Blade Runner Redux - Tesla Cybertruck!

[Hersbird]

I have trouble buying the paint process is all that expensive. It really doesn't cost more to paint a $12,000 car vs a $60,000 car yet a $60,000 car easily could have a $12,000 powertrain in it. If the paint process costs more than the powertrain on said car then painting a $12,000 car would cost more than $12,000.

Also if say $5-10k could be saved per car by not painting somebody would have done that in large numbers long ago. Also even with say stainless steel, some of those corrosion steps are still going to be needed as stainless isn't corrosion proof on it's own and what about all the metal under the stainless, is it also stainless? Just the material cost of using stainless rather than mild steel is going to be similar to the painting cost IMO. It's a wash.

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

I've often thought it's silly how many custom parts there are for vehicles. Why are there so many brake pad/rotor combinations? How many differently designed steering wheels do we need? How about wheel diameter, width, offset...?

You think that’s bad in most given sizes of SAE Hex head bolts there are exactly two standards outside material and finish

Every 5/8” coarse thread works with every other one and uses the same socket and wrench

An m16 Metric hex head comes in dozens of standards with at least 3 different wrench and socket combinations, many times you can not install “correctly “ one metric standard nut onto a different standard bolt of the same size/thread and usually you need a different wrench and socket for the nut vrs the stud side within the same standard.

Piss poor engineering and standardization on metric hardware


And If we can’t even fix hardware to work together , how could we ever fix standardization of larger components?

[redpoint5]

Absolute costs aside, Tesla, and Elon in general seems to favor vertical integration. He could have used existing companies to bore holes for his cars and roads, for example. He shot his own car into space using his own rocket. As others have said, if he's already got the infrastructure in place to build the SS rocket material, maybe it makes sense to make cars out of it too.

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by Hersbird

I have trouble buying the paint process is all that expensive. It really doesn't cost more to paint a $12,000 car vs a $60,000 car yet a $60,000 car easily could have a $12,000 powertrain in it. If the paint process costs more than the powertrain on said car then painting a $12,000 car would cost more than $12,000.

Also if say $5-10k could be saved per car by not painting somebody would have done that in large numbers long ago. Also even with say stainless steel, some of those corrosion steps are still going to be needed as stainless isn't corrosion proof on it's own and what about all the metal under the stainless, is it also stainless? Just the material cost of using stainless rather than mild steel is going to be similar to the painting cost IMO. It's a wash.

Paint is very expensive,

On small parts paint and finish can easily cost more than the “bare” part

Where I work we are converting a lot of small pieces to stainless because it is much cheaper than the coating+ standard steel

[ldjessee00]

Originally Posted by Hersbird

I have trouble buying the paint process is all that expensive. It really doesn't cost more to paint a $12,000 car vs a $60,000 car yet a $60,000 car easily could have a $12,000 powertrain in it. If the paint process costs more than the powertrain on said car then painting a $12,000 car would cost more than $12,000.

Also if say $5-10k could be saved per car by not painting somebody would have done that in large numbers long ago. Also even with say stainless steel, some of those corrosion steps are still going to be needed as stainless isn't corrosion proof on it's own and what about all the metal under the stainless, is it also stainless? Just the material cost of using stainless rather than mild steel is going to be similar to the painting cost IMO. It's a wash.

Others have tried, but it was not the non-painted car that was their downfall.
Delorean had his cocaine issues.
Saturn toyed with plastic panels for cars, and Chrysler was going to... until it ran into trouble and got bought (See CCV concept and plant in China that eventually lead to the technology used to make Jeep removable hardtops).

Others that thought about it have looked at it.

Motorcycles, especially those of the sport and offroad variety, ditched metal for plastic body and fenders a long time ago.

And again, even if the cost of the paint was the same, the time saved has to be huge.

[redpoint5]

I've never understood why car bodies aren't all plastic. Even crazier to me is that most car front fenders are replaceable as a single cheap unit, but the rear quarter is not.

[Hersbird]

The painting process is 100% automated as well. Stuff goes in one side and comes out the other finished. So it may be a time consuming process, but not a labor intensive process. I'm not saying it has zero cost, just expecting a $10,000 savings on a $50,000 truck is impossible. You can buy a new Ram all painted pretty with all the normal corrosion processes for low $20k. You think I could buy that truck with all those steps just skipped for $10k? I would be all over that rust be dammed.

[Piotrsko]

You can't because the manufacturer can't figure out how to skip those processes integrated into the mass assembly process. Had a friend who wanted a car delivered without the engine and tranny, couldn't buy one that way

[Hersbird]

Originally Posted by Piotrsko

You can't because the manufacturer can't figure out how to skip those processes integrated into the mass assembly process. Had a friend who wanted a car delivered without the engine and tranny, couldn't buy one that way

You can't because the painting isn't a $10,000 cost. I bet the entire powertrain isn't a $10,000 cost irregardless of what they will charge you later to replace it.

[Hersbird]

This is hard to figure out with much searching. Paint is considered part of "materials" and materials make up 47% of the cost of a new car. So say a $40k pickup that is $18,800. Of materials I can find articles where "body" is 10% of the 47% materials and that includes paint, glass, bumpers, mirrors. So that means $1880 for all of that. Best case all the paint is $1000. Labor is 21% overall so $8400 total but like I pointed out, the paint process is almost 100% automated. I'm sure the plant doing it cost billions but divided over millions of cars saying it amounts to more than $1000 each would be a stretch. I say at most $2000 total per car but would guess it's closer to $1000.