Detailing of car before delivery

[chickensevil]

So I really trust the detailer's advice... It was someone who came VERY highly recommended (speed freak auto detailing, if you are in the NOVA area, BTW) and as I was talking with him about it he said Opt-Coat is a very great product... Nothing wrong with it at all. But he said that the Modesta gives you a 2 dimensional look vs the Opti that is very one dimensional. So, especially with the metallic (and I assume this would apply to the muticoats at well) it really makes the paint stand out more giving you a deep look to it.

I personally went with BC4 and which is normally what he does, but another owner went for the full deal and did BC5 on top on the BC4 since he has the red and it really makes the red super wet almost like blood. The problem with BC5 is it is not as hard. So while it looks fantastic if you drive your car a lot and are not very meticulous with the cleaning you can damage the coating a bit easier. Given I now have 11k miles in 5 months of ownership this seemed like the better alternative. It wouldn't have cost any different doing BC4 vs BC5...

I actually finally get my car back tomorrow and will happily take a bunch of photos to post. I will also happily report how I feel about it and such since I still haven't seen my car yet. But I will say, don't be like me... Get SOMETHING on top of your car BEFORE you drive it a bunch. I had to pay the price for it... The paint correction cost me 1k and it is only going to restore me back to 80 or 90% because of how much torture I have already put my car through. Especially those stupid rock chips... Thankfully best I could tell all the chips were absorbed into the paint armor (I have the Tesla one) but there was at least one on the door that got me and took it all the way down to metal...

Seriously, even if you are cheap... Go get something like CCQuartz put on there or something... The paint is quite soft and you don't want to wish you had done it later... It is the car's one and only fatal flaw...

 

[benemac]

So I really trust the detailer's advice... It was someone who came VERY highly recommended (speed freak auto detailing, if you are in the NOVA area, BTW) and as I was talking with him about it he said Opt-Coat is a very great product... Nothing wrong with it at all. But he said that the Modesta gives you a 2 dimensional look vs the Opti that is very one dimensional. So, especially with the metallic (and I assume this would apply to the muticoats at well) it really makes the paint stand out more giving you a deep look to it.

I personally went with BC4 and which is normally what he does, but another owner went for the full deal and did BC5 on top on the BC4 since he has the red and it really makes the red super wet almost like blood. The problem with BC5 is it is not as hard. So while it looks fantastic if you drive your car a lot and are not very meticulous with the cleaning you can damage the coating a bit easier. Given I now have 11k miles in 5 months of ownership this seemed like the better alternative. It wouldn't have cost any different doing BC4 vs BC5...

I actually finally get my car back tomorrow and will happily take a bunch of photos to post. I will also happily report how I feel about it and such since I still haven't seen my car yet. But I will say, don't be like me... Get SOMETHING on top of your car BEFORE you drive it a bunch. I had to pay the price for it... The paint correction cost me 1k and it is only going to restore me back to 80 or 90% because of how much torture I have already put my car through. Especially those stupid rock chips... Thankfully best I could tell all the chips were absorbed into the paint armor (I have the Tesla one) but there was at least one on the door that got me and took it all the way down to metal...

Seriously, even if you are cheap... Go get something like CCQuartz put on there or something... The paint is quite soft and you don't want to wish you had done it later... It is the car's one and only fatal flaw...

How did you find someone who used this product. We're in Scottsdale and I can't find anyone. Their website doesn't have a list either. Looks like a great product. Would you mind mentioning the cost? IM is fine if you don't want to disclose here.

Thanks.

Bernadette

 

[chickensevil]

I did, go up three posts

The scratch repair and such was 1,000 (if my car wasn't so bad for various reasons most of which previously discussed I get the feeling this would have been cheaper) the Modesta was 900 and then I am getting a pilot product of theirs (I don't even recall the name) for my glass to protect the glass and make it very hydrophobic which is costing me 100 (normally for a car this size and all the glass he said they would be charging 250). So all in all 2000$

From what I can gather Modesta is a fairly new product. Opti-Coat was totally the THING to get on your car prior to this product. The reason it is likely to be hard to find someone to do it is not only is it newer but it is far more difficult and time consuming to apply. But that is part of what makes it better (and also more expensive). Opti-coat is a one layer application that cab be done in a couple hours. Modesta on the other hand has a base coat which takes a couple hours to apply. It sits for like 8 hours and then they stick the top coat (in my case bc4) which takes another couple hours and then it has to bake under these infrared heat lamps for another like 8 hours. Finally it has to sit for a solid 24 hours without getting wet.

I don't have recommendations for your area, but I would hit up your local threads and see if anyone has any good tips for detailers. It can be hard to find good quality detailers from a google search... At least in my experience. If not for having such an active Tesla community in DC and the surrounding areas it would have been more challenging for me.

Oh and from what I can tell, whilst the pricing is likely to be different from detailer to detailer, it generally seemed to go Modesta as the most expensive, Opticoat was about half the price and then CCQuartz was half the price again. So in my case 900 to 450 to around 200. Hope that helps!

- - - Updated - - -

And just for clarification I did at least TRY to take great care of my car. Outside of the sanding issues and swirls/holograms which were caused by Tesla I trued to take really great care of it. Always hand washed using the two bucket method and top to bottom and such, and the car generally was garaged and only exposed to the weather when driving or it couldn't be avoided. But with all of that I still caused some scratches on the paint (very light) which I believe was from washing and I had two instances where cats thought they would have fun with my car and walked all over it causing some VERY light scratches and of course the dreaded rock chip. As well as I am sure some other random things... It is impossible to drive the car as much as I have and not do something to this paint... It is just too soft. I will clarify that this is at least true with the metallic paints. Someone here was saying they had a white car and claimed it was still great.... So I'm not judging. I failed and I tried to take great care. Maybe it was just me...

