The issue stems from the primer applied before gluing the optional light bar to the windshield (no fasteners are used in the attachment of the light bar).
Is that typical in the industry, parts or components being glued onto an exterior surface instead of fastened?
It's not uncommon, particularly for vehicles with composite body panels.
Smaller items like door trim, manufacturer logos, are primarily held on with adhesives.
Mid-size accessories like add-on spoilers on trunk lids, or other exterior styling pieces are frequently attached with adhesive.
A larger component commonly attached with adhesives are the rear fender flares on dually pickups. Very commonly these are built with a standard bed, and then the flares to cover the extra wheel width are applied with a 3M VHB-like adhesive strip.
But like anything, there is a way to do it properly, and a way to do it hacky.
Most plastic body panels are held on with conformal clips. But they couldn't do that with the metal panels of the cyber truck nor did they want visible fasteners so glue is the only option.
Glue isn't ideal because the part has to be clamped in place while the glue cures which is slow, and quality control is tough because you're doing a little chemistry experiment on your assembly line hundreds of times per day.
Normal cars have this problem with paint and quality control with paint is such a big deal that it has its own separate production line just for painting stuff pre or post assembly
Using composite panels is very uncommon in production vehicles and when they are used (for looks) traditional fasteners are used during assembly often with threaded inserts embedded in the composite panel during manufacture
Glue is uncommon in most cases, particularly for body-panel mounted things like the examples I gave. Adhesive-mounted components are common, to various degrees.
Glass-mounted items are commonly glued, the most prevalent one being the knob for the rear view mirror. And "prevalent" here means "99% of anything mounted to glass in a vehicle"
Tesla is using BETASEAL [0], which is designed for adhering to glass. I'm not sure what kind of weight rating BETASEAL is approved for, it is commonly used for other applications where a decent degree of strength is expected.
The lightbars mentioned in the article were an optional non-factory addon that were installed at the Tesla dealership. The steel body panels are not glued on.
Its even stranger because presumably the light requires a wire for power, so using an adhesive doesn't allow them to avoid making at least 1 hole in the roof.
Perhaps it's about minimizing the installation cost at the dealership.
The irony is that you'd imagine that an off-road roof mounted light would be something that you should be able to tighten when you are ... off-road.
I guess field serviceability isn't a design goal for these "off-road" trucks, but appearing "off-road" when going glamping is.
Cybertrucks already come with a 48V 400W auxiliary power connection under the applique strip on the right side of the roof, so there was no need to make a hole in the roof.
There just isn't a lot of options other than adhesive for installing a light bar considering the windshield consumes all of the forward facing real estate (as the roof slopes back from the apex).
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The off road community has been complaining about "off road" vehicles that are not suitable for off road use for decades. Most off "road vehicles" are you can drive it around the house to your backyard if it isn't too muddy/steep. Anyone who really goes off road is looking for a lot of features that are hard to find in a production vehicle. (which is why they often modify production vehicles). A true off road vehicle often looks like a production off-road vehicle, but in production they do cosmetic changes to look the same as what true off-road vehicles do - but the difference cosmetic. Things like both sit high off the ground, but the off road one they look at what mechanical parts are underneath and either protect them or raise them.
> Anyone who really goes off road is looking for a lot of features that are hard to find in a production vehicle. (which is why they often modify production vehicles).
Perhaps this is something that Slate can solve better than Tesla.
The customizations available/planned are cosmetic things not of interest to off road. You can put in a different sound system or change the color - but off road wants things like a skid plate that can handle boulders.
Windshields themselves are glued into the frame, and have been for years. They are a major part of the structure of the vehicle, as well as an important safety device, and there isn't a problem with them comining loose. Badges are attached with double sided tape, but obviously those are a lot smaller than a light bar.
What I meant was that there's no real recess in the A pillars or front of roof for the glass to go "in" to anymore. The edge of the glass gets covered by trim or whatever so you can't see it, unlike the old days (so like 1990s down) where things used gasket.
Yes. The frame is welded, but more and more the body panels are glued. BMW has been doing this for a while. Modern adhesives are as strong as spot welds for this sort of thing.
People constantly underestimate adhesives. Properly applied wood glue is stronger than the wood itself. The problem with gluing everything together is repairability.
Adhesives also allow using thinner metal for the panels, which saves weight and cost. Metal gets harder to weld when it's thin. Though newer laser welding technologies may offer some improvement.
I think the adhesives will release with heat but honestly I'm not sure how body work is done on those.
Tons of cars made by companies other than Tesla have some parts attached by adhesives. Lots of decorative trim pieces and reflectors may be attached with adhesives instead of screws. Its not like there are a lot of screws involved in attaching windshields. There have been other companies with recalls related to adhesive failures, but it seems Tesla has adhesive failures far more frequently than others and seems to use adhesives for a lot more of their body parts.
You shouldn't be getting downvoted, you're right. Adhesives can be incredibly strong, and it's common for even larger panels to be glued on. For whatever reason a lot of British cars in particular (range rover, jaguar, etc) use bonded and riveted frames instead of welding for their aluminum framed vehicles, with lots of components just being glued on.
>Is that typical in the industry, parts or components being glued onto an exterior surface instead of fastened?
Yes. If automotive OEMs can glue it they will.
It's just that other OEMs don't build uninterrupted 5ft light bars so glueing is a much less suitable (think about how much glue contact patch per amount of light bar there is and how little leverage it's mass has over the glue, contrast with normal light) solution for them.
Not to mention that the lightbar is directly in the airstream as you drive. It only has to start lifting a little and getting air underneath. Once that happens any glue joint is doomed.
I think if you did the glue joint perfectly then it would probably be fine, but impeccable QC is not a hallmark of Tesla.
Is that typical in the industry, parts or components being glued onto an exterior surface instead of fastened?