Tesla Cybertruck Body Panels Are Flying Off While Driving, And This Wrap Shop Owner Figured Out Why
For a truck that was supposed to be the toughest truck ever built, the Tesla Cybertruck sure has had a lot of problems. So far, it's been subject to seven recalls and two investigations, snapped its subframe in a WhistlinDiesel test, been defeated by a car wash and continues to regularly get stuck in the snow. It also has a habit of losing its sometimes razor-sharp body panels, which is decidedly Not Great. And while it's hard to imagine Tesla will actually do anything about it now that its CEO is busy dismantling the federal government from within, our friends at Road & Track recently spoke with one shop owner who believes he's figured out why Cybertrucks like to lose their bodywork.
Reid Tomasko owns Shock Auto Styling, a New Hampshire car-wrapping business that has reportedly worked on dozens of Cybertrucks. Tomasko is also an owner, and unfortunately for him, his experience with the issue was especially dangerous. As he told Road & Track, not only did the boomerang-shaped piece of trim on the roofline fall off, it did so while he was driving, putting other drivers in serious danger. You don't have to take Tomasko's word for it, either. He also managed to capture it on video. After looking at what happened to his truck and others, he posted a video on his YouTube channel explaining what he thinks is happening.
Cybertruck body panel problems explained
According to Tomasko, Tesla attaches these body panels to plastic frames that are bolted to the body of the truck. Instead of bolting the panels to the frames, though, Tesla uses an adhesive to stick them on. And so far, none of that is particularly concerning. Fancy glue tech has come a long way over the years, and you may be surprised just how strong those bonds can be. They even use adhesives to bond steel beams used in building construction. That said, whether Tesla cheaped out on the adhesive it used or didn't have the proper process in place to ensure proper bonding, the adhesive appears to be what failed when Tomasko's giant boomerang-shaped trim piece fell off.
It isn't just that particular trim piece that's the problem, either. Tomasko told Road & Track he believes it's an issue with the actual body panels themselves, including two of his quarter-panels and the tailgate. To the tailgate's credit, though, it also has a few welds that should help hold it in place even if the adhesive doesn't hold, so at least you don't have to worry about the Cybertruck you see on the road dropping metal off the back of its tailgate and killing you. Just the other body panels and trim pieces. The good news is, he claims to have only seen similar issues on about 15 to 20 percent of the incEl Caminos he's worked on. The bad news is that he says it appears to be more common on new trucks than older ones, which suggests Cybertrucks are actually getting worse, and even a one-in-seven chance is still far too high.
Previous reports of failures
As Road & Track points out, Tomasko is far from the first person to run into issues with their Cybertruck trim or body panels falling off:
Similar problems have been reported in two separate formal complaints to the National Traffic Highway Safety Administration. The first, from an owner in Brooklyn, states that his roofline trim piece "suddenly started falling off" at highway speeds. Another complaint from an owner in Illinois claims that an "upper passenger trim piece," seemingly the same panel, fell off while the owner was driving their truck. The owner then claims that they asked a Tesla service center to replace the same component on the truck's other side, but a brand representative told him that the location "will not do it unless [the panel] falls off."
Other examples of the problem have been reported on a Cybertruck owner Facebook group. Screenshots shared with R&T like the one above show four additional cases of trucks that have allegedly shed their roofline trim piece. At least one owner in the group claims that the piece flew off while they were driving.
What's causing the Cybertruck's adhesive to fail?
So is it the adhesive itself? A problem with Tesla's manufacturing process? Tomasko doesn't and likely can't know for sure, but as he told R&T, he suspects it's related to cold weather, but that may not be it either:
"Based on research and responses that I've had to the video, it seems that something, the glue is not flexing with the panels, so what happens is the stainless steel seems to flex when it gets cold when it gets cold and hot, but the glue that they use is kind of brittle, so my guess is the glue is separating," Tomasko says.
"Also, I have a friend with an earlier build than mine, and he lives in Vermont; I live in New Hampshire, he lives in Vermont, so we're both in cold climates. His truck, his is fine, same amount of miles and everything, his is fine, but then mine is falling apart. So I don't quite know, maybe it's a glue batch that was incorrectly made — I don't know."
He still loves the truck
If you thought Tomasko would dump his truck after losing a massive trim piece while driving and move on from the automaker that doesn't care about quality or other people's safety, he claims it isn't that simple. His truck is currently at a nearby Tesla Service Center while he pursues a buyback. He also told R&T that he "[feels] like a new vehicle shouldn't really have to have all the panels replaced" and that Tesla fans have said he's "just a hater." If you've read other stories about Cybertruck owners discovering all the problems with their $100,000 MAGA-mobiles, you know exactly where this is going.
"No, I'm not a hater. I have the truck, I love the truck. I bought one! I love the truck. I wrap, mostly, exclusively Teslas in the Northeast at my wrap shop. So I love Teslas," he told the magazine. "I'm just trying to share what's going on to better help the engineers to fix this super fast."
He's also upset because finding more problems with the Cybertruck only reinforces the objectively correct belief that they're terribly made douche-wagons that fund the destruction of our representative democracy:
"It does suck, because everybody kind of makes fun of the Cybertruck. To the outside person, it's kind of weird, it's ugly, whatever. Once you actually get in it, drive it, you realize it's pretty frickin' cool," he says. "It's kind of been sad, because I've been trying to prove to people that it's a really awesome truck that's not falling apart, and then mine starts to fall apart, so it's just... Yeah, it's kind of unfortunate and sad."
Other Cybertruck problems
While the Tesla Cybertruck's first recall landed on January 30, 2024, a mere two months after the production Cybertruck was revealed, the fun didn't really get started until April when Tesla was forced to recall the Cybertruck due to unintended acceleration. Apparently, no one noticed the plastic cover on the accelerator could easily come loose, pinning the pedal to the floor. The ridiculous windshield wiper also started causing problems, and Tesla was forced once again to recall the Cybertruck and fix it. About the same time, Tesla issued a separate recall because a piece of bed trim may not have been attached correctly and could fly off. The Cybertruck also had to be recalled in November over faulty inverters that could cause a total loss of power while driving. Those aren't the only Cybertruck recalls, of course, but they're definitely the most serious.
We also have a roundup of all the Cybertruck screwups from the first six months of production if you're interested in that sort of thing. But only click if you're interested.
It also isn't like no one buying a Cybertruck could have possibly known that it would be a turd or that Elon Musk was a far-right lunatic who lies constantly. You could maybe make the argument that regular people didn't know about Tesla's history of poor build quality and long repair times, failure to use automotive-grade components, environmental damage, worker abuse, rampant racism in the factories and constant exaggerations or outright lies. But by the time the Cybertruck came along, the era of plausible deniability was all over. Everyone who bought a Cybertruck knew what they were buying, and they liked it. After all, why else would you give $100,000 to a drugged-out oligarch who had allied himself with a party dedicated to destroying the planet?
