Had a client drop off her brand new Tesla Model 3 to me for a full blow Gtechniq CSL Black treatment. It amazes me what the Tesla dealers get away with considering how much they cost (well, the Model 3 isn't that bad, but still).

Here's how she looked at drop off. A little dusty, but overall didn't seem horrible at first.

I did a high pH strip wash and clayed with a Nanoskin fine clay mitt. The dealer definitely put some sort of topper on at delivery by the water behaviour during the wash. It was something that had a LOT of fillers in it as this is what I found after under my Scan Grip lights.



Lots of wash marring, couple of RIDS, some really nasty buffer trails and really bad haze in the paint. Knowing how soft Tesla paint generally is, I knew correction wasn't going to be hard, but finishing was.
For cutting, I used HD Cut+ with a Lake Country Hybrid Wool pad on my Dewalt Rotary. That took nearly all defects out in about 1 pass. Finishing ended up using Carpro Essence on my Flex 3401 with a Megs black finishing pad at speed 3. The car was topped off with the Gtechniq CSL Black treatment (1 layer of Crystal Serum Light, 2 layers of Exo), then finally topped with C2v3 before delivery. Tires and fenderwells were hit with CG New Car Shine dressing and the interior was vacuumed and wiped down with 3D Final Touch.

 

uhm wow

 

LOL. I've been detailing professionally for about 5 years and been doing coating jobs for the past 3. Normal weekend for me. LOL

 

Looks good and the exact reason Ill never buy a black car again

Its not just Tesla's with crappy paint upon delivery. A number of high lines seem to suffer from the same seen it on Ferrari's, Lambos, Porsche, Range Rover etc its sad but those folks have enough $$$ to take care of it or honestly Ive seen most dont care.

 

It's weird too. Usually the higher the line, the crappier the paint it seems. At least that's what I've observed.

 

Signiture?

 

Nice work.

Yeah Teslas are not known for good factory paint. Engineering Explained on youtube did a video on how bad his new Model 3 paint job was.

 

I guess? Just been my thing that I do for a long time.

 

Thank you. The newer production Teslas are a bit better as far as paint hardness, but it can be very touch and go depending on the car when you have no choice but to hit it with a heavy abrasive. I've had a few detailer buddies in the mid-west go through the paint with nothing more than M205 on a LC HDO white pad. Now that's scary.

 

Very nice, too bad she didn't have you change the wheels too

 

I hear you on that. I mean the stock wheels under the cover looks a hell of a lot better than with the covers on. Meh, wasn't asked or paid to do a set of wheels, so it's not done. What can I say.