I'm not really posting about a specific problem with panel gaps and flushness; I'm more interested to learn how people are measuring panel gaps and flushness upon delivery. Are people basically just telling Tesla "hey this looks wrong" to ask Tesla to look into an issue? And similarly are people just saying "hey this looks right" to believe the gaps/alignment are satisfactory?
In things I've read about this topic, people are sort of eyeballing variances which seems highly subjective and I can see why people get so worked up on the issue or struggle to get a remedy. In my experience, If you can't measure something with a car, then you can't fix something with the car.
Some journalists and ranty-Youtubers are taking regular calipers to measure gaps. This seems like the wrong tool since calipers are "outside in" measurement tools. And we're measuring a void; not measuring the diameter of a pipe. Calipers suffer from parallax issues where simply holding the tool at the wrong angle would result in a measurement variance or scratches on paint.
An inside gap measuring caliper is usually only good down to 1/2 inch, and they usually have metal which risks marring the paint.
Plastic feeler gauges or tapered hole-gauges may be an option, but I don't think I've seen anyone do this with their Tesla. The one of these I see on Amazon (I won't link it because it just looks ghetto AF) doesn't seem like a reliable tool and just seems to have random markings. I also don't see +/- 4mm feelers; they're usually maxed out at 1mm and you have to stack a bunch to measure a typical automobile fender or part gap.
I don't mean to create this thread as a means to bash Tesla for manufacturing. It appears that people are happy with their exterior and interior parts alignment just as there are people who are unhappy. I'm simply trying to understand if anyone has ever actually objectively measured the gaps and flushness around the car to document why they believe the car is or is not "in spec."
Edit: I say panel gap in the subject line, but flushness is as important as the width of the gap itself. I'm kind of using both interchangeably, but I apologize if people don't realize I'm actually meaning both measurements.
In things I've read about this topic, people are sort of eyeballing variances which seems highly subjective and I can see why people get so worked up on the issue or struggle to get a remedy. In my experience, If you can't measure something with a car, then you can't fix something with the car.
Some journalists and ranty-Youtubers are taking regular calipers to measure gaps. This seems like the wrong tool since calipers are "outside in" measurement tools. And we're measuring a void; not measuring the diameter of a pipe. Calipers suffer from parallax issues where simply holding the tool at the wrong angle would result in a measurement variance or scratches on paint.
An inside gap measuring caliper is usually only good down to 1/2 inch, and they usually have metal which risks marring the paint.
Plastic feeler gauges or tapered hole-gauges may be an option, but I don't think I've seen anyone do this with their Tesla. The one of these I see on Amazon (I won't link it because it just looks ghetto AF) doesn't seem like a reliable tool and just seems to have random markings. I also don't see +/- 4mm feelers; they're usually maxed out at 1mm and you have to stack a bunch to measure a typical automobile fender or part gap.
I don't mean to create this thread as a means to bash Tesla for manufacturing. It appears that people are happy with their exterior and interior parts alignment just as there are people who are unhappy. I'm simply trying to understand if anyone has ever actually objectively measured the gaps and flushness around the car to document why they believe the car is or is not "in spec."
Edit: I say panel gap in the subject line, but flushness is as important as the width of the gap itself. I'm kind of using both interchangeably, but I apologize if people don't realize I'm actually meaning both measurements.
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