Panel Lines/Gaps on White & Silver Model S's

[Tommy]

Definitely.

Maybe, it's just me, (and yes, I've been drinking a lot of Tesla kool-aid), but, the gaps seem fairly normal/acceptable? They are surely watertight (Jurvetson's car already got a soak in the Bay Area on Monday) so, are we possibly nitpicking?

Hard to say until each of us has had a chance to see the car in person, the camera can be unflattering at times. Having said that, each and every beta I have seen, including the most recent #57 which was on display at the Newport Beach store event, has had some very serious alignment issues with the panels which are most easily identifiable by the inconsistent gap size between the panels. From these early photos of VIN #1, I still see panels that do not align right (again it might be just the camera angle). So I would rather be harping to Tesla about the fit and finish that to my eyes still could be improved upon than to have someone from the press point out the flaws.

 

[Dave EV]

What's the expansion rate of aluminum compared to steel. I'd bet that aluminum expands a lot more than steel and thus requires larger gaps compared to steel paneled cars...

 

[ckessel]

I looked at my RX8 and it seems to have pretty similar gaps. Then again, the RX8 isn't exactly a competitor to a "premium" sedan.

 

[Doug_G]

What's the expansion rate of aluminum compared to steel. I'd bet that aluminum expands a lot more than steel and thus requires larger gaps compared to steel paneled cars...

The entire vehicle would expand the same way, so I don't think it would have much effect on the gaps.

 

[Dave EV]

The entire vehicle would expand the same way, so I don't think it would have much effect on the gaps.

You don't remember the gaps on the plastic bodied Saturns, do you? Of course, those were only plastic doors/fenders and stuff and not the whole car, but still... The trunk looks rather long so I bet there's a bit of flex in it - the slightly larger gaps are probably necessary there. The other body panel gaps in the Founders 1 car I saw were smaller, but didn't appear that consistent to me. Not all that surprising for the first cars from an inexperienced, low volume car manufacturer.

Either way - I personally would not care - they look very acceptable to me!

 

[jerry33]

Aluminium expands 22.2 x 10^-6 mm (0.0000222 mm) for every degree C. Steel expands 13.0 x 10^-6. So while aluminium does expand about twice as much, if it gets hot enough to make a difference to a door or hatch gap I don't think I want to be anywhere near. This means that a 100 C increase would cause a one metre bar of aluminium to expand by 2.22 mm. So if the Model S was manufactured outside in Winnepeg during February and taken to the Sahara in August you would get about that much expansion.

Might be a problem if you did the manufacturing outside in Antarctica in July.

 

[Discoducky]

Apples to apples , Audi A8 comparison anyone?

 

[AnOutsider]

Apples to apples , Audi A8 comparison anyone?

Why the A8? I think the A7 is the closest comparator in terms of body style and size.

Also, like I said, I was simply trying to see if the hatch on the a7 (since its a similar body) also had a gap (meaning it could just be a by product of the mechanism), I wasn't really trying to compare build quality against an established luxury car maker. I only posted more pics since it was suggested the color somehow gave the a7 the upper hand

 

[Discoducky]

Why the A8? I think the A7 is the closest comparator in terms of body style and size.

Also, like I said, I was simply trying to see if the hatch on the a7 (since its a similar body) also had a gap (meaning it could just be a by product of the mechanism), I wasn't really trying to compare build quality against an established luxury car maker. I only posted more pics since it was suggested the color somehow gave the a7 the upper hand

A8 has aluminum body panels? Does the A7?

 

[AnOutsider]

A8 has aluminum body panels? Does the A7?

Sure does

 

[Tommy]

My take away in reading this thread is posters have identified three issues involving the gap/lines. The first is visually very wide gaps between panel parts; an example would be the gap between the hatchback and it's surrounding panels. The second is intrusion of the chrome trim into the defined gap/line areas which impedes the flow of the design; the hatchback area serves as a good example. The third area is gaps/lines that are narrow than widen between adjoining body panels as observed looking at the vertical seams. I noticed this on adjacent driver door/ passenger door panels in the betas I saw (8+). Tesla has made a point of emphasizing the precision of their manufacturing process, naturally my expectations are high and would expect much closer tolerances than what has been presented in beta form. The last thing I want to do is explain away these type of gaps/lines as the result of the physical properties of an aluminum made car or the result of the short comings of a start up company.

 

[jerry33]

Well, you can always say it's in preparation for use by Space X space colonization.

 

[Trnsl8r]

Definitely.

Maybe, it's just me, (and yes, I've been drinking a lot of Tesla kool-aid), but, the gaps seem fairly normal/acceptable? They are surely watertight (Jurvetson's car already got a soak in the Bay Area on Monday) so, are we possibly nitpicking?

In that case I've been drinking the same kool-aid. +1.

 

[Discoducky]

Sure does

Thought only the A8 had Aluminum body panels...ok, well this pic makes me feel better. The gap on this 2012 A7 looks as big to my eye.

There are a few on ebay that show this gap: Audi : A7 Prestige Audi : A7 Prestige | eBay

 

[Discoducky]

Found another good one...

 

[WarpedOne]

Somewhat wide gaps are not big problem as long as they are even.

 

[Bearman]

Thought only the A8 had Aluminum body panels...ok, well this pic makes me feel better.

Audi A7
http://models.audiusa.com/a7/detailed-specifications#chassis_specs

Material: Aluminum body panels(Hood, roof, fenders, tailgate are aluminum)

 

[AnOutsider]

Somewhat wide gaps are not big problem as long as they are even.

Exactly, the consistency is what's most important. And again, I wanted to compare the hatches, which we can't do since they (tesla and Audi) don't do the hatch the same.