I took our car in to costa Mesa service center for many other issues including the paint, they had not been advised by tesla of our issues with the paint but were glad to take care of it. I showed them the areas ( which is pretty much the entire car) that had scratches. We picked up later that day and only the rear hatch was polished. The rest was not touched. We are taking back for parts that were ordered and I advised them the rest of the car was still not up to standards and they said they will take care of it. To me, it is still a pain as I shouldn't have had to mention it twice. First it should have been done correctly at the factory and second when we brought it in. We will see what happens next week. I told them I can take it to a professional detailer I know to have it done correctly at their expense. We will see what happens. As the paint still looks terrible to others who see it.
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Paint scratches at delivery
- Thread starter capt601
- Start date
I took our car in to costa Mesa service center for many other issues including the paint, they had not been advised by tesla of our issues with the paint but were glad to take care of it. I showed them the areas ( which is pretty much the entire car) that had scratches. We picked up later that day and only the rear hatch was polished. The rest was not touched. We are taking back for parts that were ordered and I advised them the rest of the car was still not up to standards and they said they will take care of it. To me, it is still a pain as I shouldn't have had to mention it twice. First it should have been done correctly at the factory and second when we brought it in. We will see what happens next week. I told them I can take it to a professional detailer I know to have it done correctly at their expense. We will see what happens. As the paint still looks terrible to others who see it.
I picked up my Model S from the factory on 12/28/2012, part of the rush to get as many deliveries done for the year. So it appears that the detailing part of the car was rushed, done poorly with bad technique, or both.
Note: I’m a SUPER picky about paint and swirls. I hesitated about getting another dark car, since I knew the model S was HUGE and was going to be PITA to maintain and to keep mar-free. Once I saw the Blue, I caved and could not resist. It’s not about keeping the car clean, it’s about keeping it swirl-free.
Here’s a few shots of the hood as it shows the holograms the easiest without trying to find the right angles with my camera. While this is just the hood, the whole car is like this. I have seen similar pictures of other cars with holograms and swirls.
You can see the trails where the detailer had moved the buffer around the car, you can see several arc-shaped swirls around the lower part of the hood. These pictures were taken before the car was ever washed.
Holograms are trails of buffer imperfections/micro-scratches due to poor technique, dirty buffer pads, dry buffer pads, too much polishing product, or too little polishing product, or a host of other issues. I will say that using a rotary buffer (as opposed to a dual-action buffer) takes a lot of skill. I have used a rotary buffer before and have done more damage than good, due to my lack of skill and experience.
Detailers have lights arranged and designed for detailing and paint inspection. It is difficult to see the hologram swirls indoors without spotlights. They actually sell dual-spot flashlights for the sole purpose to inspect paint for these kinds of defects.
In other areas there were leftover polishing compound around the edges of the car as seen below by the top of the hood.
For those that have ordered paint armor, check your paint for swirls underneath the paint armor. PPF does tend to hide minor imperfections as the film itself acts as a diffuser for seeing the swirls. I would not be happy if these swirls were visible underneath the armor.
- - - Updated - - -
The Correction:
Paint glazes and waxes can be used to hide some of swirls and holograms. However, these are temporary fixes that last a short while before having to reapply the glaze and/or wax. The only way to remove the holograms is do a paint correction, mechanically polish the entire car.
The paint didn’t feel like it needed claying, so I skipped it. I did paint decontamination using Carpro Cquartz’s Iron-X, which revealed very little (none) iron oxide contamination.
So I did my normal Optimum No-Rinse (ONR) wash using two buckets with grit-guards, hand-held sprayer, my Lake Country wash sponge and about a 10 16”x16” microfiber cloths. She cleans up like a beauty and was a joy to wash!
After washing, to my surprise, there were quite a few scratches around the car. They were all minor, but still apparent in the clear coat. To me, if someone is professionally buff out the paint, there should be no scratches, at least not this many. To be fair some of these scratches could have come from just driving the car. The car was 2 days old at this point, but I did drive 380+ miles on the first day. Just my opinion it appears that Tesla's clear coat is easily scratched, which also means it's probably easily corrected, but just as likely to scratch again.
Since I lack the skill to use a rotary buffer, I use a pair of Griots Garage 6” Dual-Action polishers, one with 6” pad and the other with a 3” pad for smaller areas. The DA polishers are more forgiving as they move in an orbital motion instead of a pure spin of a rotary buffer.
