How to eliminate zebra striping?

[Wavshrdr]

How do you eliminate what I'd call zebra striping? See the section along the doors (not the gap) that always seems to look discolored? Is there something you can do about that? This is one of the things that would drive me crazy if I bought one. I don't want to buy something that should have a pretty durable exterior and then need to wrap it. Sort of defeats the purpose for me.

I wat a supercharger today and you could spot that discoloration over a 1/4 mile away as a CT headed to the charger. The banding seemed pretty wide as well.

Is the panel alignment getting better as well? Is there a certain VIN number to be higher than for a better chance at good panel alignment? The truck with the zebra banding's panel alignment was horrendous. It was worse than any of my previous Teslas.

I am not OCD but I might be bordeline in some areas. Owning a Tesla in general is really hard for me at times. Texas makes it more difficult as I had to prepay totally for my past Teslas and rejecting delivery was a royal PITA as I finance them with better banks and Tesla almost never has a better rate unless they have special financing. Not to mention once the bank cuts the check for your loan, they normally send an alert to the credit bureau. Most of the time anyway in my experience.

The price is almost getting low enough I can overlook some of the things that bother me so trying to figure out if there is anything I can do about the things that would drive me crazy like the zebra banding or whatever term there might be for it without throwing the cost of a wrap on top of it.

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[brandonhd]

Bar Keepers Friend will remove it. Do all the steps in this video and it will be gone for years. I did the Bar Keepers and ceramic coating a few months ago and have been very happy with it.

 

[Gigahorse]

Bar Keepers Friend will remove it. Do all the steps in this video and it will be gone for years. I did the Bar Keepers and ceramic coating a few months ago and have been very happy with it.

Did you use the Pan the organizer coating?
How is that for fingerprint reduction. If the bare stainless is a lvl 10 fingerprint magnet, does the ceramic get it down to a 5?

 

[brandonhd]

Did you use the Pan the organizer coating?
How is that for fingerprint reduction. If the bare stainless is a lvl 10 fingerprint magnet, does the ceramic get it down to a 5?

It takes away the finger print issue. Yes you can see a print just like you would if you touch your glass. I say it does get it down to half of what it was before coating as far as seeing it. The prints that you do see easily wipe away with a little bit of waterless wash. I did use Pan’s 8 year coating. It was really nice to work with. I’ve used at least 3 different types of ceramic coating on different vehicles over the last couple years and Pan’s is my favorite.

 

[Gigahorse]

It takes away the finger print issue. Yes you can see a print just like you would if you touch your glass. I say it does get it down to half of what it was before coating as far as seeing it. The prints that you do see easily wipe away with a little bit of waterless wash. I did use Pan’s 8 year coating. It was really nice to work with. I’ve used at least 3 different types of ceramic coating on different vehicles over the last couple years and Pan’s is my favorite.

Good to hear, currently using spray-away or alcholo and 4-5 agressive wipes with a microfiber to get rid of fingerprints.
Thinking hard about doing the BKF/Windex and then doing the Pan coating, although I have not done a ceramic coating before have watched several videos on it.
With a hit of waterless wash how much scrubbing is there for the fingerprints to disappear vs regular stainless, and does it make the whole truck significantly easier to clean? Dirt/bugs/etc

 

[brandonhd]

Good to hear, currently using spray-away or alcholo and 4-5 agressive wipes with a microfiber to get rid of fingerprints.
Thinking hard about doing the BKF/Windex and then doing the Pan coating, although I have not done a ceramic coating before have watched several videos on it.
With a hit of waterless wash how much scrubbing is there for the fingerprints to disappear vs regular stainless, and does it make the whole truck significantly easier to clean? Dirt/bugs/etc

Cool man. You won’t regret the effort. Bugs come off really easy. It is really easy to clean now. I need to coat all of my glass and it will be really easy. I do clean the front grill around almost daily because of bugs. I use Adam’s waterless wash and a microfiber. It’s pretty easy because it’s coated.

 

[brandonhd]

Here’s how it turned out

 

[Cybrtr808]

I ceramic coated with Pan’s 8 year. It works great in that it makes wiping off the finger prints and other dirt / crud that the stainless steel attracts. It was such a pain to keep finger prints and just body oils from just brushing up to the steel that I only drove the truck for 350 miles in the first 5 months. I wanted to protect the stainless first before taking it out in the elements. As we know, even hard water spots and salty rain (I live near the ocean) is not easy to clean off.

I first ordered a full self wrap which ended up being back ordered for a couple months. I cancelled the wrap and bought the ProtectaClear stainless steel coating as reviewed on the Out of Spec Detaling video. Did not try it as Out of Spec came out with raving reviews on the Pan’s 8 ceramic coating.

I used the Spray Away glass cleaner for the first 5 months. Worked pretty good but I found any finger prints or other grime that had not been cleaned off immediately was difficult to clean off with the Spray Away. For me it was just too much work keeping the stainless clean, thus let the truck sit in the garage

I also can not say enough about the soft scrub Bar keepers friend. I tried the spray foam Bar Keepers but that was not strong enough. After using the soft scrub bar keepers to clean the entire truck (as specified in the Out of Spec video), I Pan’s 8 all the panels including the black trim. Easy to wipe on and it does self level.

Two comments on this clear coating process.

Even if stainless panel looks clean, make sure you bar keepers clean it. The Pan s will highlight any little dirt specs you did not clean off.

2nd - use multiple application pads when applying the Pan s. The first three panels I clear coated looked great. I picked up some grim on the application pad when clear coating next to the window seals. I think this caused the latter clear coating to be a little streaky. The application pad was noticeably a little dirty The later panels were not as shinny as the initial steel panels.

