Tesla Service Paint Repair/Repaint Experiences...Please Share

[mobilesuit818]

I was just given the buyout option
- process would take a few weeks
- i would need to start the process all over again but they stated that the wait time is non existent for RWD config.
- apparently this SC sold all of their loaners and will have only rentals,
- rentals will only be giving for safety/driveablity issues only (so I’m SOL).
-they specifically asked for the loaner back and for me to drive the Model 3 while it gets processed(seems wildly odd to me and wife agrees)

Damn that’s a bummer. That is definitely what I did not want to go through! I think you may have a case, though they have spent a lot of time trying to repair already.

For me it was because I kept expressing I was not happy and I was uncomfortable with the idea of repainting, especially part of the car and not the entire thing so it matched. That it wasn’t going to be the same, and I waited 2.5 years for a new car and now it’s like it has been in an accident I was not a part of.

And I will notice every problem every day if it’s not perfect when I walked up to it because sadly that’s how I am (I’m a nerd/engineer). He kept reiterating that nothing is better than the Factory paint application and it may be best to do minimal work on the paint to make it “OK” than to repaint the car...., and I pretty much backed that thought up and said see, I’m supposed to pick between the lesser of two bad options and you’re telling me an option that is not possible ( good Factory paint)...so that feeling of a new car is gone forever.

The service manager totally understood and he himself took it up and found a way. I didn’t push the new car thing at all. I mean I mentioned it few times but in a way that that would be the “only” way to restore that feeling of a nice new car again, and I even expressed the doubt that a new car may have more defects from factory! Haha...so, perhaps the cost of repairing the whole car was a lot and assisted in the decision? Don’t know...

Oh and I did have about 1,000 miles on the car as well...the bank I got my loan from still has the same interest rate (as of today) so I’m not in that bad of a situation on the loan. But that can change tomorrow haha...

 

[mcbarnet007]

Reportedly the spots are either over sanded paint or poor prep.. There are small circles on the left side doors, one by the charge port and one on the hood... Other than the few spots the car is absolutely amazing.. I like it so much better than the S they gave me as a loaner..

There is no need to get the car repainted. It can be fixed with polish with a dual action polisher. Any detailer should be able to remove the haze.

 

[pdxev]

I was waiting until my full resolution to post my story so here it is:

I picked up my Red 2018 P3D- in the third week of August. On my inspection with the indoor lighting, I did notice two areas of swirls on both rear quarter panels. They corrected these while I waited. I had previously scheduled an appointment to get a front end wrap and windows tinted on the week after pickup. The day of pickup I started the process of wash, mild paint correction, polish, and coating. During this process, I did notice three areas of clear coat contamination. Two were on the hood and one was on the driver's side door. I actually deemed these somewhat inconsequential. The paint looked really good otherwise.

Trouble started with my PPF appointment. The installers examined the hood and were concerned that the areas of raised contamination would cause the PPF to potentially trap bubbles and look abnormal. They found more tiny areas all over the hood. I really had trouble finding these and so did the manager of the shop when I picked up. They did suggest I take it back to Tesla for inspection. I made an online appointment for early next week on a Tuesday morning.

The manager checked out the hood. He totally understood and was not dismissive. He marked out several areas and recommended it be repainted. He said it should be done in 2-3 days and let me know where the work would be done. I was given a Model S loaner. (It was a 2012 85 with 70K miles that was a novel experience, but made me miss the M3!) On Thursday, I called and they let me know that they had it back but wanted to inspect it thoroughly before pickup the next morning. I received a text and arrived the next day for pickup.

They did indeed fix the irregularities by sanding it down, respraying, and blending it into the fenders. Sadly, there was terrible spider web swirling very evident in the sun. I pointed this out and the SA admitted that it was pretty bad. He said that they would bring it to their detail department while I waited for correction. The problems were extensive and I think I waited close to two hours and was given frequent updates.

The good news is they did a really nice job. The hood now looks better than new and the paint is just about the best I have ever seen in a new car. I am a little disappointed that I lost some of the "original paint". However, most of this concern is for durability and I still plan on a full hood wrap which does make me feel better. In the end, I let the usual customer service mechanisms do their job and I am pretty happy with the result.

 

[jasdelta]

I was waiting until my full resolution to post my story so here it is:

I picked up my Red 2018 P3D- in the third week of August. On my inspection with the indoor lighting, I did notice two areas of swirls on both rear quarter panels. They corrected these while I waited. I had previously scheduled an appointment to get a front end wrap and windows tinted on the week after pickup. The day of pickup I started the process of wash, mild paint correction, polish, and coating. During this process, I did notice three areas of clear coat contamination. Two were on the hood and one was on the driver's side door. I actually deemed these somewhat inconsequential. The paint looked really good otherwise.

