Curious on Body Panel Strategy on T3 - is it easily repairable?

[kstype]

Hello all,

Hope everyone is well!

I wanted to share this video I ran across related to the repair costs on the current Rivian R1T (and I assume R1S). Because of the way they designed the quarter panels - which are a solid piece of sheet metal from behind the rear wheels all the way up to the windshield with no lap joints - quotes to correctly repair a relatively minor dent in the aluminum quarter panel was quoted at nearly $40,000.

This is because of the single-piece of sheet metal that requires the rear window to be removed - and you cannot reinstall it so it must be replaced as well - and the headliner and much of the interior removed.



I hope that @Ford Motor Company is planning to make the sheet metal on the T3 and other next-generation models be serviceable and not make the mistake that Rivian appears to have made.

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[KevinC]

I saw a better unbiased video about the rivian defect and it was very disturbing. The guy in your video is a bit of a nut job even if it is a real issue. The next obvious issue will be whether insurance companies will refuse to cover them. It's definitely a concern. As smart as the Rivian engineers seem to be, they really seemed to miss the boat on that one.

I think ford is packing a bunch of sensors into the light housing making them very expensive item to replace as well. Thats gonna be true even on ICE though. Hopefully fords long experience has them avoiding mistakes like Rivian made. It's enough to stop me from considering Rivian for the time being. I may be completely wrong but this could sink Rivian from how I see it. You can't even recall that kind of design defect. If it triggered some kind of forced buyback they could be toast the way they are bleeding money.

 

[swajames]

If this is the same one that featured in other articles this past week a repair was done elsewhere, and it ended up costing a fraction of the original 41K quote.

sometimes there's a story behind the story.

 

[kstype]

Yeah - he seems to be rather biased in his other videos but this did raise some legitimate concerns.

 

[ExCivilian]

Our current F150 Lightning also has aluminum bed sides but they are removable. Although the body shop told me there are much better PDR and aluminum repair tools/techniques these days so they didn't even need to do that when our bed was sideswiped.

I don't know what they'll do with the T3 but that's one of the reasons I preferred the 2022 Lightning even though people think it being an ICE platform is a deficiency.

 

[KevinC]

After looking at endless pictures of cybertruck, I'm wondering if it is at least technically feasible for ford to issue a limited edition lightning with no paint. Aluminum wouldnt rust right?

 

[Maquis]

After looking at endless pictures of cybertruck, I'm wondering if it is at least technically feasible for ford to issue a limited edition lightning with no paint. Aluminum wouldnt rust right?

It doesn’t rust, but aluminum will oxidize. To what extent depends on the alloy.

 

[Maxx]

Something like this should be easy to fix.

 

[DeluxeStang]

Something like this should be easy to fix.

Those things are so bad . I can't believe they're charging 6 figures to sell something so horrible looking.

 

[Maxx]

Those things are so bad . I can't believe they're charging 6 figures to sell something so horrible looking.

When you get to those prices, it is not about the statement you make. And this says, I can afford to drive ugly.

But my point was when Ford says you have to pay $2K for a Lightning tail light, you kinda have to pay. If Bolinger says that, you will just Jerry-rig something that works. I would never pay that much for that truck but I am all for not being at the companies mercy after a purchase as much as possible.

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