2019 Tesla Model 3 - Deep Blue Metallic

[dwaleke]

Had a chance to detail my 2019 Tesla Model 3 in Deep Blue Metallic. Pretty much exactly one year old w/10,600 highway miles.

I have been working from home and did little by little over the last two weeks to get to the final result.

Car was in overall good condition. It went through the standard new car prep and shockingly the paint was not a mess. In fact I was quite pleased with the protection they put on it at the delivery center. Had nice depth and gloss from day one that lasted with basic top ups of Meguiar's HCW, Turtle Wax Seal N Shine, Turtle Wax Wet Wax, etc. That being said they did leave some wax residue on the edges of all the glass.

Wash & Decon:
Pre-wash with 3D Super Pre-Soak
Wash with 3D Super Soap
Iron Decon with Eagle One Black & Plasti-Coat Wheel Cleaner
Clay with Clay Magic & McKee's 37 N-914
Spot treatment with CarPro TarX

Correction:
Flex XCE 8 125 Cordless Gear Driven (CBEAST)
Flex PXE 80 12 (PiXiE)
Uro-Tec Maroon light cutting pad.
Griot's Garage Fast Correction Cream

Polish:
Flex XFE15 150 Cordless Polisher (The Finisher)
Flex PXE 80 12 (PiXiE)
Uro-Tec Yellow polishing pad.
Meguiar's M210
Wiped down with 3D Panel Wipe

Protection:
Paint and Wheel protection: TAC Systems Moonlight (will maintain with Quartz Max for added gloss and protection after Moonlight cures)
Tires dressed with Duragloss #253

The paint on these cars is thin (65-90 microns on vertical panels and 95-125 on horizontal panels). This particular paint was not as soft as expected but still the clearcoat is not durable at all. The lower sides of the car and the front are already showing signs of being sandblasted from highway road debris.

I tried numerous test spots. I thought for sure I'd do this car with 3D ONE for correction / 1-step. There were some areas where 3D ONE was not correcting and producing the clarity that Griot's FCC did. 3D ONE did not want to wipe off easily either (not hard - just more effort than on other paint systems). FCC finished so well on this paint that I would have been happy with that alone (even with the Maroon Uro-Tec pad).

I would usually go with Griot's Perfecting Cream but I wanted to try M210 after hearing it may have been formulated for Tesla paint. M210 only needs a couple passes. Any more than 3 section passes and the product would start to dust (very slightly). The smell is not great either (compared to Griot's FCC or PC). I was happy with the finish that M210 left behind and the wipe off was excellent so I would not hesitate to use it again.

[WillSports3]

Very nice. I've heard that Tesla has.. odd paint.

[PaulMys]

Nice!

That cloud Merlin shot is awesome.

[pilotpip]

Looks good!

[coles_paint_correction]

Looks great man! how do you like the flex pxe?
Been trying to see if there is any in stock!

[dwaleke]

Thank you.

I like the PXE. I have used the 3" Flex corded 12mm throw polisher and another brand that's basically the same thing.

Those units are bigger and heavier. The PXE is very light and very easy to work with. It is a quick grab for spot correction or just polishing smaller curvy areas on a car. If you only have a 5"+ long throw polisher then a 3" machine is almost required. I also have the XCE so I don't need to reach for the 3" PXE as much (but I still do).

[Sizzle Chest]

Paint looks great! Nice work!