White Model Y - Paint Mismatch

[kenadams]

Those who have taken delivery of the Pearl White Model Y recently, did you have paint color mismatch issues? Especially the rear hatch/bumper not matching with the rest of the car.

I will be taking delivery of my Y next month and I am wondering whether I should switch the color since it seems like this paint mismatch issue is only with the White.

 

[juli1]

All Model Y I have seen have a slight mistmatch. I have one of them and it also depends on the lightning and angle. I brought my car to Tesla and they told me this is very specific to the model Y. To my knowledge, all Model Y have this issue. This is not as bad as with the Model 3 but still slightly noticeable.

 

[juli1]

You can see the picture on Imgur

Honestly, Tesla fixed all my other issues, not a deal breaker for me and I am very happy with the car!

 

[Mooroo]

You can see the picture on Imgur

Honestly, Tesla fixed all my other issues, not a deal breaker for me and I am very happy with the car!

what is your VIN range?

 

[juli1]

33xxx

 

[sherlockw]

looks good to me!

 

[Balthezor]

Damn, just ordered a white MY today. Should I be worried and convince my wife to pick a different color?

 

[Threader]

Damn, just ordered a white MY today. Should I be worried and convince my wife to pick a different color?

Definitely switch to Purple

 

[raggedy]

Here is my take on what Tesla is doing, and it's just conjecture on my part.

Tesla is spraying the doors at a different time than the unibody. This is why the doors are a different shade than the body. Any legitimate body shop will tell you that despite mixing a paint color to be perfectly matched to the color code, the paint shade can and will still be slightly different than another batch mixed at a different time. So for Tesla to paint the doors at a different time with a different batch of Pearl White is a gamble, and the results are what we see: the doors on many MYs do NOT match the rest of the car.

Tesla is also spraying fewer coats of paint, or they don't have their robots programmed to do complete and even coat sprays as they pass over the cars and doors. I have seen far too many "splotchy" paint jobs to believe that this is a "one-off" flaw or mistake on Tesla's part.

Considering Tesla is cranking out as many MYs as they can to meet their quarterly goals, my argument that Tesla is "going cheap and fast" on the paint job is even more believable.

But then again, some accuse me of being a conspiracy theorist. hahahahaha


I sit here with an order in for a white MY with Induction wheels becuase I thought the white/black color combination looked awesome, but I do now believe the safest color to order is the MSM. I feel like there have been the fewest complaints about MSM paint issues than the other colors. Oh, maybe black also is one of the safer colors to order, but I would never consider owning a black car. So at this point I am considering changing my order from white to MSM.

 

[TSLA Pilot]

Here is my take on what Tesla is doing, and it's just conjecture on my part.

Tesla is spraying the doors at a different time than the unibody. This is why the doors are a different shade than the body. Any legitimate body shop will tell you that despite mixing a paint color to be perfectly matched to the color code, the paint shade can and will still be slightly different than another batch mixed at a different time. So for Tesla to paint the doors at a different time with a different batch of Pearl White is a gamble, and the results are what we see: the doors on many MYs do NOT match the rest of the car.

Tesla is also spraying fewer coats of paint, or they don't have their robots programmed to do complete and even coat sprays as they pass over the cars and doors. I have seen far too many "splotchy" paint jobs to believe that this is a "one-off" flaw or mistake on Tesla's part.

Considering Tesla is cranking out as many MYs as they can to meet their quarterly goals, my argument that Tesla is "going cheap and fast" on the paint job is even more believable.

But then again, some accuse me of being a conspiracy theorist. hahahahaha


I sit here with an order in for a white MY with Induction wheels becuase I thought the white/black color combination looked awesome, but I do now believe the safest color to order is the MSM. I feel like there have been the fewest complaints about MSM paint issues than the other colors. Oh, maybe black also is one of the safer colors to order, but I would never consider owning a black car. So at this point I am considering changing my order from white to MSM.

I've probably toured a half-dozen auto assembly plants.

I have NEVER heard of painting the doors at a different time than the rest of the body; where did you hear of such a thing? Why would they do such a thing?

YES, the doors are later always removed post-painting for easy access to install the interior (and build up the doors), but the same doors are installed on the car . . . .

Get the white; Model Y looks awesome in white.

 

[raggedy]

I've probably toured a half-dozen auto assembly plants.

I have NEVER heard of painting the doors at a different time than the rest of the body; where did you hear of such a thing? Why would they do such a thing?

YES, the doors are later always removed post-painting for easy access to install the interior (and build up the doors), but the same doors are installed on the car . . . .