Taped a square spot to test out what would be needed to clean up the holograms. I ended up using several white Lake Country CCS pads with Optimum ‘Polish II’ polishing compound. After polishing the entire car, I polished it again using several black Lake Country CCS pads with Optimum ‘Finish’ polish. In hindsight, some of the scratches were deeper than I thought and I could have/should have gone with a more aggressive polish, like a true compound (Meguiars M105 or Optimum Compound II). I did not get 100% the scratches out, but I did get all the holograms and swirls out. At this point it was good enough and I was tired. The next morning, I did another ONR wash, and then applied Optimum’s Opti-Coat 2.0 for semi-permanent protection over the whole car.
For those that are wondering, what? You left a few scratches in there, yes, I did. It’s a car, meant to be driven, it’ll get scratched, it’ll get dinged, it’s patina on a car. But, BUT, I can’t stand swirls and I especially can’t stand holograms.
I will try and get some “after” photos soon, once I get to washing the car again. It’s been raining on and off.
Tesla’s detailing procedure needs to be corrected. Cars from the factory should not have these kinds of swirls. This could be isolated to the Fremont detailing team, it’s quite possible that other service centers with their own contracts with 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] party detailers won’t have this issue.
Note: I’m a SUPER picky about paint and swirls. I hesitated about getting another dark car, since I knew the model S was HUGE and was going to be PITA to maintain and to keep mar-free. Once I saw the Blue, I caved and could not resist. It’s not about keeping the car clean, it’s about keeping it swirl-free.
Here’s a few shots of the hood as it shows the holograms the easiest without trying to find the right angles with my camera. While this is just the hood, the whole car is like this. I have seen similar pictures of other cars with holograms and swirls.
You can see the trails where the detailer had moved the buffer around the car, you can see several arc-shaped swirls around the lower part of the hood. These pictures were taken before the car was ever washed.
Holograms are trails of buffer imperfections/micro-scratches due to poor technique, dirty buffer pads, dry buffer pads, too much polishing product, or too little polishing product, or a host of other issues. I will say that using a rotary buffer (as opposed to a dual-action buffer) takes a lot of skill. I have used a rotary buffer before and have done more damage than good, due to my lack of skill and experience.
Detailers have lights arranged and designed for detailing and paint inspection. It is difficult to see the hologram swirls indoors without spotlights. They actually sell dual-spot flashlights for the sole purpose to inspect paint for these kinds of defects.
In other areas there were leftover polishing compound around the edges of the car as seen below by the top of the hood.
For those that have ordered paint armor, check your paint for swirls underneath the paint armor. PPF does tend to hide minor imperfections as the film itself acts as a diffuser for seeing the swirls. I would not be happy if these swirls were visible underneath the armor.
- - - Updated - - -
The Correction:
Paint glazes and waxes can be used to hide some of swirls and holograms. However, these are temporary fixes that last a short while before having to reapply the glaze and/or wax. The only way to remove the holograms is do a paint correction, mechanically polish the entire car.
The paint didn’t feel like it needed claying, so I skipped it. I did paint decontamination using Carpro Cquartz’s Iron-X, which revealed very little (none) iron oxide contamination.
So I did my normal Optimum No-Rinse (ONR) wash using two buckets with grit-guards, hand-held sprayer, my Lake Country wash sponge and about a 10 16”x16” microfiber cloths. She cleans up like a beauty and was a joy to wash!
After washing, to my surprise, there were quite a few scratches around the car. They were all minor, but still apparent in the clear coat. To me, if someone is professionally buff out the paint, there should be no scratches, at least not this many. To be fair some of these scratches could have come from just driving the car. The car was 2 days old at this point, but I did drive 380+ miles on the first day. Just my opinion it appears that Tesla's clear coat is easily scratched, which also means it's probably easily corrected, but just as likely to scratch again.
Since I lack the skill to use a rotary buffer, I use a pair of Griots Garage 6” Dual-Action polishers, one with 6” pad and the other with a 3” pad for smaller areas. The DA polishers are more forgiving as they move in an orbital motion instead of a pure spin of a rotary buffer.
