the bumpers are plastic

Doug_G said:

I've heard that the bumpers are plastic. ???

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Me too. That's what Siry said in this blog from 2008:

As for materials: body panels (except for the bumpers) are made entirely of carbon fiber to minimize weight.

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http://www.teslamotors.com/node/3885

But that was before the facelift.

This pdf showing the suppliers for the facelifted Tesla Roadster suggests the front bumper panel is still plastic (from Taylor Engineering and Plastics), although it also says the chin spoiler is carbon fiber.
http://www.autonews.com/assets/PDF/CA70595729.PDF

W.Petefish said:

Nope. Because you have to drill with the bit in reverse to prevent the CF from catching on the bit. (Direct quote)

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Nope. The bumper is not CF on v2.5s. I know this from personal experience because I've seen the nose of a Roadster crushed in and then pop out with zero damage. Carbon fiber would have cracked.

W.Petefish said:

You're looking at $10K easily as the bumper is CF. (Confirmed through a ranger visit when I asked about the license bracket.)

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Bumpers are not CF they are Plastic...call your local Tesla dealer and have them price you a bumper...there is no way that for the price they offer it for that it could possibly be CF. I have one sitting in my garage right now and it is definitely molded plastic. If you have the CF Exterior package then there will be a Carbon Fiber lip that attaches to the bottom of the bumper, but from the pictures of the OP's car it looks as if they do not have the CF package.

Also looks like there may be some body panel damage, which will require a Tesla Authorized Repair shop to perform the work since they consider these parts to be structural. More than the cost it looks like the OP is in for a long wait to get their car repaired (that is if there is indeed body panel damage).

smoothoperator said:

Bumpers are not CF they are Plastic...

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The crack below the right headlight should reveal the bumper material.

Accident

I had the same thing happen to my 1.5. The braking system is questionable, as I had good separation from the truck in front of me and was only going 45 MPH. In my situation, it was a truck with a tow hitch, so it rode up my hood before I could stop. The bumper is plastic on the 1.5, but I was able to get the repair shop to replace it with the upgraded CF bumper. They did not charge me anything since the bumper needed to be replaced and they submitted it to the insurance as the replacement part. I would suggest you ask for it as it looks much better then the basic bumper. I disagree with the person that posted that you could have just slammed on the brakes and you would have stopped. Having gone through this, there was no way I could stop the roadster. Be prepared for this to take some time and they will more than likely check the safety cage to make sure it was not dented.

W.Petefish said:

I guess we will see when the quote comes.

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I smell a profitable wager coming. Baby needs a CF center console!


Seriously, there's just no way. The service manager in Menlo told me a while ago the nose was not CF. I saw it crush and bounce back with my own eyes. Your Tesla Ranger is wrong.

Plus, there are Federal Bumper Regulations that state (from the FAQ):

...5 mph longitudinal front and rear impacts with barrier and pendulum; 3 mph corner impact pendulum, all with no damage to the bumper itself beyond a 3/8 inch dent and 3/4 inch set or displacement from original position

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There's just no way you can achieve that with a CF bumper.

When I get a chance I'm going to have to move this plastic versus CF bumper debate to another thread.

Just to put a nail in this, both the nose and tail are plastic. I guess there's some confusion since Tesla often advertised "all carbon fiber body panels," but that doesn't include the nose and tail. In fact, that's why they could do the Roadster 2.5 facelift. Changing CF would have been cost prohibitive.

That's that.

That is the case for all modern cars... In order to achieve acceptable low speed crash test ratings and pedestrian impact ratings ALL FRONT AND REAR bumpers are injection molded plastics.

The roadster is not a special case...

The rangers may have been trained to drill in reverse in order to develop the habit. Better safe than sorry.

doug said:

When I get a chance I'm going to have to move this plastic versus CF bumper debate to another thread.

Just to put a nail in this, both the nose and tail are plastic. I guess there's some confusion since Tesla often advertised "all carbon fiber body panels," but that doesn't include the nose and tail. In fact, that's why they could do the Roadster 2.5 facelift. Changing CF would have been cost prohibitive.

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Just to clarify, Doug, as part of the Tesla upgrades, you can get a Carbon Fiber front spoiler. I said I had a CF bumper, this is what was ordered and was the same price on the part list from Tesla as the replacement standard bumper. So while the bumper is not CG, the whole front spoiler section is CF.

sure.

To help the CF vs plastic debate;

I've noticed a lot of complaints about your CF panels with lack of durability and inability to be used as an acceptable media for the bumpers. This is because your CF panels are, in actuality a plastic core, covered with fiberglass and then covered with 1 layer of CF on each side. It's a great inexpensive way to quickly cut a large % of weight from the metal/fiberglass counterparts and still maintain enough durability to withstand a "normal" workload. The downside it is not as impact resistant as it would need to be for a bumper, but works great for the other panels.

For example look at the driver's side front of Cinergi's hood, notice how much lower the Plastic is compared to the hood and how the vans bumper marks are shown on both hood/bumper? This means that at the lip of his hood took similar impact as the top of the bumper, yet the hood remains structurally sound (replace the 3M Bra and it's like new). If the hood was solid fiberglass it would not have fared so well.



A plastic bumper is typically a better choice when compared to a CF "Skin" part because it takes direct damage better and it is much cheaper to replace the plastic piece over trying to fix the CF Skin or replacing it. When you go to a full "prepreg" CF panel things change. I'll fill you more in when Doug starts a new thread


-Chris
Concept:Carbon

i recently had a thorough conversation with johnny in the service group at tesla menlo park. he verified that the front and rear bumpers are plastic on all versions of roadster.

jory said:

i recently had a thorough conversation with johnny in the service group at tesla menlo park. he verified that the front and rear bumpers are plastic on all versions of roadster.

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As much as an all CF car would be cool, plastic makes more sense at the high impact ends.

I unfortunately had a minor collision in the parking lot scuffing the paint on the front bumper. A local shop did a great job and they removed the bumper and repainted the whole bumper for $450. At least on the 1.5 the bumper is plastic. Fortunately there was no other damage to the car as replacement parts are not inexpensive. That said it is tedious to pull the bumper off as there are a minimum of 25 fasteners to keep it in place.