Tesla Service Paint Repair/Repaint Experiences...Please Share

[b0n3z]

Tesla Service disabled my "remote access" before my car left the SC for the body shop (for Frunk lid, and front bumper repainting). I don't understand why Tesla is so secretive about the local body shops they use. It's doesn't take much detective work to figure it out, since their still few Tesla approved body shops in each city.

You seem to have done a through inspection...were your headlights flush with the front bumper and fenders?

They actually they did eventually disable the mobile connection. But it's strange I would get alerts when they moved the car from the body shop to the service center as they would reach the speed limit threshold.

Yes my headlights are correct.

-b0n3z

 

[b0n3z]

b0n3z,
Good outcome for you sir. For PPF, I highly recommend the LA groupbuy at Concours.

Thanks for the information. I was really sold on Xpel and wrapping the entire car in either clear or stealth. I'll research it more. Thanks.

-b0n3z

 

[malciv]

I talked with a PPF installer early this week who said every Model 3 he's worked on (about 20) had 2 or 3 paint defects that couldn't be fixed by paint correction. He thinks the cars aren't cleaned sufficiently prior to painting. The defects aren't always in really noticable spots so the lucky ones can just ignore it, but he's had over half of his PPF clients first get Tesla to rework the cars in a body shop.

That's not really encuencoura news. I pick up my car on the 12th. Do you think they will let me inspect the car early to see if there is going to be a problem? I'd rather catch problems now and know my car won't be ready on the 12th vs. showing up with my wife and being disappointed. She'll be pissed if we are picking up a $55K car that needs to be either rejected or immediately sent in for body work. Not the way I want to introduce her to Tesla.

 

[mikelyxx]

I picked up my car on Tuesday of last week. I’ve got an appointment this upcoming week at the body shop to repair some imperfections in the paint. I have what looks like contaminants under the clear coat. When i picked up the car they thought they could fix w/wet sanding.

So does it make sense to mark all the place i can see on the car or will they inspect and correct. I saw someone use painters tape. Is that suggested?

 

[Wubbles]

I picked up my car on Tuesday of last week. I’ve got an appointment this upcoming week at the body shop to repair some imperfections in the paint. I have what looks like contaminants under the clear coat. When i picked up the car they thought they could fix w/wet sanding.

So does it make sense to mark all the place i can see on the car or will they inspect and correct. I saw someone use painters tape. Is that suggested?

Definitely inspect it yourself. Painters tape is fine as long as you don't keep the car out in the sun and allow the tape to bake onto the paint.

Don't trust Tesla Service to find all the imperfections either. Also be sure to fully inspect the car after it's serviced since there's a chance they'll miss things you pointed out like what happened with me.

 

[boiler81]

Don't trust Tesla Service to find all the imperfections either.

Yeah, if Tesla could be trusted to find the defects, the customers would never see'um.

 

[Point 3]

I picked up my car on Tuesday of last week. I’ve got an appointment this upcoming week at the body shop to repair some imperfections in the paint. I have what looks like contaminants under the clear coat. When i picked up the car they thought they could fix w/wet sanding.

So does it make sense to mark all the place i can see on the car or will they inspect and correct. I saw someone use painters tape. Is that suggested?

Mark them and then take a picture so you can refer back to it after they finish

 

[Eddyrelik]

Mark them and then take a picture so you can refer back to it after they finish

X2. Definitely do this. I washed my car, did many circles around it and marked every mark I could with tape and sent it Into Service 2 days later. Felt bad driving around with tape for that long hahah. But the couple days allowed me to catch several more spots as I used the car and saw it under different lighting....


UPDATE ON MY CAR:
Tesla will be buying back my Model 3 instead of repainting the entire car. Not sure what led to this option becoming available (perhaps body shop bill rediculous???). The service manager actually gave me the choice, and I decided to go with new car. They will pay off my loan and I will have to purchase a new car (new Loan). I may lose the lifetime premium data but they’re seeing what they can do...