Get the white; Model Y looks awesome in white.

have you seen all the pictures of the mismatched white doors????

How else can you explain this phenomenon?

It doesn't make any sense that they would paint the doors OFF the rest of the car, but how else can anyone explain how the white MYs are being presented and delivered with completely mismatched white doors to body?

And as I said in my post, this is just conjecture on my part based off the visual evidence presented. And you, without proof from the factory that they ARE painting the MYs with the doors attached to the unibody, you're also just guessing as to what they are doing.

Of course it only makes sense to paint the doors on the body, but with the grossly mismatched doors to body that we've all seen, if I were a betting man I would have to bet that (for some odd reason) Tesla painted the doors at a different time than the body.

 

[raggedy]

this one just posted yesterday

 

[raggedy]

does this door look like it was sprayed on the same car?

you might be right; Tesla might spray the doors on the cars, but then they remove them and play musical chairs with the doors. that's the only explanation for all the mismatched doors to body we are seeing. thankfully some owners are reporting that the SCs are admitting there is an issue and they are repainting the doors, and I'm sure the body shops doing the work are "blending" the doors into the body so it all looks cohesively like one paint job. Unfortunately some owners are also reporting that their SCs have shrugged their shoulders at the problem.

 

[raggedy]

This owner is on the forums.

You'll see his mismatched doors very early on in the video. Again, how can I believe that these doors were spayed on this car? There is no way, sorry....

Oh, and this owner, at the 2:20 mark, states that the SC rep told him the cars are NOT painted with the doors on the car! Again, I'm like you and find it incredulous and almost unbelievable that Tesla would do this, but they apparently do.

 

[Medic]

I was at an SC last week and looked over a bunch of white Ys, some looked perfect, some had very subtle tone differences between bumpers/trunk etc while others had very noticeable mismatches (which were mainly on older cars with 15K or lower VINs).

You will see differences in panels purely on the way the pearl catches the light and that will also change if its direct sunlight vs cloudy.

I have a white Y and personally think the white with chrome delete is awesome

 

[TSLA Pilot]

have you seen all the pictures of the mismatched white doors????

How else can you explain this phenomenon?

It doesn't make any sense that they would paint the doors OFF the rest of the car, but how else can anyone explain how the white MYs are being presented and delivered with completely mismatched white doors to body?

And as I said in my post, this is just conjecture on my part based off the visual evidence presented. And you, without proof from the factory that they ARE painting the MYs with the doors attached to the unibody, you're also just guessing as to what they are doing.

Of course it only makes sense to paint the doors on the body, but with the grossly mismatched doors to body that we've all seen, if I were a betting man I would have to bet that (for some odd reason) Tesla painted the doors at a different time than the body.

Well, now I'm intrigued . . . I'll keep an eye out, but these pics almost seem as if they were repaired after-the-fact. Otherwise I haven't a clue on what is going on at Tesla's Fremont assembly plant, despite touring it twice now.

 

[SilverString]

There are actually seven shade variations of Pearl White according to the Tesla certified body shop I used last year. They matched both by passenger side door shells to the rest of the car better than when it was new.

 

[Balthezor]

Ordered a white MY. If the doors come mismatched, would you guys reject the car or try to have the SC deal with it and try and fix it?

 

[Mooroo]

Ordered a white MY. If the doors come mismatched, would you guys reject the car or try to have the SC deal with it and try and fix it?

Depends on your schedule. If you want the car fast, I’d accept delivery as long as they agree in writing that they’ll fix it. For me, I’m in no hurry at all (thanks Covid!) and I've determines paint and the roof glass misalignment are the two Dealbreakers for me. I won’t take delivery if the cad has paint issues.

 

[NY_Rob]

Pearl White is very difficult to match.. notice I wrote "match" as in.. make two different batches mixed at different times appear identical when dry.

In 2014 someone backed in to my Pearl White Prius, they hit my rear wheel, but did some minor damage to the fender which required body work and repaint. The body shop did a great job getting the new paint to match the rest of the less than 1 year old car. The guy who painted it brought me in the back and showed me an old hood they primed and test painted with different ratios of white + pearl to get the correct match. There were 7 test sprays made on that hood. It took them half a day to find the perfect match... and it wasn't even close to the factory recommended "formula/ratio".

With that in mind, you can see how Tesla can have trouble matching doors to bodies if they're sprayed at different times with different batches of pearl white paint.

Rumor has it that the old "free" paint color Black was changed because there were too many complaints about swirl marks, imperfections, etc.. Who knows, maybe Midnight Silver will be the next default/free color in the future