directly and services directly (sort of), and have a vested interest in making this easier; it makes their other costs go down. Ford’s costs only go up if they make something more serviceable. They don’t see the back end savings of easily replacing panels.
Sure, it would add costs, but, unless I’m missing something, it’s not something unique to large casts. If anything, I’d think it’s more of a product of the unique shape than the gigacasting. And, sure, it might not be worth it, but offering replacement panels exclusively through dealers might appease dealers who want to keep that bodywork money coming.
But, yeah, those are good points about motivation for this.
Easily replaceable body panels are something that is easily achievable on any vehicle, manufacturers just don’t care enough to do it
Checker Motors, for instance, used to advertise that their fenders and quarter panels were held on by a few simple bolts, all four could be removed and swapped out in minutes (and they were all two piece, so if the dent was only by the wheelwell, for instance, you could just replace the outer half instead of the entire fender).
VW Beetles were pretty similar- all 4 fenders, front and rear aprons, running boards, bumpers, all easily removeable for straightening or replacement as needed
I thought that was the case. I was starting to feel like I was missing something when even the Autopian is crediting the gigacast for the replaceable body panels. Thank you for confirming.
Saturn used to advertise their plastic panels as easily swappable. Also Smart at least initially ie when Swatch still had interest in it.
Add the Citroen DS and the Rover to the list of cars that advertised easily swapping body panels.
People love to fantasize about an era that they never experienced. If I have to be in an accident, I’ll stick with modern cars that are constructed with modern techniques thank you very much.
Never mind the price premium.
What do you mean “never experienced”? I’m in my 30s, old enough that my first car in high school was a Super Beetle and I’ve road tripped a ’64 Chevy through a good chunk of the eastern seaboard over the past few years.
Most people have never experienced an accident in a Beetle or Ford Falcon or whatever, but the data is very clear. More people are surviving and walking away from accidents these days than when cars like the Checker Cab was built.
And the method of attaching non-structural exterior panels relates to that how? Not sure where the Falcon comes in, they were actually pretty annoying to deal with if hit in the rear or quarters
The point is that modern car construction is what makes cars safer. Bonded and welded panels make for more ridged structures while also meeting a price point.
The Cybertruck on the other hand is expensive, difficult to produce, and has panel fit and finish that some people find questionable. Is that really were we want the industry to go?
Also, supposedly the Cybertruck’s exterior panels are structural.
In addition to doors and the roof, the new Bronco notably has fenders that are simple to unbolt and replace/repair.
Yeah, I thought this wasn’t a gigacast thing. Easily replaced panels don’t reply on a massive frame casting. I just started to wonder if I was missing something, since this site normally gets engineering details spot on.
All worthy points that don’t really matter, because none of these will be used like a normal truck would.
What? Are big nuts trucks immune to getting into accidents and requiring panel replacement?
All worthy points, which I would have thought of had I posted after my first cup of coffee. 🙂
Fuck Monday, it’ll be alright
Fuck Monday, drinking beers tonight
I spent only two days in a purply haze
and I just wanna do it again
Umm……. Car crashes happen to vehicles that aren’t used like a normal truck would…….
Yes but a crash is very likely to damage the underlying structure. It’s common to just ding a panel loading tools in the bed of a normal truck, the only tool in a cybertuck is in the driver’s seat
“If it’s so easy to bolt and unbolt panels from the Cybertruck, how long is it until we see some wild body conversions?”
Paging The Bishop to the white courtesy phone. The Bishop to the white courtesy phone.
No, the WHITE courtesy phone.
“Why The Tesla Cybertruck’s ‘Gigacast’ Design Seems To Make Bedside Panel Repairs Easy”
I first read this as someone making truck repairs on their bedroom.
“Oh, the Tesla Cybertruck has such a nice bedside manner!”
Same…. I was like, “I ain’t fixing any truck in my bedroom….”
David Tracy shakes his head in disgust at you
The rear panel will live in relative obscurity compared to the front fender, which is perfectly designed to slice a pedestrian into a thick cut prosciutto.
