Detailing of a new Tesla Model S

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Tesla242

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Hi everyone,

I found the community here a couple of days ago and I've been reading up ever since.

I've seen some threads dealing with detailing a new car. I recently purchased a Tesla Model S85. I love the car. The other day though, a bird that had an "accident" on my paint and I didn't notice it for a couple of days. Afterwards there was a ring around where the dropping was. This made me realize that I really need to take care of my car.

Anyway, the new detailing threads mainly assume that a car has been outside or on the showroom for months before being sold. Teslas are made to order though and the paint job looks to be in superb condition to my eyes. After I freaked out with the bird droppings, I washed the car and added Zymol Cleaner Wax. I'm attaching a photo of what it looks like. It didn't remove the ring caused by the bird droppings unfortunately or the small micro scratches my wife caused the paint when she tried to wipe it off without me arhhh.

I was wondering what products you guys would recommend to add protection to the car? I've read Mr. Philips' excellent article on detailing a new car. I'm a completely newbie to car detailing...
 
Welcome to AGO. I would use Opti-coat 2.0 or get a pro installer to put Opti-Coat pro on.
 
I've done a few Tesla's and the paint usually comes from the factory in bad shape. While they have been getting better it's not much. The paints on the cars is very soft.

I would highly recommend opti-coat pro as a protection option
 
I've read about opticoat and watched a video of somebody actually applying to a Tesla.
I've read the repairing damage to the opticoat is very difficult and removing it in the future requires buffing?

Which products do you guys recommend in that case?

The steps to take, as I understand them would be to:

1-Wash & Dry
2- Clay
3- Polish - I'm not super clear on what this step is.
4- Seal with Synthetic Sealant or Wax
5- Opticoat ?
 
Opti-Coat is applied after the paint has been properly prepped and corrected to a reasonable level.

When examined under different light sources, it's likely that you have some paint defects (swirls, marring, scratches) that can be improved upon.

Here is the overall process:
1) Wash
2) De-contamination (Clay and Iron-X)
3) Paint Correction (May use compound, medium polish and finishing polish depending on the severity of defects)
4) Chemical wipedown to remove polishing oils (not needed if the final polishing step was done using Optimum Hyper Polish or Primer)
5) Application of Opti-Coat

I would recommend getting a pro to apply the Opti-Coat Pro coating. It is far superior to the 2.0 product that is available to consumers.

Once Opti-Coat is applied, any wash swirls and defects cannot be removed without removing the coating and reapplying. The coating can be removed by way of compounding (or some form of heavy correction).
 
I'm still hesitant with opti-coat because I'm not too sure about the long term effects of it.

I'll be doing the standard polish\sealant route for now.

I've been taking a really good look at the point and there are NO swirl marks or imperfections that I can see. I must be one of the lucky ones with this model. Based on this, what polish \ sealant would you guys recommend?

I'm going to make some purchases today. I'd love to hear what you guys think of my selections:

1- Wash - Meguiar's car shampoo (have some from a while ago).
2- Clay - BlackFire fine Clay and Clay Lubricant
2B - IronX
3 - Menzerna Super Finish (SF 4500) PO85RD or BLACKFIRE Gloss Enhancing Polish ??? Any better suggestions based on the condition of my paint job mentioned above?

4- CarPro Eraser

5- BLACKFIRE Wet Diamond All Finish Paint Protection

I'll also be purchasing a Griot's Garage orbital polisher and a few different foam applicators.

If you guys have some more fine tuned suggestions, I'd love to know!
 
As an owner and detailer of my own, I would be cautious about how you go about it. The clear coat is very soft and swirls easily.

The Menzerna lines work really nicely, but I've also used Megs 105/205 and Optimum polishes on the MS.

One thing to note: when you do wash, make sure you dry the rotor hats quickly. They're not coated well and rust easily over time.

My recommendation with the MS is to go the coating route. GTechniq, 22PLE or opticoat 2.0. Not sure what you mean by "long term effects," but they last 1-2 years in general with opticoat lasting longer. I'd go this route. Also, check out TMC; you'll see numerous threads on coating there.

Sent via mobile device.
 
I also think that as an owner of a white MS you have a bit of breathing room that owners of the black and blue ones don't. Menzerna 4500, Sonax perfect finish, m205 and Optimum finish all work well.

Sent via mobile device.
 
Are there any long term experiences with opticoat out there? I've seen one review where somebody hand applied it and it was flaking off.
I'm really on the fence right now as to go the opti-coat route or polish\sealant...
 
Opticoat has been around for years, and there are cases of it failing. But, for the majority of cases, it applies easily and performs well for years. Many cases. Probably this is the Tesla owner's choice of coating - right behind Xpel (Xpel isn't a coating, but based on TMC polls and gatherings on ways to protect the paint).

But, polishing and putting a sealant on your MS will serve you well. But, you'll have to reapply your sealant in 4 months and unlike some of the coatings, the sealant will offer no scratch resistance. Not that coatings are completely scratch resistant, but some are better than others.

Not trying to push this route, but in my experience, for most MS users who are using their MS as a daily driver and don't have a great amount of time to detail, this is the better option in my opinion.

Sent via mobile device.
 
Again as I have said and Kevin has said the Tesla paint is very very soft. Correction has been a microfiber finishing pad with meguiars m205. This combo is very mild in terms of aggression.

With paint being that soft the chances of you scratching marring it anything along those line will be much higher than if you have a coating in your car.

While you still can get scratches swirls marring with coatings you decrease those chances with a coating.

Here is my in depth write up of a Tesla I did
Premier Auto Detailing by Evan: 2014 Tesla Model S Polished and Opti-Coated


This will give a good indication of what need to be done and how the car looked before and after.
 
What state do you live in? This way if you are iffy about the coating situation you can find somebody local to ease your mind, plenty of good guys on here that are willing to help.
 
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