Tesla Paint is interesting. What is your take on it?

Dan Tran

Dan Tran

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For the second time as a professional detailer, I felt defeated. I didn’t take pictures. But for the record the paint was HAMMERED with bush brushing on the sides etc...and it still is hammered. Just more refined.

The goal was to prep the paint for a coating. Which technically I did. The the point and question I want to focus on more is:

What pad and polish combo have you found that has worked for you.

I spent over an hour trying to figure out my test spot on a 2017 Model X in black. No matter what I threw at it either marred the paint, lightly hazed, and/or made no amount of correction at all.

I even tried a supplemental wetting agent along the way.

I possess:

RUPES 15 MK III, Mini, and Nano iBrid
RUPES Blue & Yellow Wool Pads
RUPES Yellow Foam Pads
RUPES Zephir & Keramik

Also,

Optimum Hyper Twin.

I toggled between speed 4-2 1/2 on the machines and experimented mostly with RUPES Yellow Foam Pad and with either RUPES Keramik or Optimum Hyper Polish.

The goal was to really prime the surface for a coating. But again, no matter what I did, I felt I was new to all this all over again. The results just didn’t exist. Please help me for next time.

Is Tesla paint truly that finicky to work with all the time? I am starting to believe it now.




High-End Paint Correction and Opti-Coat Ceramic Coatings * Portsmouth, NH
 
Hmmm.....I've done a number of them without issue. CarPro ClearCut on one for compound, but the polish has been either CarPro Essence or GYEON's Primer as all of them were coated. Never a Model X, mainly S and 3's. Machine wise, either a Mille or 3401 with Mille pads or Hybrid Force on the Flex.
 
Dan Tran said:
I typically am a fan of CARPRO Clearcut & Essence. No longer in my stock currently.

All in all, no problems on black Tesla paint?

Word has it is that black Tesla paint is the softest one in production. Described as “SUPER SOFT”.
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I've not heard either way in regards to their paint. No, no issues on black.



Here's a more recent black 3. It wasn't too bad. Essence only on this one

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This one was hammered a bit but it turned out great too.

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I work on Tesla's all day, can't really go into more detail than that. BUT, 99% of the time I get great results with Megs D300 on a megs MF cutting pad. Finished off with a rupes yellow pad and Megs 210 Polish. (On Rupes 21 MKII) If I have to do any wet-sanding i'll reach for a heavier compound and a rotary, but always go back and finish up with the two listed above. Indeed paint is soft so ladder pressure on passes is a good thing to follow through with.
 
Colinpd137 said:
I work on Tesla's all day, can't really go into more detail than that.
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Ok, so you’re either Elon Musk’ personal detailer, or you work for the Tesla dealership.. You gave yourself away too easy man. Secrets out. Lol.

Of did you mean Teslas paint is so wickedly soft and a never ending PITA that no one could ever imagine going into a job and performing the amount of work it takes to detail a Tesla? I’ve heard if 1 of their cars batteries catches on fire it could take nearly a half day to extinguish, so I wouldn’t doubt if correcting the paint somehow turns into a nightmare never even imagined. Lol.
 
Dan Tran did you want to 1-step it?

As a finishing polish step should clear it up. Like mentioned Carpro Essence and Gyeon Primer Polish is great on softer paints. And it seems like it works great with M210 which is made specific for the softer paints.

Colinpd137 do you have the knowledge if M110 and M210 where kind of developed to sort out the new car polishing on Teslas? As they did have a problem on the manufactures plant to get it acceptable and asked Meguiars for help. Have heard this from a Meguiars source but would be interesting to know from someone else with the knowledge about it. Or that's maybe a secret.

Eldorado2K. If a Tesla or any other electric car caught fire so it's battery is on fire. The fire squad here in Sweden let it burn down until it self extinguish. Cause the heat gets so high and they don't have anything that helps to stop it. And they just makes sure so the fire don't spread to the surroundings. Have seen the damage of such a fire on a Tesla on the asphalt road the asphalt was gone for a yard or 2 around it. We have also a lot of public transportation busses that goes in the cities and also some vehicals that goes on natuaral gas. If the fire squad don't see the gas tank and that safety marks or how to describe it or if it's too long gone when on fire so these marks on the tanks shows it. They are ordered to not go near them no matter what the situation is. And from the safety distance that's needed the fire extinguish equipment don't reach the vehical on fire. It's scary that it is so. We had a buss driver that just drove by the GPS in the capitol Stockholm here in Sweden. So he didn't take notice of that the bridge he was driving under was to low. And with poor maintance of the natuaral gas tanks so it's safety feature didn't work as they are going to empty their self. It where a huge explosion and luckily there where no passengers on the buss and the buss drive got out far enough to not get that much hurt. Was a very scary thing that happened in a very puplic place. But just material damages. This was little over a year ago IIRC.

