26 paint chips in less than 9 months

[deuskid]

I have too many chips for the amount of time I've owned the car.

I'm 68 and between me and my ex, I have more than 7x vehicles to compare.

This is pitiful.

What is to be done?

Took it in and the Tesla shop spoke out of both sides of their mouths... 'this is normal' and 'This is more than I've ever seen' within a few minutes of each other! WTF????? 26 chips in 9 months.

He also said CA paint regulations cause the paint to be inferior! Then why not PPF at the factory?????

I'm miffed because, apparently, Tesla knows it is a systemic problem and is just sticking it to the consumer.

SHAME, SHAME on them. Knowingly selling an inferior product when a solution [factory PPF] is available. Jack up the price for PPF and sell a car that's paint is equal to the other attributes.

Shame on Tesla and shame on E Musk!

At least tell purchasers of the Model 3 that the paint is inadequate and needs PPF! That would have saved me $1,700 for repaint before $2,000 PPF.

 

[DayTrippin]

For cars painted in California, from what I understand the paint and process has to meet the ecological restrictions placed upon them. Blame California. I PPFd my cars right away as I knew it would bother me. Pretty well known fact about Teslas unfortunately. You are just late to the game it seems.

 

[Adam3]

How many chips did your other cars have in similar amount of time?

Buy Dr Colorchip kit. You won't notice them from a few feet away.

Yes Tesla paint is a joke compared to BMW.

 

[mcorf]

How many chips are allowed on a lease before they start charging you at turn in?

 

[afadeev]

I have too many chips for the amount of time I've owned the car.

I'm 68 and between me and my ex, I have more than 7x vehicles to compare.

This is pitiful.

What is to be done?

With a Tesla vehicle - not much!
With any other automaker - make a warranty claim and they would attempt to make things right for you (on a luxury car, not on an econobox).

Took it in and the Tesla shop spoke out of both sides of their mouths... 'this is normal' and 'This is more than I've ever seen' within a few minutes of each other! WTF????? 26 chips in 9 months.
He also said CA paint regulations cause the paint to be inferior!

That's total BS excuse.
All automakers use water-soluble paints these days. Just some do a better job of it than others.

Then why not PPF at the factory?????

Because it's expensive, and Elon needs a new crib!

I'm miffed because, apparently, Tesla knows it is a systemic problem and is just sticking it to the consumer.
SHAME, SHAME on them. Knowingly selling an inferior product when a solution [factory PPF] is available. Jack up the price for PPF and sell a car that's paint is equal to the other attributes.

PPF is not a simple solution.
It's VERY labor intensive to apply, and will get destroyed by most common car washes.

At least tell purchasers of the Model 3 that the paint is inadequate and needs PPF! That would have saved me $1,700 for repaint before $2,000 PPF.

Proper PPF costs way more than $2K. Figure about $500/panel.
If you are only planning to repaint +PPF the nose and fenders, beware that the bulk of chips I'm observing are on the bottom of the doors and rocket panels all along both sides of the car.
I looked into complete PPF, and my quote was $5.5K for parts and labor. Not worth it to me.

YMMV,
a

 

[stopcrazypp]

PPF is not a simple solution.
It's VERY labor intensive to apply, and will get destroyed by most common car washes.

Not true after you let it cure properly (which would prevent it from lifting). The amount of damage done is the same as to bare paint (microscratches). If you are the type of person to use brushed car washes, you wouldn't care about microscratches anyways. Touchless car washes are recommended anyways for Teslas, so this is generally a non-issue. And for Teslas they don't have a painted roof that needs PPF, so the most likely place to lift from an brushed automatic car wash doesn't exist on a Tesla.

Personally with PPF it makes the car much easier to hose off and hand wash.

Proper PPF costs way more than $2K. Figure about $500/panel.
If you are only planning to repaint +PPF the nose and fenders, beware that the bulk of chips I'm observing are on the bottom of the doors and rocket panels all along both sides of the car.
I looked into complete PPF, and my quote was $5.5K for parts and labor. Not worth it to me.

You mentioned yourself, it's possible to do partial PPF if you are on a budget. The hood, doors and rocker panels are very easy to DIY. You can find rocker panel/lower door kits easily.
Model 3 Lower Door & Rocker Panel Paint Protection Kit - Clear Bra
The front bumper I would suggest leaving to professionals. It's a huge pain to do given the complex shapes. Other panels are optional from a chipping perspective.

 

[DayTrippin]

One thing to keep in mind if going with PPF on a white car is any unwrapped and exposed edges are going to likely end up with a dirt seam along it. This is where the dirt is sticking to the exposed adhesive layer of the PPF. So finding a good installer becomes even more important AND having them wrap the edges rather than using a die cut kit that just flush butts against a panel edge.

For example, instead of wrapping the PPF all the way around the edge of the fender, the piece is just cut and follows the outer arc of the fender on the external facing side. Think of it as laying a sticker that might just meet at the seam (the rolled edge of the fender). After a few weeks/months all the dirt will collect there and you will have a nice dirty edge to deal with. Not worth it to save a few hundred on the install.

So shop installers and look at their work. Ask the right questions. If it really matters to you, have your car bulk wrapped. That is where they custom cut each piece specifically for your car. They typically will wrap all the edges they can and take off the trim where necessary to do it right. Having had cars done both ways, it is worth the upcharge to have it done in bulk and wrapping the edges, especially on a white car. It takes the installer more time to do it and more waste but for me the improvement in final product was about 40% better vs ~15% more in cost. I was also able to get them to do some custom things I wanted such as an extra sacrificial layer on the front and to add in some blacked-out elements. Look at my icon for my Plaid as an example.

It really change the car's "attitude" and made the car feel a lot more unique.