Service manager said I “should” be able to get the next one off the assembly line and not have to wait the full wait time as if I ordered a new one online today. I may take the opportunity to upgrade to an AWD. Waiting for Sales rep to call me to order....hopefully I can continue to use loaner....

I’m hoping Tesla figured the paint issues out. I’m actually scared of getting another defective paint car. I just went to Tesla store and saw they had the new performance model 3 in red. Within a few seconds I saw the same paint defects! Several on rear bumper, trunk and quarter panel! Mix of fisheyes and contaminants. I can’t believe they don’t catch this, and on a floor model! The VIN was actually about 75 numbers after mine...so perhaps same bad batch?

Obviously I will scrutinize the crap out of the new car and reject it if it’s not ok this time around. At least Tesla Service is awesome and does their best. Service manager also told me to look over it well and reject if so (I’m sure because or else service has to clean up the production/delivery team’s problems...)

 

[boiler81]

Wow! I'm sorry your having to go through this but it sounds like Tesla is trying to make it right. They really need to give you the life time premium data and expedite a new vehicle for you.
I hope this all works out, and maybe they can upgrade you to 3DP for your troubles.

 

[buyehara]

Wow I feel very fortunate, our multi-coat red only had two dust particles on the trunk lid. Picked up the car on Aug 9th and having it serviced on Sept 5th. Other than this the entire car was perfect! On a different note, we unfortunately had a flat on our new car literally within hours of receiving our car. Used Tesla's 24/7 roadside service, they scheduled an unattended tow pickup the following morning. I had calls from Tesla roadside service, the dispatch center and the tow driver with constant updates. Car was towed to the Tesla service center, they replaced the tire and the Service Manager waived all the fees. She told me on my call "don't worry about it, I took care of it!, you just got your car!". It would have been a $300.00 new tire replacement fee!

 

[Abstrakt1]

Mine has a few small paint flaws but i am just going to let it slide. They aren't noticeable unless you are looking or know. I figure even with a clear bra and ceramic I will pick up worse on the road. No reason to force them to get it perfect and not have my car for however long just to go add a rock chip. It will just make the self imposed damage hurt that much more.

 

[duy.duck]

X2. Definitely do this. I washed my car, did many circles around it and marked every mark I could with tape and sent it Into Service 2 days later. Felt bad driving around with tape for that long hahah. But the couple days allowed me to catch several more spots as I used the car and saw it under different lighting....


UPDATE ON MY CAR:
Tesla will be buying back my Model 3 instead of repainting the entire car. Not sure what led to this option becoming available (perhaps body shop bill rediculous???). The service manager actually gave me the choice, and I decided to go with new car. They will pay off my loan and I will have to purchase a new car (new Loan). I may lose the lifetime premium data but they’re seeing what they can do...

Service manager said I “should” be able to get the next one off the assembly line and not have to wait the full wait time as if I ordered a new one online today. I may take the opportunity to upgrade to an AWD. Waiting for Sales rep to call me to order....hopefully I can continue to use loaner....

I’m hoping Tesla figured the paint issues out. I’m actually scared of getting another defective paint car. I just went to Tesla store and saw they had the new performance model 3 in red. Within a few seconds I saw the same paint defects! Several on rear bumper, trunk and quarter panel! Mix of fisheyes and contaminants. I can’t believe they don’t catch this, and on a floor model! The VIN was actually about 75 numbers after mine...so perhaps same bad batch?

Obviously I will scrutinize the crap out of the new car and reject it if it’s not ok this time around. At least Tesla Service is awesome and does their best. Service manager also told me to look over it well and reject if so (I’m sure because or else service has to clean up the production/delivery team’s problems...)

How long did it take them to arrive at this decision? I feel your car has been in the shop for a couple of weeks already.

Also it’s such a big hassle to go through the loan paperwork again.

 

[Eddyrelik]

Wow! I'm sorry your having to go through this but it sounds like Tesla is trying to make it right. They really need to give you the life time premium data and expedite a new vehicle for you.
I hope this all works out, and maybe they can upgrade you to 3DP for your troubles.