/ Tony
 
Dan Tran said:
I used a fine polish, but not an ultra fine polish if that makes any sense.

Yes, I did try to one step it.


High-End Paint Correction and Opti-Coat Ceramic Coatings * Portsmouth, NH
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Yeah that's impossible when the defects is to deep on softer clearcoats. You tried 2 combos that is great on softer paints the Rupes Yellow Foam Pad and the Keramik polish and Optimum Hyper Polish. I have not tested it but many swears on the Rupes Yellow Wool Pad that it finishing great too. Then if it's able to be finishing great enough on the extreme soft paints I don't know and can be from paint to paint as useally. 2 other polishes that may have a notch higher cut on the Rupes Yellow Foam Pad is Sonax Perfect Finish and Carpro Reflect. That also useally works great on softer paints. Another pad that's says to be good on softer paints and maybe have a notch higher cut than the Rupes Yellow Foam Pad is the Carpro Orange Medium Cut Foam Polishing Pad. But it's so little differences between these I think so it's not getting you that much of a higher cut from the options I mentioned. Maybe in the range of 5-10% higher correction ability from it if you where putting a number on it. So to be really satisfied with the cut a 2-step polishing is mostly needed. Don't know how it is on the extreme soft paints but the combo of Meguiars MF Finishing Pad and Carpro Essence. Is useally a combo with a great cutting ability and finishing ability from it. Then if it's able to be finishing great enough is as always the question. The benefit with the Essence is that it has durable fillers in it. That you activate it by induce heat with higher speed setting on the polisher and a slower armspeed when the Essence becomes clear and do a couple of passes with this. Some don't bother to follow the direction from how to do this and it still works great for them. It's not for masking scratches and deeper defects but more to smooth the paint some extra and get a higher gloss that way. Maybe the fillers is able to be masking fine micro marring if you are lucky.

Also on extreme soft clearcoats you can benefit with a smaller throw on the DA polisher. So if you have a 8mm free spinning DA polisher or a 12mm throw polisher like the Duetto. You may get a better results from the polishing.

/ Tony
 
SWETM - I heard the same about Meguiar's helping Tesla with their paint issues. Some of the lead detailers from the West Coast went to a Meguiar's training last year where even the Meguiar's reps were having issues with finishing out haze free on the black paint systems. So that should tell you how difficult it is working on Tesla's paint...

I've polished probably over 1,000 Teslas over the last couple years and the biggest thing I learned is that microfiber or wool is WAY too aggressive for a compounding step if you are planning on only doing a two step process. I've tried so many different tool/pad/product combinations and no matter what I can always find a few bits of compounding haze left over unless I do a legit 3 step process.

The best system I've found for Tesla's paint (especially black) is Rupes Yellow foam and your choice of compound. I'm a fan of Meguiar's abrasives, especially M101. And then finish with Rupes white foam and Scholl S20 Black or CarPro Essence. Anytime I need to go more aggressive for my compounding stage I've had to do some sort of intermediate polishing step to lessen the severity of compounding haze. Compounding haze seems to be very difficult to clean up on this paint system but oddly it doesn't have as many issues with towel marring like other softer paint systems. It's just weird paint!
 
AutowerxDetailing said:
SWETM - I heard the same about Meguiar's helping Tesla with their paint issues. Some of the lead detailers from the West Coast went to a Meguiar's training last year where even the Meguiar's reps were having issues with finishing out haze free on the black paint systems. So that should tell you how difficult it is working on Tesla's paint...

I've polished probably over 1,000 Teslas over the last couple years and the biggest thing I learned is that microfiber or wool is WAY too aggressive for a compounding step if you are planning on only doing a two step process. I've tried so many different tool/pad/product combinations and no matter what I can always find a few bits of compounding haze left over unless I do a legit 3 step process.

The best system I've found for Tesla's paint (especially black) is Rupes Yellow foam and your choice of compound. I'm a fan of Meguiar's abrasives, especially M101. And then finish with Rupes white foam and Scholl S20 Black or CarPro Essence. Anytime I need to go more aggressive for my compounding stage I've had to do some sort of intermediate polishing step to lessen the severity of compounding haze. Compounding haze seems to be very difficult to clean up on this paint system but oddly it doesn't have as many issues with towel marring like other softer paint systems. It's just weird paint!
Click to expand...

It is weird paint. Even though my job was to treat the paint with a one step. I did test out the paint with a two step approach.

I used Hyper Compound to cut on a RUPES yellow foam pad. It was TOO aggressive. Then I tried the same pad, but with RUPES Zephir. That seem to have yielded the best finish in terms of a cutting step. Of course I anticipated haze...so a second step was needed.