Trouble started with my PPF appointment. The installers examined the hood and were concerned that the areas of raised contamination would cause the PPF to potentially trap bubbles and look abnormal. They found more tiny areas all over the hood. I really had trouble finding these and so did the manager of the shop when I picked up. They did suggest I take it back to Tesla for inspection. I made an online appointment for early next week on a Tuesday morning.

The manager checked out the hood. He totally understood and was not dismissive. He marked out several areas and recommended it be repainted. He said it should be done in 2-3 days and let me know where the work would be done. I was given a Model S loaner. (It was a 2012 85 with 70K miles that was a novel experience, but made me miss the M3!) On Thursday, I called and they let me know that they had it back but wanted to inspect it thoroughly before pickup the next morning. I received a text and arrived the next day for pickup.

They did indeed fix the irregularities by sanding it down, respraying, and blending it into the fenders. Sadly, there was terrible spider web swirling very evident in the sun. I pointed this out and the SA admitted that it was pretty bad. He said that they would bring it to their detail department while I waited for correction. The problems were extensive and I think I waited close to two hours and was given frequent updates.

The good news is they did a really nice job. The hood now looks better than new and the paint is just about the best I have ever seen in a new car. I am a little disappointed that I lost some of the "original paint". However, most of this concern is for durability and I still plan on a full hood wrap which does make me feel better. In the end, I let the usual customer service mechanisms do their job and I am pretty happy with the result.

Great to hear that you had a positive experience. Thanks for sharing.

 

[minsup23]

I had 4 areas that required repainting/repair. It took Tesla about 12 days to get the car back to me. I noticed there were some new scratches that look like occurred with the car being detailed with debris. The service rep sort of dismissed it and said this could likely be buffed out but I would need to make a NEW appointment or be without my car even longer. I am getting my car tinted and the detail shop can does perform paint correction and ceramic coating. I am considering this because the black coat just seems so soft and easily scratched. Anyways, the shop has a lot of Tesla customers and other high end cars and I guess customers got Tesla to foot the bill. Is this a reasonable ask for the paint correction? One thing I noticed when I got home in better light is that there is a decent scratch that your fingernail can get in and Im afraid this won't be a quick fix and would require the entire hood to be repainted.

Also, I was told that the car went to a Tesla paint shop. However, there was 1 mile added to the odometer. Does Tesla typically get these cars transported? The service rep could not answer this for me.

 

[buyehara]

I have yet to hear a decision on my paint correction settlement. Since I really only had a couple of fisheyes on the trunk like my offer was either replace the lid with a factory painted lid or refund my $1500.00 I paid for the multicoat red. Waiting to have a phone discussion with the local service manager. The red multicoat is really resilient and resist scratches very well. My cat is always obsessed with climbing cars, especially new ones! I also just noticed that the price of the red multicoat has increased to $2,500.00 just when they pulled two colors off the color list.

 

[pdxev]

I had 4 areas that required repainting/repair. It took Tesla about 12 days to get the car back to me. I noticed there were some new scratches that look like occurred with the car being detailed with debris. The service rep sort of dismissed it and said this could likely be buffed out but I would need to make a NEW appointment or be without my car even longer. I am getting my car tinted and the detail shop can does perform paint correction and ceramic coating. I am considering this because the black coat just seems so soft and easily scratched. Anyways, the shop has a lot of Tesla customers and other high end cars and I guess customers got Tesla to foot the bill. Is this a reasonable ask for the paint correction? One thing I noticed when I got home in better light is that there is a decent scratch that your fingernail can get in and Im afraid this won't be a quick fix and would require the entire hood to be repainted.

Also, I was told that the car went to a Tesla paint shop. However, there was 1 mile added to the odometer. Does Tesla typically get these cars transported? The service rep could not answer this for me.

Mine was driven down the street. NBD

 

[rainforest]

How difficult has it been to remove dust nibs from the paint? I have some on my hood and trunk, but am afraid I may create more problems if they try to remove them.

If I ask them to try and polish them, I need to have my PPF installer remove the XPEL and then reapply afterwards.

 

[mcbarnet007]

Dust nibs on the clear are not hard to remove at all if done correctly. You take a razor blade to shave it down so it is no longer poking out, then you wet sand it lightly with 1500 grit paper. Then you can compound and polish it. Most professional paint shops should know what to do.

sand paper:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015S8RXCQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
backing block:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015S8S2LW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[CTinCA]

There is no need to get the car repainted. It can be fixed with polish with a dual action polisher. Any detailer should be able to remove the haze.