It’s a combination of a kitchen mandolin and meat tenderizing hammer all in one!
If it works on deer, I’m in.
Oh, it will. It will.
Fantastic. Given the damage to my 3 because of a deer strike on Saturday, you might understand that I will be happy to test this when my CT comes. F*cking long legged hoofed rats.
“provided the casting that supports it is undamaged.”
That statement is doing a lot of work.
Also, I wouldn’t call the lack of paint a plus. Stainless appearances are exceptionally variable. Grain, hue, finish can be very, very hard to match. Even if the replacement is made from material from the same mill. It’s just the nature of rolling steel.
I’d rather have to paint something. That can be done well consistently. And, if we’re talking about just replacing fenders you can paint it off the car. Easy peasy.
This, and I’ll also guess that this replacement panel itself will cost MUCH more than all the body work needed to replace the panel on a Ford or Chevy truck
You think one stainless panel will cost more than one expensive aluminum panel AND a couple hundred in paint AND like $1000 in labor?
Think again.
From Tesla?
Absolutely.
And 18 months for delivery
If the roofline wasn’t so stupid, you could bolt on new bedsides to make an SUV.
I’m usually the last person to begrudge others what they do with their trucks, and I absolutely loathe the “I never see that truck towing anything” guys, but even I draw the line here.
The Cybertruck is not made for work, it will not be put to work, the vast majority of people buying it have never owned a truck in their life, and never would except for their stainless idol, it will not become damaged in the course of work, the idea of the bedside being damaged by a front-end loader dumping in a yard of black dirt (like my truck was a couple years ago) is laughable.
I had mine banged up by someone loading a material vacuum into the bed with a forklift. Sadly, that’s the life of a truck, at least in my hands.
It makes me a feel a little bit better that if it gets that bad (and I want to spend the money) I can swap out the bed.
All of this is true, but I don’t really think it’s more true for the Cybertruck than any contemporary crew cab short bed half ton. They’re all dad minivans.
I disagree entirely.
Crew cab short beds are still capable of towing, are still marketed and primarily sold to the traditional truck customer, and still fill the lots at Menards, at the boat ramp, at the campgrounds, etc in a way I predict the CT never will.
Oh. I think the Cybertruck will totally be used for dad minivan duty like driving to Menards, going camping, and maybe even towing boats(not that far).
But neither crew cab 1500s or Cybertrucks generally are used as actual work pickups. Not even like my private and totally not a work pickup f150, which hauls rock and building materials occasionally.
We were working on different definitions of “real work”. And the traditional truck customer, depending on how old “traditional” is, isn’t using it to go camping with the family.
Not only that, it’s way easier to add cargo capacity should you need it than it is to add seats for people. I’d happily tow a utility trailer a couple times a year that my truck bed is too small, but what am I going to do with my wife and two kids when my truck only seats 3 across the bench?
Someone who thinks the majority of trucks aren’t used for work has never been anywhere where trucks could get used for work.
if your sample is from the grocery store parking lot, that isn’t a relevant survey.
I don’t know if you’re calling my sample irrelevant or V10omous’s sample irrelevant, but I do agree with your sentiment.
“This all depends on whether or not you can readily access replacement panels for your truck in a timely fashion.”
Plywood and a can of metalic paint will do the trick og perhaps just bending some sheet metal with a hammer on the curb.
The panels are not structural, and both solutions may result in improvements in the overall look of the vehicle.
Nothing’s new under the sun, as they say. For instance, the 1955-1975 Citroën DS had rear quarter panels that were removable with a wheel lug nut wrench, provided with the spare wheel, to facilitate changing rear wheels. The procedure involved undoing just one nut at the rear end of the rear quarter panel (changing a wheel made use of the DS’s own hydraulic suspension system to raise itself, jacking not required, and placing a jackstand by the afflicted wheel and then lowering the DS.) Pretty cool!
“Legacy style truck”? Is that fanboi speak for any truck that’s not a Tesla? Good grief.