It came out good but not as great as I wanted it.


High-End Paint Correction and Opti-Coat Ceramic Coatings * Portsmouth, NH
 
Yup they can be tricky. I suggest using a short throw polisher for finishing. I have had great luck with Megs 210 finishing down Tesla’s really well.
 
I did a black Mod3 and a tan/gold whatever ModS. Neither had any major paint defects or scuffs. Both came out 80-90% with just a white pad with M205.
 
Dr Oldz said:
Yup they can be tricky. I suggest using a short throw polisher for finishing. I have had great luck with Megs 210 finishing down Tesla’s really well.
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Agreed. Usually for finishing, or when performing a one step, we'll use a Rupes Mille as the Tesla clear coat seems to respond very well to the short 5mm throw and the forced rotation allows for a lower speed setting with consistent pad rotation. Comes in especially handy on the rear quarter panels and all the other softer curves around the door panels.
 
AutowerxDetailing said:
Agreed. Usually for finishing, or when performing a one step, we'll use a Rupes Mille as the Tesla clear coat seems to respond very well to the short 5mm throw and the forced rotation allows for a lower speed setting with consistent pad rotation. Comes in especially handy on the rear quarter panels and all the other softer curves around the door panels.
Click to expand...

I have a Mille. This is the one thing I didn’t do.

It always amazes me how different variables can (potentially) alter how the same task can be done. Paint Correction is quite a craft.

As I am waiting for my wife in the parking lot, I saw a Maserati drive by with holograms. At least I know what causes those. Lol.


High-End Paint Correction and Opti-Coat Ceramic Coatings * Portsmouth, NH
 
So far Megs 110/210 Ultimate Compound/Polish works well. I have a new bottle of BF One Step I cant wait to try as well but Megs 110/210 are made for these kinds of paint. I like 105/205 as well but not for a tesla. Pad is key also...not sure I remember what is the right one.
 
soapboxpreacher said:
So far Megs 110/210 Ultimate Compound/Polish works well. I have a new bottle of BF One Step I cant wait to try as well but Megs 110/210 are made for these kinds of paint. I like 105/205 as well but not for a tesla. Pad is key also...not sure I remember what is the right one.
Click to expand...

I know that there exist a video of Larry AMMO NYC using RUPES yellow foam pad & M210.

Sounds like a winning combo so far.

Does anyone here follow Rich Rebuilds on YouTube? He is 40 minutes from me. I should contact him for a test panel.


High-End Paint Correction and Opti-Coat Ceramic Coatings * Portsmouth, NH
 
SWETM said:
Dan Tran did you want to 1-step it?

As a finishing polish step should clear it up. Like mentioned Carpro Essence and Gyeon Primer Polish is great on softer paints. And it seems like it works great with M210 which is made specific for the softer paints.

Colinpd137 do you have the knowledge if M110 and M210 where kind of developed to sort out the new car polishing on Teslas? As they did have a problem on the manufactures plant to get it acceptable and asked Meguiars for help. Have heard this from a Meguiars source but would be interesting to know from someone else with the knowledge about it. Or that's maybe a secret.

Eldorado2K. If a Tesla or any other electric car caught fire so it's battery is on fire. The fire squad here in Sweden let it burn down until it self extinguish. Cause the heat gets so high and they don't have anything that helps to stop it. And they just makes sure so the fire don't spread to the surroundings. Have seen the damage of such a fire on a Tesla on the asphalt road the asphalt was gone for a yard or 2 around it. We have also a lot of public transportation busses that goes in the cities and also some vehicals that goes on natuaral gas. If the fire squad don't see the gas tank and that safety marks or how to describe it or if it's too long gone when on fire so these marks on the tanks shows it. They are ordered to not go near them no matter what the situation is. And from the safety distance that's needed the fire extinguish equipment don't reach the vehical on fire. It's scary that it is so. We had a buss driver that just drove by the GPS in the capitol Stockholm here in Sweden. So he didn't take notice of that the bridge he was driving under was to low. And with poor maintance of the natuaral gas tanks so it's safety feature didn't work as they are going to empty their self. It where a huge explosion and luckily there where no passengers on the buss and the buss drive got out far enough to not get that much hurt. Was a very scary thing that happened in a very puplic place. But just material damages. This was little over a year ago IIRC.

/ Tony
Click to expand...


I haven't heard it personally was made for it, but ever since 3M consumed Meguiar's awhile back.. who really knows? Anyhow the 105-205 recipe was SUPER OLD and needed a refresh since paint has changed so much over the years anyhow.

Once your familiar with the paint, it's honestly super easy.
As far as battery fires go, I have never seen a single one. They are super rare tbh.
 
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