It just depends o. How particular you are about the look of your paint. If the car is clean it still looked amazing... I never had someone say anything otherwise. It is just when you are cleaning the car yourself so much you notice these things and it bothered me.

Just wanted to give my fair and honest assessment on it. I probably would have made a big deal out of any other car I spent 100k on... Since my last car was a cheap Civic I think it influenced me to be more careful and aware.

 

[benemac]

Of course it was only 3 posts up! I couldn't even scroll up. Anyway, thanks for listing the details. It sounds amazing! I found a thread on autogeek and it does sound like detailers aren't so willing to provide this product. But I didn't know about the time needed to apply. We at least are getting the PPF and I'm sure that will be a great help.
Thanks for all the info.

Bernadette

 

[chickensevil]

Oh yeah, if you are getting a full wrap, it is a totally different story. You won't have to deal with the paint issues since it will be fully covered... Unless you are only going partial like is on my car... Then I would be concerned still. And you can still get one of the coatings put on top of the film if you wanted since the films have their own clear coat... But I would do further research on that before just taking my word there. Whatever my film is, it complimented it very nicely.

 

[galangg]

From what I can gather Modesta is a fairly new product. Opti-Coat was totally the THING to get on your car prior to this product. The reason it is likely to be hard to find someone to do it is not only is it newer but it is far more difficult and time consuming to apply. But that is part of what makes it better (and also more expensive). Opti-coat is a one layer application that cab be done in a couple hours. Modesta on the other hand has a base coat which takes a couple hours to apply. It sits for like 8 hours and then they stick the top coat (in my case bc4) which takes another couple hours and then it has to bake under these infrared heat lamps for another like 8 hours. Finally it has to sit for a solid 24 hours without getting wet.

I'm getting Opticoat after a wrap of Suntek protective film. The opticoat will take 24+ hours for all of the application and waiting. Not sure what version you were looking at that only took a few hours.

 

[Tacket]

I'm getting Opticoat after a wrap of Suntek protective film. The opticoat will take 24+ hours for all of the application and waiting. Not sure what version you were looking at that only took a few hours.

All the prep work (wash, decon, correction) plus coating may take 24 hours, but the actually application of Opti Coat Pro and initial cure time is only several hours. OC Pro takes about 30 days to fully cure.

 

[chickensevil]

All the prep work (wash, decon, correction) plus coating may take 24 hours, but the actually application of Opti Coat Pro and initial cure time is only several hours. OC Pro takes about 30 days to fully cure.

Yeah, I wasn't counting the prep work and correction in the times I listed. This is why to get this all done, I dropped my car off Monday morning and am just now going to get to pick it up today. Monday/Tues/Wed was all prep and correction. Had I gone with Opti-coat I could have likely taken the car home on Wed. Instead, There was a lot of extra time involved that pushed me out till today.

 

[MoeMistry]

So I really trust the detailer's advice... It was someone who came VERY highly recommended (speed freak auto detailing, if you are in the NOVA area, BTW) and as I was talking with him about it he said Opt-Coat is a very great product... Nothing wrong with it at all. But he said that the Modesta gives you a 2 dimensional look vs the Opti that is very one dimensional. So, especially with the metallic (and I assume this would apply to the muticoats at well) it really makes the paint stand out more giving you a deep look to it.

I personally went with BC4 and which is normally what he does, but another owner went for the full deal and did BC5 on top on the BC4 since he has the red and it really makes the red super wet almost like blood. The problem with BC5 is it is not as hard. So while it looks fantastic if you drive your car a lot and are not very meticulous with the cleaning you can damage the coating a bit easier. Given I now have 11k miles in 5 months of ownership this seemed like the better alternative. It wouldn't have cost any different doing BC4 vs BC5...

I actually finally get my car back tomorrow and will happily take a bunch of photos to post. I will also happily report how I feel about it and such since I still haven't seen my car yet. But I will say, don't be like me... Get SOMETHING on top of your car BEFORE you drive it a bunch. I had to pay the price for it... The paint correction cost me 1k and it is only going to restore me back to 80 or 90% because of how much torture I have already put my car through. Especially those stupid rock chips... Thankfully best I could tell all the chips were absorbed into the paint armor (I have the Tesla one) but there was at least one on the door that got me and took it all the way down to metal...

Seriously, even if you are cheap... Go get something like CCQuartz put on there or something... The paint is quite soft and you don't want to wish you had done it later... It is the car's one and only fatal flaw...

Very glad to hear you did this. You chose a great detailer, had the paint corrected, and went with a far superior coating than opti-coat...for those that don't know, opti-coat is no longer a lifetime warranty...it's now 5 years. Existing applications that were done prior to the press release this week are still lifetime warranty. I've been doing professional detailing for 20 years and this is an amazing time for us in the industry. IMHO, nanotechnology is here to stay and the results are far superior than waxes, sealants, etc. Two leading coatings that actually work, and more importantly have honest and capable installers, are CQuartz Finest and Modesta...that's why we only use those two.

 

[galangg]

Yeah, I wasn't counting the prep work and correction in the times I listed. This is why to get this all done, I dropped my car off Monday morning and am just now going to get to pick it up today. Monday/Tues/Wed was all prep and correction. Had I gone with Opti-coat I could have likely taken the car home on Wed. Instead, There was a lot of extra time involved that pushed me out till today.

That's fair. I guess I include all of the time, since the car won't be with me during that work.