Detailing ruined my Cybertruck

[jameslook]

Okay,
So how should I go about fixing this?

For sure I have to remove the PPF.

1) Wait for some Cyberbrite to arrive and follow the instructions to remove micro contaminants. Would make for a nice review

2) Apply Citrisurf 77? Would that work?

3) Repolish as per Tesla’s method. I can yell at them to do it again and clean it properly between polishing and after.

I think this is a great thread. Usually you learn through mistakes.

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[REM]

looks like an oily spot to me, I agree with a few others. you need to passivate. If that turns out to be what fixes it, I would be talking to the manager or owner about at minimum a partial refund if they refused to learn about this before taking on the job.

 

[Tallgeese179]

Pretty much in full agreement with @HaulingAss. The hardest part of the refinishing process was accepting that the minimum order quantity for the Tesla specified Blendex pads was so high ($$$). The process itself is rather simple and well laid out in Tesla's refinishing guide.

Regarding the residue control, I would definitely recommend what others mentioned: IPA wipes between pads/"grits". In my case I used a paper towel to get a first pass of residue followed by a microfiber towel for the nitty gritty stuff. Another thing that helped was connecting a vacuum to my sander.

 

[CyberGus]

I refinished my own frunk lid to clean up some obvious scratches.

For one difficult scratch, I spent a long time hovering over the area to eliminate it, but afterwards the spot was definitely darker. I presume it was from grinding the contaminants back into the metal, and/or excess heat. (I should have used a courser pad or even sandpaper to work the scratch, but didn't want to "waste time" blending the area again. Shortcuts seldom succeed.)

My fix was to back off to a coarser grain, taking many overlapping passes and working slowly to not repeat the problem. Once the spot was eliminated, I progressed to the finer-grained pads to get back to the desired finish.

A assume this case is similar, so it can readily be corrected by starting over at the course grain, and following the Tesla-approved pattern to achieve consistency.

It looks like they repeated my mistake: working some areas aggressively at the finer grain, causing the area to darken.

Exterior Stainless Steel Panel Refinishing - Tesla Cybertruck

 

[jameslook]

looks like an oily spot to me, I agree with a few others. you need to passivate. If that turns out to be what fixes it, I would be talking to the manager or owner about at minimum a partial refund if they refused to learn about this before taking on the job.

Pretty much in full agreement with @HaulingAss. The hardest part of the refinishing process was accepting that the minimum order quantity for the Tesla specified Blendex pads was so high ($$$). The process itself is rather simple and well laid out in Tesla's refinishing guide.

Regarding the residue control, I would definitely recommend what others mentioned: IPA wipes between pads/"grits". In my case I used a paper towel to get a first pass of residue followed by a microfiber towel for the nitty gritty stuff. Another thing that helped was connecting a vacuum to my sander.

what are the Tesla specified blendex pads? I read the PDF for the refinishing process but it was awhile ago.

 

[Jhodgesatmb]

Okay,
So how should I go about fixing this?

For sure I have to remove the PPF.

1) Wait for some Cyberbrite to arrive and follow the instructions to remove micro contaminants. Would make for a nice review

2) Apply Citrisurf 77? Would that work?

3) Repolish as per Tesla’s method. I can yell at them to do it again and clean it properly between polishing and after.

I think this is a great thread. Usually you learn through mistakes.

I forgot that you put vinyl on your car. No matter what you do next if you want those blemishes removed the PPF will have to come off. Are the blemishes only on the hood/front and the tailgate? If so, those are at least not the entire truck. I would ask why you decided to put clear vinyl on your truck but that is a personal choice. It just seems to me that it is pretty easy to keep the truck clean and that vinyl would make sense if it is a color or pattern but I am scratching my head about the clear.

 

[CyberGus]

In my case I used a paper towel to get a first pass of residue followed by a microfiber towel for the nitty gritty stuff. Another thing that helped was connecting a vacuum to my sander.

My "value-oriented" DA polisher has no such vacuum attachment, so I periodically wiped-down (but not IPA, it might have been CitriSurf? Windex? I forget). At courser grains, I ended up with a blackened towel that went straight to the trash lol. The finer grains produced minimal residue.

 

[Tallgeese179]

Now that you mention it @CyberGus has a good point. I've seen similar issues occur when polishing plastic and building up too much heat, causing white hazing/discoloration. The solution is to use a more coarse grit, remove the thin discolored layer, and then sand/polish back down through the grits.