 

[afadeev]

Not true after you let it cure properly (which would prevent it from lifting).

Sorry, the ONLY thing that will prevent PPF film from lifting is if it was wrapped up and around all the body panels. In other words, if the install was done professionally, by someone who was well compensated and was not cutting any corners.
Otherwise, an exposed edge will attract dirt and will lift when enough high-pressure water force is applied along its edge. Therefore, one should avoid taking PPF-ed car through automated car washes.

The amount of damage done is the same as to bare paint (microscratches). If you are the type of person to use brushed car washes, you wouldn't care about microscratches anyways.

Micro-scratches on clearcoat can be polished out.
Micro-scratches on PPF will, over time, stop self-healing and permanently damage the film.

BIG difference, because clearcoat is a much harder material than soft film!

Touchless car washes are recommended anyways for Teslas, so this is generally a non-issue.

Recommended by whom?
Touchless (water-spray only) car washes will not remove any serious amount of dirt / bugs/ road grime of your car.
Sorry, not even close.

And for Teslas they don't have a painted roof that needs PPF, so the most likely place to lift from an brushed automatic car wash doesn't exist on a Tesla.

PPF gets lifted at the edges, not in the middle of the panel.
Teslas still have A-pillar and roof-structural supports that are exposed and should wrapped, if one is fully PPF-ing the car.

Personally with PPF it makes the car much easier to hose off and hand wash.

Agreed, and I do have PPF on one of my other cars.
The dirt does come off more easily, but not the road construction grime, nor the winter road salt and sand mix that gets sprayed everywhere. That stuff requires careful and thorough hand-wash to remove.

Since my TM3P is a winter beater, there is no way I'm hand-washing that car throughout the winter.
Thus the only way to clean it are automatic car washes.
Thus, no PPF.

You mentioned yourself, it's possible to do partial PPF if you are on a budget. The hood, doors and rocker panels are very easy to DIY. You can find rocker panel/lower door kits easily.

I would NEVER recommend anyone to DIY PPF application, unless you've done it a dozen or so times on other peoples' cars in the past.
The same goes for PDR (paintless dent repair).
The same goes for painting your own car.

Good luck either way,
a

 

[stopcrazypp]

Sorry, the ONLY thing that will prevent PPF film from lifting is if it was wrapped up and around all the body panels. In other words, if the install was done professionally, by someone who was well compensated and was not cutting any corners.
Otherwise, an exposed edge will attract dirt and will lift when enough high-pressure water force is applied along its edge. Therefore, one should avoid taking PPF-ed car through automated car washes.

Yes, edges have risk of lifting, but it's generally the frontal edges that lift the easiest in an automated car wash (see later point about roofs).

Micro-scratches on clearcoat can be polished out.

Micro-scratches on PPF will, over time, stop self-healing and permanently damage the film.

BIG difference, because clearcoat is a much harder material than soft film!

The general idea is if you are the type to take your car through a brushed carwash, most likely you won't bother polishing the car anyways or care about the appearance of microscratches (which are actually less likely to show up as obvious on a PPF car anyways due to self healing). And the difference between clearcoat and PPF is the latter is much thicker. There is a 0.5 mil top coat and 6 mil film. On a Tesla, clear coat is probably around 2 mils and polishing removes some of it (while PPF is sacrificial, you still have your factory clear coat below).

Recommended by whom?

By Tesla:
"If washing in an automatic car wash, use touchless car washes only."
Model 3 Owner's Manual | Tesla

Touchless (water-spray only) car washes will not remove any serious amount of dirt / bugs/ road grime of your car.
Sorry, not even close.

The effectiveness perhaps is not as good as other methods of washing, but as above it's the only method Tesla says to use if you are using an automatic car wash.

PPF gets lifted at the edges, not in the middle of the panel.

Teslas still have A-pillar and roof-structural supports that are exposed and should wrapped, if one is fully PPF-ing the car.

Yes, and the roof creates a huge unprotected frontal edge at an angle that is much easier to lift than any other panel by an automated car wash. All the other panels, due to aerodynamic design, generally have a proceeding panel that helps reduce the chance of lifting.

Agreed, and I do have PPF on one of my other cars.
The dirt does come off more easily, but not the road construction grime, nor the winter road salt and sand mix that gets sprayed everywhere. That stuff requires careful and thorough hand-wash to remove.

Since my TM3P is a winter beater, there is no way I'm hand-washing that car throughout the winter.
Thus the only way to clean it are automatic car washes.
Thus, no PPF.

Yes fair point about road grime, that needs actual washing to come off. But most other dirt, PPF makes hand washing so much easier, even just using water (no soaps).

I would NEVER recommend anyone to DIY PPF application, unless you've done it a dozen or so times on other peoples' cars in the past.
The same goes for PDR (paintless dent repair).
The same goes for painting your own car.

Good luck either way,
a

I would recommend DIY PPF for easy areas if you are on a budget. It's very easy to do and no risk (easy to take off or reposition if you got it wrong). That's why even Tesla offers a PPF kit:
https://shop.tesla.com/product/model-3-paint-protection-film

I would not recommend doing complex panels yourself, like the front bumper, but things like the doors, rockers, hood are super easy. For people looking to do full body DIY PPF from bulk, the hood is the easiest area to start out to practice, as it's mostly flat with no complex shapes.

 

[deuskid]

Just FYI

I learned today that I need to wait at least 30 days after the paint guy touches up all the chips. 40 would be better.

Bottom line: PPF your TM3 as soon as you get it.

Tesla is negant in their paint process and knowingly F&*^ purchasers. I thought Elon was a better man than this.

Simply up the price and add factory PPF. That is the right thing to do.

If neither Tesla nor Musk reply, then that is proof that they don't care about doing the right thing.