Haha. Yeah, I will definitely push the data thing as much as I can. That would be awesome to get an upgrade like that, but I doubt they'd offer that much "credit" haha. Won't hurt to ask tho

How long did it take them to arrive at this decision? I feel your car has been in the shop for a couple of weeks already.

Also it’s such a big hassle to go through the loan paperwork again.

Yeah for sure. I took the car in August 8th. At least I've had the Model S P90D loaner to get me around meanwhile (and free supercharging)...It took about 3 weeks to get to the buyout option. Because at first it was back and forth between the body shop, Tesla Service and I on repair options...and then Tesla Service had to escalate to what I assume is "Tesla Corporate"...its been a week since they presented the buyout option and I sent a payoff letter from loan....and now waiting on Sales rep to call me about new car. Seems like once the new Model 3 is configured/"ordered", they can proceed with they buyout? Seems like the buyout is "contingent" on the new order??

Yeah, paperwork will be a bit of a hassle again....Tesla Service rep mentioned they can make up for some of the hassle with free Services, etc...but we'll see later in the process....

 

[mobilesuit818]

I’m literally at the same point with my car.

It’s been in the shop since June 2018, and per my other posts, I have nothing but loaners, which I’m not complaining.

The service center said my car was done and verified to be kosher thru their detailing team and that they were going to drop the car anywhere I wanted so I had them drop the car off at the PPF/coatings vendor, since I’m out of town.

It literally took the vendor minutes to see that the many fisheyes were still there and that the panels had a thickness of over 300 microns(standard is 120) so not only did the paintshop not repair the fisheye properly, they kept adding layers of paint which has a propensity to crack at that thickness.

Car was then dropped off back at the SC.

I’m going to escalate this up the chain, but it’s going to come down to 2 things, either buy out the car(though the car has 2800 miles) or we keep sending it to the body shop.

Sucks cause I got such a good interest rate for my car loan(Dave Ramsey would be pissed at me either way) and I know interest rates jumped up since then..

Plus I don’t want to give back the XP100D....

Haha. Yeah, I will definitely push the data thing as much as I can. That would be awesome to get an upgrade like that, but I doubt they'd offer that much "credit" haha. Won't hurt to ask tho




Yeah for sure. I took the car in August 8th. At least I've had the Model S P90D loaner to get me around meanwhile (and free supercharging)...It took about 3 weeks to get to the buyout option. Because at first it was back and forth between the body shop, Tesla Service and I on repair options...and then Tesla Service had to escalate to what I assume is "Tesla Corporate"...its been a week since they presented the buyout option and I sent a payoff letter from loan....and now waiting on Sales rep to call me about new car. Seems like once the new Model 3 is configured/"ordered", they can proceed with they buyout? Seems like the buyout is "contingent" on the new order??

Yeah, paperwork will be a bit of a hassle again....Tesla Service rep mentioned they can make up for some of the hassle with free Services, etc...but we'll see later in the process....

 

[CTinCA]

Picked up my car 8/5. I have an appointment at the SC next Tues. for some paint issues on the top of my trunk. I'm not sure if its mottling or not, but it looks like 3 discolored circles about 2.5 inches in diameter. Most noticeable under garage light. I didn't notice during delivery because my car was so dirty. Hope they can fix it without any problems.

Imgur (Starts from right about the Tesla T and moves to the right)
Imgur (Visible as a darker circle)

I have three similar spots but on the driver and passenger doors on the left side.. The earliest SC appt I could make was next week.. Hope the can be easily fixed..

 

[Eddyrelik]

I’m literally at the same point with my car.

It’s been in the shop since June 2018, and per my other posts, I have nothing but loaners, which I’m not complaining.

The service center said my car was done and verified to be kosher thru their detailing team and that they were going to drop the car anywhere I wanted so I had them drop the car off at the PPF/coatings vendor, since I’m out of town.