I used the bar keepers to remove the Pan s from the panels immediately after I noticed the dirt specs under the clear coat for the panel that I thought was clean and had not had not used bar keepers . Worked fine removing the fresh clear coat. I assume in the future, if I wanted to remove the Pans bar keepers should do the job.

over all, I agree with the Out of Spec review that Pan s 8 year is thus far the best product tested.

 

[Gigahorse]

Here’s how it turned out

wow looks great

 

[Gigahorse]

I ceramic coated with Pan’s 8 year. It works great in that it makes wiping off the finger prints and other dirt / crud that the stainless steel attracts. It was such a pain to keep finger prints and just body oils from just brushing up to the steel that I only drove the truck for 350 miles in the first 5 months. I wanted to protect the stainless first before taking it out in the elements. As we know, even hard water spots and salty rain (I live near the ocean) is not easy to clean off.

I first ordered a full self wrap which ended up being back ordered for a couple months. I cancelled the wrap and bought the ProtectaClear stainless steel coating as reviewed on the Out of Spec Detaling video. Did not try it as Out of Spec came out with raving reviews on the Pan’s 8 ceramic coating.

I used the Spray Away glass cleaner for the first 5 months. Worked pretty good but I found any finger prints or other grime that had not been cleaned off immediately was difficult to clean off with the Spray Away. For me it was just too much work keeping the stainless clean, thus let the truck sit in the garage

I also can not say enough about the soft scrub Bar keepers friend. I tried the spray foam Bar Keepers but that was not strong enough. After using the soft scrub bar keepers to clean the entire truck (as specified in the Out of Spec video), I Pan’s 8 all the panels including the black trim. Easy to wipe on and it does self level.

Two comments on this clear coating process.

Even if stainless panel looks clean, make sure you bar keepers clean it. The Pan s will highlight any little dirt specs you did not clean off.

2nd - use multiple application pads when applying the Pan s. The first three panels I clear coated looked great. I picked up some grim on the application pad when clear coating next to the window seals. I think this caused the latter clear coating to be a little streaky. The application pad was noticeably a little dirty The later panels were not as shinny as the initial steel panels.

I used the bar keepers to remove the Pan s from the panels immediately after I noticed the dirt specs under the clear coat for the panel that I thought was clean and had not had not used bar keepers . Worked fine removing the fresh clear coat. I assume in the future, if I wanted to remove the Pans bar keepers should do the job.

over all, I agree with the Out of Spec review that Pan s 8 year is thus far the best product tested.

I have followed your path, spray away fighting fingerprints, considered protectaclear but bailed on it due to some reports of failure, and now am looking at Pans. Little intimidated as I am not a car detail guy and have not BKFed my truck yet, or put on a ceramic coating but think I am going to give it a go.

 

[Cybrtr808]

I have followed your path, spray away fighting fingerprints, considered protectaclear but bailed on it due to some reports of failure, and now am looking at Pans. Little intimidated as I am not a car detail guy and have not BKFed my truck yet, or put on a ceramic coating but think I am going to give it a go.

First try the Bar keepers soft scrub. Get comfortable with that process. I used a lot of Costco microfiber towels. Also follow Out of Specs video details for the bar keepers. I used windex with ammonia to clean after the bar keepers.i did it all by hand as I did not have my orbital polisher handy.

another tip - when using the bar keepers only rub in horizontal or vertical directions. I did a circle with the BK soft scrub, which ended up with a quarter / silver dollar size round swirl scratching in the SS. I assume if I soft scrub horizontally or vertically with BBs it will take out or mask the swirl marks
Norm

 

[Wavshrdr]

Here’s how it turned out

Kudos! The first one I've seen that wasn't wrap that didn't suck in my estimation. That looks great. How much time did it take?

 

[brandonhd]

Kudos! The first one I've seen that wasn't wrap that didn't suck in my estimation. That looks great. How much time did it take?

Thanks! I spent an hour or two doing the Bar Keepers and then two hours or so ceramic coating the stainless.

 

[Wavshrdr]

Thanks, that isn't bad. That was one of my major issues with it. Next on my list is doing something with the interior. It just feels cheap in a lot of ways like my first gen 3 did.

Looks like the Hansshow media mirror would take care of my issue there. I need some sort of front dash display like I added to my 3.

Has anyone use this sort of display? I used a mini display with my 3 to not block the air vents but I am not sure if larger one would block the vents in the CT like a larger one I tried in my 3.

https://www.hansshow.com/products/t...t-camera-hansshow?_pos=3&_sid=d7a7dd79f&_ss=r

My last issue is coming to terms with the outward visibility. It seemed like there were a lot of blind spots when I drove them. I need to go drive one again. The Tesla rep keeps bugging me, as it seems they are desperate to sell them. Might be a lot of good EOQ incentives coming.

 

[Gigahorse]

First try the Bar keepers soft scrub. Get comfortable with that process. I used a lot of Costco microfiber towels. Also follow Out of Specs video details for the bar keepers. I used windex with ammonia to clean after the bar keepers.i did it all by hand as I did not have my orbital polisher handy.

another tip - when using the bar keepers only rub in horizontal or vertical directions. I did a circle with the BK soft scrub, which ended up with a quarter / silver dollar size round swirl scratching in the SS. I assume if I soft scrub horizontally or vertically with BBs it will take out or mask the swirl marks
Norm

With the square footage of stainless I am tempted to get a cordless polisher, might not get to much use if I end up ceramic coating it after though.

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