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Repairing a Flooded Tesla Model S : HOW-TO

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Oh I have my problems alright. I've tried every frame shop in Craigslist within 70 miles, and no one will touch a Tesla. All I need is a measly rail pull down 1" and in 3/4". It'd be $600 on any other car. But Teslas are scaary, and sacred...

I am close to buying a block and tackle from Harbor Freight and doing the goddam pull myself, like the cavemen did. Although Ingineer does know a guy...

But the rest is simple.
 
I don't know your specific car but I know from speaking to Tesla and a couple Tesla certified body shops when I had my salvage car that there is no frame rail straightening at all on the car. They rivet, weld and glue the rail and if it's damaged it's completely replaced.
 
Oh I have my problems alright. I've tried every frame shop in Craigslist within 70 miles, and no one will touch a Tesla. All I need is a measly rail pull down 1" and in 3/4". It'd be $600 on any other car. But Teslas are scaary, and sacred...

I am close to buying a block and tackle from Harbor Freight and doing the goddam pull myself, like the cavemen did. Although Ingineer does know a guy...

But the rest is simple.

Check around for the local trade/tech school for the high-school kids, they usually have autobody shop class, welding and machine shop, etc. They probably have a frame machine that you could use to pull it, make a donation and show the kids how it's done, etc...
 
I don't know your specific car but I know from speaking to Tesla and a couple Tesla certified body shops when I had my salvage car that there is no frame rail straightening at all on the car. They rivet, weld and glue the rail and if it's damaged it's completely replaced.

I do wonder what the impact on such construction with Tesla's particular aluminum alloy. The ductility of aluminum is certainly different from that of mild steel...
 
Oh I have my problems alright. I've tried every frame shop in Craigslist within 70 miles, and no one will touch a Tesla. All I need is a measly rail pull down 1" and in 3/4". It'd be $600 on any other car. But Teslas are scaary, and sacred...

I am close to buying a block and tackle from Harbor Freight and doing the goddam pull myself, like the cavemen did. Although Ingineer does know a guy...

But the rest is simple.


lol

I was thinking to myself...

"This guy needs a frame rail pulled and he's talking about my car that simply took an exfoliating salt bath?"

readImage
 
lol

I was thinking to myself...

"This guy needs a frame rail pulled and he's talking about my car that simply took an exfoliating salt bath?"

readImage
Washing it down is probably not a bad idea. You already have it that far why not powerwash the whole thing for an hour or so. Not going to hurt anything as long as the vehicle is down to the frame. If it isnt then you could mask those areas off with tarps. (This is coming from the guy that lives in Michigan and the road salt makes him get a car wash every day just to try to keep the rust down.) Not a bad way to go if you can get an unlimited car wash pass for $25.
 
Washing it down is probably not a bad idea. You already have it that far why not powerwash the whole thing for an hour or so. Not going to hurt anything as long as the vehicle is down to the frame. If it isnt then you could mask those areas off with tarps. (This is coming from the guy that lives in Michigan and the road salt makes him get a car wash every day just to try to keep the rust down.) Not a bad way to go if you can get an unlimited car wash pass for $25.

I probably won't powerwash the interior. The door panels were fine and I don't want to risk getting the door electronics wet... a few tubs of boiling hot water (to dissolve the salt) and a shopvac will likely do the trick here.
 
@ Btr_ftw: Wow ! I follow this thread and it seems to become day-by-day a bigger jig-saw puzzle. :eek:
Respect for the work you've done already.
Knowing I'm an electronic engineer this would be to big for me, seeing the cable harnesses scares me to death.
Corroding connectors or bad contacts can give difficult faults.

I wish you a lot of success with repairing the car, we will follow it up here in Belgium.

Go for it !!!!

( Sorry for my bad english language, I live in the flemish part of Belgium at 100 kilometers from Brussels where we speak dutch, so english is not my proper language )

Xavier
 
I don't know your specific car but I know from speaking to Tesla and a couple Tesla certified body shops when I had my salvage car that there is no frame rail straightening at all on the car. They rivet, weld and glue the rail and if it's damaged it's completely replaced.
Well the frame rail rivets, bolts, and glues into a frame receiver which is sort of flared down to the rail. I can't simply replace the rail as that flaring is deformed too. So there has to be a pull. It's not a big pull, but especially if not done with heat there's the possibility of cracking.

