Opinions on this paint defect

[plasmo]

Picked up my new red MYLR yesterday. Just noticed this paint defect now which is posted in photo. Located on drivers side. You can feel it, which feels like a slightly raised piece of sand. Otherwise the vehicle appears flawless.
I can live with it but can it be fixed easily?

 

[Seminole]

The only way to fix that is to sand down the panel and repaint. I don't make any apologies for Tesla's poor paint QC so don't take this post as that, but on every paint thread I mention how other people who have had Tesla try to fix issues after the fact end up having things worse off because of additional damage caused, poor paint match, overspray, etc. (My Advice: Paint Defects During Delivery (Needs to be Repainted) -> Reject)

Unless it's something you absolutely cannot live with avoid getting it fixed. Being on the pillar they are likely going to want to blend it into the rest of the pillar, front fender, etc. They might want to take off the driver door to be able to blend it into the frame area as well and then you hope they mask everything properly and don't get overspray into the interior or onto the windshield/roof. Could it be fixed perfectly? Sure, but the potential downside is a lot more than the upside in my opinion.

 

[plasmo]

@Seminole -
Thanks for your comments. Yes I am worried that a fix might make it worse and have lived with worse blemishes on my other vehicles so I probably won’t touch it.

 

[imola.zhp]

Agree with Seminole, live with it or risk more discomfort in trying to get it fixed.

 

[ucsdsig]

The only way to fix that is to sand down the panel and repaint. I don't make any apologies for Tesla's poor paint QC so don't take this post as that, but on every paint thread I mention how other people who have had Tesla try to fix issues after the fact end up having things worse off because of additional damage caused, poor paint match, overspray, etc. (My Advice: Paint Defects During Delivery (Needs to be Repainted) -> Reject)

Unless it's something you absolutely cannot live with avoid getting it fixed. Being on the pillar they are likely going to want to blend it into the rest of the pillar, front fender, etc. They might want to take off the driver door to be able to blend it into the frame area as well and then you hope they mask everything properly and don't get overspray into the interior or onto the windshield/roof. Could it be fixed perfectly? Sure, but the potential downside is a lot more than the upside in my opinion.

100% agree with the above.

I noticed a couple minor paint issues during my delivery inspection as well. The shop that installed my PPF discovered a few more small issues but I told them not to show me. Ignorance is bliss, haha.

 

[rainforest]

Sorry, I disagree with the prior posts. This is called a "fish eye" and is caused by a piece of dirt that lands in the clear coat during the paint process. As long as the defect is near the surface, and experienced detailer should know how to polish it down without burning through the clear coat. FYI, my 2018 white model 3 was completely covered in these, especially on the hood (over 20 - check out my cool photo! Yellow stickies were small ones, red stickies were big ones). Luckily, I had an extremely talented detailer at the local Tesla bodyshop who was able to almost completely polish out all of them. I then layered XPEL over top.

The last thing you want to do is repaint because you run the risk of getting a mismatch on paint colour - esp with red which is a three coat paint. My Model Y is also red, but luckily I had almost no fish eyes (just a rock chip on the hood during transport).

But if you're not planning to wrap your car, I might not bother touching that defect. You're gonna get so many light swirl marks and rock chips on the front of your car that the fish eye won't matter to you after a year. Tesla paint sucks big time. But if you do decide to polish that spot out, make sure your detailer is experienced because he could create a haze (polishing too fast or with a dirty pad), or worse, burn through the clear coat at which point you would need to repaint. But for the experienced detailer, a fish eye should be easy to correct depending on how deep it is.

 

[jwuwu]

Got a few of them on my Y. I think of them as sexy moles .

 

[nate704]

You could have rejected the delivery and wait for a new one instead.

 

[andaconda]

Picked up my new red MYLR yesterday. Just noticed this paint defect now which is posted in photo. Located on drivers side. You can feel it, which feels like a slightly raised piece of sand. Otherwise the vehicle appears flawless.
I can live with it but can it be fixed easily?

Think of it as a birthmark.

Got a few of them on my Y. I think of them as sexy moles .

 

[dolfs]

With prior cars I have had quite a few repaints done (all because of damage). I had found a high end shop who did absolutely marvelous jobs on matching and blending in my BMWs (both metallic blue s not a trivial paint; both cars gone now). I have no idea whether this is an option, but I would insist on taking it to such a shop for correction, rather than whatever random shop gets used otherwise. If you can do that, I would let it get fixed properly (they might not agree because cost to do it right might be a higher). Otherwise a good detailer might be a better bet than not doing anything, but I would not invite further trouble using what has been described as Tesla's SOP.

 

[avs007]

Just as an FYI, this isn't unique to Tesla... A while back when I bought an Acura TL, it had a similar defect on the roof... Main difference, was that the dealer caught it, and asked me if I wanted them to fix it before delivery... They assured me if there were any complications as a result of the fix, they would take care of them, so I went ahead and let them do it.

 

[Everlast]

I found two of these paint boogers on my new MYLR. I have a feeling there is more but haven’t looked. Here’s a pic of one. I’m bringing this up in my service appointment next week.