Watch A Cybertruck Dangle In Mid-air Thanks To Tesla Repair Glue

The Tesla Cybertruck has taken its fair stock of flak — from depreciation to body panels falling off. Now it's going viral again for thing wholly unexpected: being held mid-air by glue. In a caller YouTube video by JerryRigEverything, nan wedge of stainless alloy and vulnerable egos is seen dangling disconnected nan crushed suspended from a crane. The only point clasp up nan $100,000 motortruck was a two-and-a-half-inch spot of Tesla structural adhesive betwixt nan crane's hook and nan 6,600-pound vehicle.

This stunt followed a morganatic interest of Jerry's astir Tesla's structural repair method. Months earlier, the aforesaid motortruck suffered what looked for illustration a catastrophic failure erstwhile its tow hitch ripped cleanable retired of nan rear casting during a accent trial that pushed acold beyond its rated 1,100-pound lingua weight. Instead of getting totaled, nan motortruck was repaired utilizing Tesla's published repair procedure: sectioning retired nan surgery gigacasting and gluing successful a replacement conception utilizing a structural adhesive called Fusor 2098.

After curing, this circumstantial repair adhesive has a tensile spot of 3,190 pounds per quadrate inch (psi). A two-and-a-half-inch spot of nan aforesaid bluish glue utilized successful that repair bore nan full weight of nan Cybertruck. You publication that correct — glued, cured, past hoisted skyward. Whether you spot that arsenic brilliant aliases terrifying astir apt depends connected really overmuch clip you've spent successful collision shops. Either way, it's an awesome demonstration.

The thought of glue holding your car together feels a small unsettling — for illustration duct portion connected a spaceship. But successful today's car engineering, it's not conscionable common, but successful galore cases, it's nan smarter, stronger choice. The adhesive utilized successful nan Cybertruck repair is simply a two-part epoxy classified arsenic a Crash Durable Structural Adhesive. It's not Tesla-exclusive, either — each OEMs usage akin worldly for high-strength bonding crossed differing substrates.

Why not conscionable weld it? Well, adhesives successful immoderate applications administer loads much evenly, sphere worldly integrity, and protect against corrosion betwixt joints. Plus, erstwhile paired pinch mechanical fasteners for illustration rivets — which Tesla besides specifies for this repair — nan resulting enslaved tin outperform welds successful peel and effect strength.

But there's a flip side: if your thrust needs this benignant of fix, it amended beryllium done precisely by nan book. Adhesives tin beryllium uber-strong, but that doesn't mean it can, aliases should, be utilized successful lieu of OEM repair procedures. Tesla mandates that only certified shops usage specified adhesives, parts, and procedures. No aftermarket shortcuts, nary recycled structures, and perfectly nary expired glue. Every measurement — from grinding disconnected etch-coat, to rivet type and spacing, to adhesive bead thickness — each laid retired successful nan repair manuals.

Here's wherever things get murky, though. If you're successful a wreck, your security argumentation promises to return your car to its "pre-loss condition." But what does that moreover mean erstwhile you're gluing successful structural chunks that were erstwhile a monolithic piece? Is a sectioned-then-epoxied casting still "as it was"? Tesla says yes — nan repair is OEM-approved. Technically speaking, it should meet aliases transcend original specs — but that's assuming nan job's done right. Honestly, we'd emotion to spot JerryRigEverything tally that hitch trial again connected nan repaired Cybertruck. If nan glue occupation really is stronger than stock, that motortruck should out-muscle its mill self.