You were right.. The body shop was able to buff them out.. It looks fantastic...

 

[buyehara]

that's great news @CTinCA, so glad to hear that your experience was great. Still haven't heard back from the local service manager, left 2 messages already, no reply.

 

[buyehara]

Finally received a reply from the local manager. She was extremely nice and actually returned my call after hours literally right after I sent another follow up email. Unfortunately the $1500.00 refund was not a possibility and I'm thinking it's a finance / revenue thing, anyhow that was not an option. We are still working out a proposal and I'll let you all know what the final solution was proposed and accepted.

 

[Shizzrock]

Just took delivery of MCR P3D+ and I'm disheartened to say the same issues are still happening. There's a couple of weird panel gaps, and on the hood one bigger fisheye, a handful of nibs, and a scrape. I walked through the rest of the car and it's not bad, a couple of discolorations and some overspray. But it still sucks because I want Tesla to do well, and I want to love this car, but these issues really take the joy out of it. The guy who sends you off barely spent five minutes with me and when I asked how to address issues, he said "as long as they're real issues. Everyone hears about them and then they come here and pretend there's issues when they're not there". That was definitely the low point of my experience, because now I know everything I bring up will be a hassle. I guess i have to decide in the next couple of days if I'm keeping it. I want to keep it, but I don't want a used new car.

Any advice on who to talk to? Do you just talk to a service rep?

 

[CTinCA]

Just took delivery of MCR P3D+ and I'm disheartened to say the same issues are still happening. There's a couple of weird panel gaps, and on the hood one bigger fisheye, a handful of nibs, and a scrape. I walked through the rest of the car and it's not bad, a couple of discolorations and some overspray. But it still sucks because I want Tesla to do well, and I want to love this car, but these issues really take the joy out of it. The guy who sends you off barely spent five minutes with me and when I asked how to address issues, he said "as long as they're real issues. Everyone hears about them and then they come here and pretend there's issues when they're not there". That was definitely the low point of my experience, because now I know everything I bring up will be a hassle. I guess i have to decide in the next couple of days if I'm keeping it. I want to keep it, but I don't want a used new car.

Any advice on who to talk to? Do you just talk to a service rep?

Send an e-mail to the sales (delievery) team with the issues.. They will prepare a due bill and send it in to the service center and they will go over the issues with you and get them resolved... Mine was a paint issue and they sent it to a body shop to clean up the issues.. It took a week, but it came out great..

Thanx... Peter

 

[super20g]

Any advice on who to talk to? Do you just talk to a service rep?

You probably would not have a problem if you just showed up to the service center to return within the 2 days and they will most likely bend over backwards to make sure they handle every concern you have, or you return and wait for a new vin or give it some time and try again. I am having them fix a fairly long list of issues and they weren't overjoyed, but they'll do it. Sooner the better I am sure.

 

[COM3]

Called the service center and they said that they've recently changed how they are doing these. They're sending them to a body shop, and they're backed up about a month. So, it's going to be a while for me.

 

[minsup23]

Any idea what this little bubble is called? I had my car in service for 12 days to fix a few paint issues including two of these. Now I just noticed another one.

 

[rainforest]

Any idea what this little bubble is called? I had my car in service for 12 days to fix a few paint issues including two of these. Now I just noticed another one.

That’s a dust nib. My car is covered in those. I believe most model 3s have them.

Why 12 days? That’s a very long time..

 

[minsup23]

That’s a dust nib. My car is covered in those. I believe most model 3s have them.

Why 12 days? That’s a very long time..

I have no idea. It was painful. I am upset that a NEW dust nib about 6 inches from a repaired one popped up. I didn’t really inspect the car because the car had a deep scratch on the hood by the emblem.

I also noticed this yesterday during a wash. I had something similar that got fixed in the 12 days. I need to do more washes in the sun. I have been doing the onr in my garage.

 

[super20g]

Any idea what this little bubble is called?

Can't really see it too close, but probably fish eye or a dust nib where the surface wasn't properly prepped.

Mine has fish eye and dust nibs on every panel... Feels like sandpaper in places like the door jambs. I have MSM so it hides it better than a solid color, but still annoying AF. The worst is getting repainted now. If I wanted them all gone, it would need a full repaint top to bottom... Not sure what to do about that. Tired of the car being in the shop and being molested... but not happy looking at defects every time I wash the car either.

If you just have one... I'd see what the detailer could do and if it doesn't come out, up to you to have the panel resprayed if it bothers you... I am jealous of 1 defect in the paint though.