Taped a square spot to test out what would be needed to clean up the holograms. I ended up using several white Lake Country CCS pads with Optimum ‘Polish II’ polishing compound. After polishing the entire car, I polished it again using several black Lake Country CCS pads with Optimum ‘Finish’ polish. In hindsight, some of the scratches were deeper than I thought and I could have/should have gone with a more aggressive polish, like a true compound (Meguiars M105 or Optimum Compound II). I did not get 100% the scratches out, but I did get all the holograms and swirls out. At this point it was good enough and I was tired. The next morning, I did another ONR wash, and then applied Optimum’s Opti-Coat 2.0 for semi-permanent protection over the whole car.
For those that are wondering, what? You left a few scratches in there, yes, I did. It’s a car, meant to be driven, it’ll get scratched, it’ll get dinged, it’s patina on a car. But, BUT, I can’t stand swirls and I especially can’t stand holograms.
I will try and get some “after” photos soon, once I get to washing the car again. It’s been raining on and off.
Tesla’s detailing procedure needs to be corrected. Cars from the factory should not have these kinds of swirls. This could be isolated to the Fremont detailing team, it’s quite possible that other service centers with their own contracts with 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] party detailers won’t have this issue.
I have had a bad experience with the paint on my white Model S. After a week I noticed that there is a rough texture on the hood creases up by the windshield. Upon closer inspection I noticed the underlying metal and scratch marks. This is completely unacceptable. On top of this, my passenger door handle stopped working, and my NAV is stuck on Palo Alto (I live in Chicago). Last week they came out to order new chrome trim pieces for my drivers side front and rear doors because they were put on wrong. I'm very worried about the whole reliability of this car. If I knew I'd have these problems I never would've bought this car.
Has anyone tried to call Tesla and report problems - while the transport driver is still there?
My Model S should be here in the next week or two - and after seeing reports from a few new owners, I'm planning to do a thorough inspection of the car when it's delivered, and on the (hopefully) small chance there is something seriously wrong, would at least want the option to discuss the situation with Tesla before the transport driver leaves.
My Model S should be here in the next week or two - and after seeing reports from a few new owners, I'm planning to do a thorough inspection of the car when it's delivered, and on the (hopefully) small chance there is something seriously wrong, would at least want the option to discuss the situation with Tesla before the transport driver leaves.
You *should* be able to work it out with your local deliver specialist to make sure that he/she will be there when you take delivery. It might delay your delivery, but I'm sure that they will work it out with you if you are willing to schedule the delivery to their availability.
artsci
Sponsor
It seems to me that the real question here is this: What state is the finish in when the car leaves the factory for shipment? If it leaves the factory with major blemishes that's a no-no. When the cover for transport is placed on the car the finish must be perfectly clean and free of any grit or other debris that could scratch the paint. If it's not, the very act of putting the cover on the car can scratch the paint surface.
I will discuss all of this with my DS. I don't want to have a detailer repair a flawed paint surface that should never have been permitted to leave the factory.
I will discuss all of this with my DS. I don't want to have a detailer repair a flawed paint surface that should never have been permitted to leave the factory.
My issues were with a factory delivery. So the question is, is it happening down the production line or in the detailing in the delivery center. At first I thought the detailer in delivery center scratched it a bit, but with scratches over the entire car, I am not so sure of that. I'm still waiting on complete detailing of the entire car to remove the scratches.
artsci
Sponsor
Wow. Then it appears there are some quality control problems in the factory detailing. I remember seeing on one of the Tesla factory videos some hand polishing being done to newly painted cars. That could be where the problems are created.
smorgasbord
Active Member
I believe that SOP is remove all wax before applying paint armor, so having swirls underneath would indicate an installer not doing his job right.
Wax has nothing to do with the swirls. Swirls are very small scratches in the clear coat. If anything, the wax would 'fill-in' some of the shallowest of scratches. You are correct that the SOP is to remove all waxes, oils, and polishes before apply PPF. Usually an IPA (alcohol) diluted wipe-down and other aggressive paint cleaners to strip anything that might interfere with the PPF adhesive.
Paint Correct and Paint Protect with 2013 Tesla Model S in San Diego County Tesla Model S Paint Correction C Quartz FINEST San Diego - YouTube
I think this car was detailed on Tesla's dime.
I wonder how large Tesla's delivery and warranty budget is. When you begin to tally the due bill items, tire-swapping and post-delivery detailing, etc, it could creep up to a bit.
I think this car was detailed on Tesla's dime.
I wonder how large Tesla's delivery and warranty budget is. When you begin to tally the due bill items, tire-swapping and post-delivery detailing, etc, it could creep up to a bit.
Yes this was me. Some of the scratches before the correction I posted earlier. Great results.
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