Ignore the detailers, Sprayway Glass Cleaner is the easiest way to clean the exterior of your Cybertruck

[Black306]

Dawn + water + squeegee to dry

Beer is typically involved as well.

With enough beer, one forgets the need to do a car wash. ?

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[bg002h]

I’m by no means an expert, but like a lot of people I was shocked at how hard CT is to clean. After finally cleaning it, I waxed it. Just regular car wax. Doesn’t eliminate finger printing but makes it possible to wipe away finger prints (sometimes I breathe on it to get a little water to help).

Anyhow, I decided to “wash” my CT for the first time in 3 months. You know those things you’d used at a gas station to clean off the windshield? I used one of those with plain water to wash the stainless one panel at a time…and then I used the squeegee side to immediately move the dirty water off the steel.

I’m guessing the prior wax is what makes this work, but literally I can wash my CT without soap. It isn’t perfect at panel junctions, so a soft fiber cloth to keep random water spots from drying and leaving mineral deposits at these points fixes that problem. Any spots that you miss can be buffed away with some water from breathing.

I’m sure the water removal via squeegee will cause surface damage / marks, but that is the finish of CT: damaged. Squeegee runs the risk of patterning the damage with lines and arcs, disrupting the random textures damage pattern. But I haven’t seen such a change…yet.

edit: I take that last part back: I can see a linear pattern. Had to wait for the sun to get lower to make it pop.

I can’t promise those marks are from squeegee, it was so dirty before the linear scratches could have been there and I couldn’t have seen them.

I wonder why they didn’t do a brush surface scratch pattern…anyone have any ideas? That’s the most common pattern…and it’s easier than random orbital…

 

[NealC]

I’m by no means an expert, but like a lot of people I was shocked at how hard CT is to clean. After finally cleaning it, I waxed it. Just regular car wax. Doesn’t eliminate finger printing but makes it possible to wipe away finger prints (sometimes I breathe on it to get a little water to help).

Anyhow, I decided to “wash” my CT for the first time in 3 months. You know those things you’d used at a gas station to clean off the windshield? I used one of those with plain water to wash the stainless one panel at a time…and then I used the squeegee side to immediately move the dirty water off the steel.

I’m guessing the prior wax is what makes this work, but literally I can wash my CT without soap. It isn’t perfect at panel junctions, so a soft fiber cloth to keep random water spots from drying and leaving mineral deposits at these points fixes that problem. Any spots that you miss can be buffed away with some water from breathing.

I’m sure the water removal via squeegee will cause surface damage / marks, but that is the finish of CT: damaged. Squeegee runs the risk of patterning the damage with lines and arcs, disrupting the random textures damage pattern. But I haven’t seen such a change…yet.

edit: I take that last part back: I can see a linear pattern. Had to wait for the sun to get lower to make it pop.

I can’t promise those marks are from squeegee, it was so dirty before the linear scratches could have been there and I couldn’t have seen them.

I wonder why they didn’t do a brush surface scratch pattern…anyone have any ideas? That’s the most common pattern…and it’s easier than random orbital…

What do you mean by "regular" car wax? What did you specifically use?

 

[Kryptek]

I’m by no means an expert, but like a lot of people I was shocked at how hard CT is to clean. After finally cleaning it, I waxed it. Just regular car wax. Doesn’t eliminate finger printing but makes it possible to wipe away finger prints (sometimes I breathe on it to get a little water to help).

Anyhow, I decided to “wash” my CT for the first time in 3 months. You know those things you’d used at a gas station to clean off the windshield? I used one of those with plain water to wash the stainless one panel at a time…and then I used the squeegee side to immediately move the dirty water off the steel.

I’m guessing the prior wax is what makes this work, but literally I can wash my CT without soap. It isn’t perfect at panel junctions, so a soft fiber cloth to keep random water spots from drying and leaving mineral deposits at these points fixes that problem. Any spots that you miss can be buffed away with some water from breathing.

I’m sure the water removal via squeegee will cause surface damage / marks, but that is the finish of CT: damaged. Squeegee runs the risk of patterning the damage with lines and arcs, disrupting the random textures damage pattern. But I haven’t seen such a change…yet.

edit: I take that last part back: I can see a linear pattern. Had to wait for the sun to get lower to make it pop.

I can’t promise those marks are from squeegee, it was so dirty before the linear scratches could have been there and I couldn’t have seen them.