It literally took the vendor minutes to see that the many fisheyes were still there and that the panels had a thickness of over 300 microns(standard is 120) so not only did the paintshop not repair the fisheye properly, they kept adding layers of paint which has a propensity to crack at that thickness.

Car was then dropped off back at the SC.

I’m going to escalate this up the chain, but it’s going to come down to 2 things, either buy out the car(though the car has 2800 miles) or we keep sending it to the body shop.

Sucks cause I got such a good interest rate for my car loan(Dave Ramsey would be pissed at me either way) and I know interest rates jumped up since then..

Plus I don’t want to give back the XP100D....

Damn that’s a bummer. That is definitely what I did not want to go through! I think you may have a case, though they have spent a lot of time trying to repair already.

For me it was because I kept expressing I was not happy and I was uncomfortable with the idea of repainting, especially part of the car and not the entire thing so it matched. That it wasn’t going to be the same, and I waited 2.5 years for a new car and now it’s like it has been in an accident I was not a part of.

And I will notice every problem every day if it’s not perfect when I walked up to it because sadly that’s how I am (I’m a nerd/engineer). He kept reiterating that nothing is better than the Factory paint application and it may be best to do minimal work on the paint to make it “OK” than to repaint the car...., and I pretty much backed that thought up and said see, I’m supposed to pick between the lesser of two bad options and you’re telling me an option that is not possible ( good Factory paint)...so that feeling of a new car is gone forever.

The service manager totally understood and he himself took it up and found a way. I didn’t push the new car thing at all. I mean I mentioned it few times but in a way that that would be the “only” way to restore that feeling of a nice new car again, and I even expressed the doubt that a new car may have more defects from factory! Haha...so, perhaps the cost of repairing the whole car was a lot and assisted in the decision? Don’t know...

Oh and I did have about 1,000 miles on the car as well...the bank I got my loan from still has the same interest rate (as of today) so I’m not in that bad of a situation on the loan. But that can change tomorrow haha...

 

[mikelyxx]

Definitely inspect it yourself. Painters tape is fine as long as you don't keep the car out in the sun and allow the tape to bake onto the paint.

Don't trust Tesla Service to find all the imperfections either. Also be sure to fully inspect the car after it's serviced since there's a chance they'll miss things you pointed out like what happened with me.

Thanks. I ended up taking photos of each panel and simply marking the areas where you can find the dust. Did a thorough inspection inside an out. I saw some videos online of wet sanding dust nibs that make me feel more confident this can be repaired without repainting.

Additionally, I had the front headliner bulge on the drivers side that has been reported, a piece of panel wrap on the door that wasn't tucked in, and what looks to be incomplete painting in one of the door sockets. All items i missed on pickup. The service manager just said to make a list and bring to the appointment. They said they would do what needs to be done to make the car right.

 

[N54TT]

I thought I remember Elon saying in the video of Marques factory tour with Elon....that all the different models are painted in the same paint booth. Do the S’s and X’s recently produced have the same paint issues?

 

[RopDaddy]

Holy Carp Batman !! Fish Eyes in the Red Paint!!! You folks are scaring the carp out of me...I'm waiting on Red TM3AWD and DO NOT want to send it back or have to have my $2000 option re-done. Is there ANY way to contact Tesla to be sure that this issue has been addressed ? and..is it only the Red ? Can it be that it's cheaper to fix all of these cars after the fact than it is to fix to issue at the source? Perhaps a mass twitter post to Elon?

 

[duy.duck]

Holy Carp Batman !! Fish Eyes in the Red Paint!!! You folks are scaring the carp out of me...I'm waiting on Red TM3AWD and DO NOT want to send it back or have to have my $2000 option re-done. Is there ANY way to contact Tesla to be sure that this issue has been addressed ? and..is it only the Red ? Can it be that it's cheaper to fix all of these cars after the fact than it is to fix to issue at the source? Perhaps a mass twitter post to Elon?

I would hope that Elon is already aware...?

Mine has been in the shop for two weeks. I’m awaiting the first update tomorrow. All this is making me pretty anxious.