Check around for the local trade/tech school for the high-school kids, they usually have autobody shop class, welding and machine shop, etc. They probably have a frame machine that you could use to pull it, make a donation and show the kids how it's done, etc...
That's a good idea, but not as likely as another idea -- I might connect up with one of the local classic car clubs. There is -nothing- that those guys won't do and can't do. One or another of them has any kind of equipment needed for anything.

I do wonder what the impact on such construction with Tesla's particular aluminum alloy. The ductility of aluminum is certainly different from that of mild steel...
I'm a pretty good all-around engineer, and it looks to me like this small of a pull shouldn't cause any problems, but I've been wrong before. There are many issues here which I won't go in to, but the body man I have the most confidence in, is far, far away. He feels he can do the pull with no problems, but has instructed me to take more off the parts car than I'd ever expected, just in case something goes wrong.
 
The stress of bending aluminum induces local hardening in the affected zone which makes the metal brittle such that trying to reverse the bend will cause it to crack at that location. But the material can be heated in such a way that it will anneal back to the soft condition that allows bending/straightening without cracking. This knowledge and ability is held by machinists and metal workers skilled in the art.
 
I'm just basically worried if you ship the car to me and something goes wrong on the pull. I want to have enough parts there to fix the car, so it does not tie up the frame machine for a week until other stuff gets there. I still have not gotten your pics of the damage.
And here's the man who Ingineer and I have high confidence in. Yes I've forwarded the pictures now. If I can manage your quote when I get it, I'll forward all the materials you ask for.

The stress of bending aluminum induces local hardening in the affected zone which makes the metal brittle such that trying to reverse the bend will cause it to crack at that location. But the material can be heated in such a way that it will anneal back to the soft condition that allows bending/straightening without cracking. This knowledge and ability is held by machinists and metal workers skilled in the art.
In my case though, the bend is gradual over a larger area. There is no kink anywhere, but the frame rail is deflected 1" up and 3/4" out.
 
Well the frame rail rivets, bolts, and glues into a frame receiver which is sort of flared down to the rail. I can't simply replace the rail as that flaring is deformed too. So there has to be a pull. It's not a big pull, but especially if not done with heat there's the possibility of cracking.

The gentleman at the second shop I dealt with explained that semi-often the bent frame rail will also damage the tower which requires replacement of the that as well. I didn't ask if that generally totals out the car but we can probably assume yes. Both shops were adamant about the process and the fact that a pull could not and should not be done.

In my case though, the bend is gradual over a larger area. There is no kink anywhere, but the frame rail is deflected 1" up and 3/4" out.

Mine was even more trivial than this. From front to back it deflected about 1/8th of an inch towards the driver's side of the car. No kink on mine either. In fact, mine was close enough that the car was put back together and looked fine. Picture of the rail:

3T6uoWc.jpg


And the worst of the aesthetic damage, basically a closed body panel gap. Other than this the car looked perfectly normal.

RjCzbm7.jpg


I'm not an engineer but on my specific car, I took a look at the way it was constructed, the way the rails are both tied to the front cross-member and the subframe and concluded that structurally it was probably fine, even slightly bowed. I too assumed that since there was no kink that any weakening was likely minimal. But again, not an engineer, not even on tv. I decided that if I were to keep the car I would leave the rail as-is. I think I even mentioned that to the new owner while also emphasizing how much of a not-engineer I am.
 
I'm trying to imagine under which circumstances that deflection makes a statistically significant difference...

Theoretically, yes... a small deflection like that does affect the member's integrity.

However, pragmatically the situations wherein it makes a difference are going to be accidents where it's already pretty much useless just due to the fact of the huge forces involved due to what would be assumed high speed collision or medium speed high mass collision...

I'm curious to hear other thoughts though... as it stand I feel as though even with that damaged member the model S is designed well enough that it is still safer than most other cars on the market.
 
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