I wonder why they didn’t do a brush surface scratch pattern…anyone have any ideas? That’s the most common pattern…and it’s easier than random orbital…

I got my first wash in today, it was 50F in alaska. I used a microfiber towel and HOT water with a spritz of dawn powerwash. I then wiped it down with denatured alcohol and microfiber towel, I do not see scratches like yours. I had a good amount of road film built up from taking ownership in seattle and a boat to anchorage then 300 mile drive north & 1k miles after within a month.

 

[kpanda17]

I use simple green aircraft cleaner Works easy

Should be true, some planes are stainless

 

[HaulingAss]

I found that soap just removes any wax I have on my vehicle. I haven't tried those pH neutral soaps. I'm not sure why a pH neutral soap would ever be used because that's the same pH as water. Soap is supposed to be >7 pH so maybe I am missign something.

Soap is a generic term with no well-defined meaning. Dish detergent will strip whatever wax you have on a painted car, a reputable auto shampoo generally will not, at least the shampoos I've used. And they clean off dirt and insects a lot more effectively than plain water, because they have surfactants in them.

The Cybertruck doesn't need wax, so dish detergent works fine. And it costs less and cleans more aggressively.

 

[HaulingAss]

edit: I take that last part back: I can see a linear pattern. Had to wait for the sun to get lower to make it pop. I can’t promise those marks are from squeegee, it was so dirty before the linear scratches could have been there and I couldn’t have seen them.

I get my truck muddy and off-road on roads like this a lot:



This will cause the branches to rub the mud into the Cybertruck which will result in fine scratches as shown in your photo. I wouldn't worry about it because you can get it back to better than new quite easily by polishing it with a random orbit sander and the appropriate pad. Tesla doesn't deliver Cybertrucks with a very consistent finish (probably because they know it will get polished a number of times over the life of the truck), so it's not that difficult to make it look better than delivered from the factory.

In my F-150 I would cringe when I was rubbing a muddy truck against vegetation because the clearcoat is so thin, it can only withstand a very small number of polishes (and some of the scratches would be deeper than the clearcoat). The Cybertruck is harder than clearcoat (and hundreds of times thicker), so the scratches are finer. You could polish it hundreds of times, if you wanted, without hurting it.

I recommend not waxing the Cybertruck, it can hinder the natural self-passivation of the metal by creating an oxygen and moisture barrier. The Cybertruck loves to be bare and wet! ?

 

[Bobo_LaDouche]

Soap and water. Drive around the block to dry. No microfiber rags, they feel yucky to touch.

Takes about 15 minutes - super easy with the flat panels. Always tons of bugs on the front vertical panel, but that is small and flat. Much easier to clean than the Ford!

Keep the front camera glass clean for less trouble with the wiper, it's only 1 ft^2.

 

[JamesG]

Should be true, some planes are stainless
[/QUOTE
I never heard of a stainless plane. Works on paint just fine except that it takes all the wax off

 

[carsly]

I found two different sprayway on Amazon and bought them both. One is glass cleaner and the other is stainless steel (oil based) did anyone use the stainless steel cleaner?

Sprayway Ammonia-Free Glass Cleaner

The Cybertruck detailing kit has some kind of oiler cleaner/polish, I tried it once on a small area and do not recommend it. Also tried some Weiman stainless steel cleaner, also on a small area, also would not recommend.

Those oily substances add short-term shine, but suck in dirt and debris and the oils make the surface hard to clean properly later since they need to be stripped off.

Best to keep it simple, Sprayway and micro-fibers.

 

[bg002h]

What do you mean by "regular" car wax? What did you specifically use?

I dunno. Not the kind with abrasive.

what I like about the steel surface is you really can’t hurt it in anything but the pretty sense. I’ve driven through brush and it doesn’t obviously scratch like a coated aluminum skinned car does. And if one really needs to reset the surface pattern, you literally take a sander to the surface to damage it in a particular way. I love that.

 

[JamesG]

Caked on salt. S

pent 10 min doing car wash. Hose, simple green aircraft cleaner ( maybe 2oz), brush.
no squeegie, no towels, air dry

Couldn’t be cleaner, including windshield!

 

[bg002h]

Do you get hard water spots? I like the low touch approach…ease matters…I didn’t spend $135k for a time sink!

 

[JamesG]

Do you get hard water spots? I like the low touch approach…ease matters…I didn’t spend $135k for a time sink!

No water spots.

 

[bg002h]

No water spots.

Nice!

I think we have too many minerals in our water.

I like my squeegee trick for hard water, but If I were to clean my truck again, I’d sponge wash it first to get particulate debris off of it before dragging junk across the soft steel with the squeegee. Not that scratching is hurting anything, just aesthetics.

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