Regardless, IIRC this is 1.4mm thick stainless on the body panels...you have TONS of material to work with and can definitely remove this discoloration. It's my favorite part tbh. It's not like clear coat where it's got a rather thin/finite thickness.

Final suggestion: PPF is a polymer and will scratch more easily than stainless. If you want hydrophobic properties and resistance to bugs, I would recommend: refinish->passivate->DIY ceramic coating. Or just run er raw

 

[Tallgeese179]

From my Grainger Order, like I said the MoQ is 20 so it's expensive...but damn it seems cheap compared to the quoted PPF cost

Note, the Medium grit is the most expensive. I thought it wasn't needed, but it did most of the heavy lifting so don't skip it.

 

[CyberGus]

what are the Tesla specified blendex pads? I read the PDF for the refinishing process but it was awhile ago.

The only sources I could find for the Tesla-specified pads would only sell in huge lots, forcing the purchase of a lifetime supply lol. Maybe we should start a "Blendex Club" hahahaha

I ended up getting whatever I could find on Amazon (LiME LiNE), which worked "OK" but I seemed unable to eliminate the "lawnmower striping". Ended up getting some higher-quality Festool pads which were better. I probably should have swapped-out the pads more often, but I don't know how to tell when they're sufficiently worn.

Should I undertake the task again, I'll be replacing my consumer-grade DA polisher with a commercial-grade orbital polisher that is more to Tesla specifications.

 

[CyberGus]

but damn it seems cheap compared to the quoted PPF cost

Yes, it seems that my "saving money" option was about as smart as my "saving time" plans

 

[Tallgeese179]

I purchased this one because I'm already deep into the Milwaukee M12/M18 ecosystem and I know from their DA polishers that then now how to make a battery tool perform. Their brushless motors have some serious power.

https://www.acmetools.com/milwaukee...16-inch-bare-tool-2585-20/S0000000080105.html

 

[HunterMt8]

I had something similar and then told the owner this is a 120k truck. Would you accept this issue if it were your truck? Long story short, they replaced my tailgate completely. I also had the truck for 3 months.

 

[jameslook]

I forgot that you put vinyl on your car. No matter what you do next if you want those blemishes removed the PPF will have to come off. Are the blemishes only on the hood/front and the tailgate? If so, those are at least not the entire truck. I would ask why you decided to put clear vinyl on your truck but that is a personal choice. It just seems to me that it is pretty easy to keep the truck clean and that vinyl would make sense if it is a color or pattern but I am scratching my head about the clear.

They talked me into it. Honestly I didn’t want to do it since I like the raw stainless. But I didn’t want to protect against scratches since I didn’t want to get them polishing out scratches all the time or having to do an Iron-X treatment every three months. They suggested colored PPF but I wasn’t ready to change the color. If I only did ceramic coating and I did decide to do a vinyl wrap down the road you have to take it off etc.
So I looked at a sample of clear PPF and thought I could still have the stainless steel protection with less maintenance.

 

[jameslook]

I forgot that you put vinyl on your car. No matter what you do next if you want those blemishes removed the PPF will have to come off. Are the blemishes only on the hood/front and the tailgate? If so, those are at least not the entire truck. I would ask why you decided to put clear vinyl on your truck but that is a personal choice. It just seems to me that it is pretty easy to keep the truck clean and that vinyl would make sense if it is a color or pattern but I am scratching my head about the clear.

They got the frunk back looking good but for whatever reason really lost their brain doing the tailgate. It’s the only section that needs to be fixed which is good.
Easy to take off the PPF, yell at them and tell them to sand it right based on all the suggestions here and put the PPF back on after passivation.
At this point I wish I didn’t do the PPF but I paid for it so… will keep it on for now I guess. The 6k cost was tax in plus an entire interior detail. That was 5k total. Yesterday they took the PPF off, auto shop sanded it all wrong and then they put the PPF back on and charged me $950. I’ll be asking for some sort of compensation for the hassle but just want to get it fixed. Then I can start getting all the tools together to start thinking about doing the refinishing myself in the future. I’m just not good with these things. That’s why I pay people to do it. You would think they know what they are doing. Sigh…
It usually is not the case though as we can see.

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