Dan's Garage Detailing introduction & Model S P85 Detail and Opti-Coat
Hi All,
For those of you who don't know me, my name is Dan and I run a detailing business in Melbourne called Dan's Garage Detailing. I was contacted by David (Higgy) back in
early June and invited along to the Kelvin Club gathering and Q&A session with Cary. I got to meet a number of you and hopefully I was helpful with some of the
information I imparted during my impromptu talk and also those I chatted with afterward.
First things first, I'm not here to spruik or actively try to sell my detailing services. I am happy to answer questions on detailing and maintenance etc and I will
always answer them to the best of my ability, however I have no interest in hard selling as I think it's tacky and a bit boorish. I will however, if people are
amenable, post write-ups for work I do for members here, not only as a point of interest, but to also give people an idea of the sort of work I do.
To that end, I thought you all might be interested in the detailing and Opti-Coat work I completed just this weekend gone on one of the Tesla Australia Melbourne demo
cars.
Here is the car as it was delivered. Being a demo car as you'd imagine it has been working extremely hard since it arrived on the truck from Sydney last week. It was
dropped off the evening earlier having just come back from Bendigo on a test-drive.
Starting with a chemical decontamination of the wheels. This process finds and breaks down ferrous iron deposits that attach themselves to the wheels. Hot brake dust
etc which effectively sinters onto the wheels, making it very difficult to completely shift without the use of purpose-designed products. This pics shows the normally
clear chemical activating red when it finds deposits and breaks them down off the wheels.
Then onto the same for the bodywork. Though you can't see it activating red here because of the colour of the car, you can see it's found a reasonable amount of
contaminants by the way it is sitting on the panel.
After this the car is covered in a full foam pre-soak to start the process of breaking up the dirt and also starting to remove any pre-existing waxes and sealants on
the car (these have to be removed as par for the course so the car's paint can be assessed without waxes, glazes, or sealants potentially hiding any swirls or
scratches).
After this, the car is then washed with a traditional bucket and mitt method. It then goes through a physical decontamination of the paint with a clay prep towel. This
process makes the paint smooth and removes any surface contaminants sitting on it.
After that it's on to the paint inspection. Considering the very young age of the car there was a reasonable amount of swirling. Not helped either by the car being
solid black. Being a demo car though it's to be expected. Not a day will go by when this car isn't clocking up serious kays and having people jumping in and out of it,
so it will definitely have a hard life compared to most standard cars.
The car was given a two stage paint correction (machine polish) over the space of about 12hrs for the paint correction alone. Here are some before and after photos
Bonnet Before
After
Before
After
Some gnarly buffer trails/holograms across the car, indicating it had been subjected previously to a cheap detail.
After. Much better
Before
After
More scratching
After
There were also a couple of circular marks at the front of the bonnet, roughly in the middle. My assumption is that this was most likely as a result of a journo's
camera mount while reviewing the car
After
Mirrors
After
Some reasonably deep scratches near the recessed door handles.
After
Before
After
Before
After
Rear Quarters
Before
After
Before
After
A Pillars - Before
After
Tops of the doors
After
The tail lights also got some correction to remove scratches - Before
After
Some shots of the beautiful interior after it got a vac and wipedown
Door sills cleaned and dressed with a plastic/vinyl dressing. Painted areas received wax protection
The tablet screen was also wiped down to remove fingerprints
I do love this display display.
The seat backs were treated with plastic/vinyl dressing also
Hi All,
For those of you who don't know me, my name is Dan and I run a detailing business in Melbourne called Dan's Garage Detailing. I was contacted by David (Higgy) back in
early June and invited along to the Kelvin Club gathering and Q&A session with Cary. I got to meet a number of you and hopefully I was helpful with some of the
information I imparted during my impromptu talk and also those I chatted with afterward.
First things first, I'm not here to spruik or actively try to sell my detailing services. I am happy to answer questions on detailing and maintenance etc and I will
always answer them to the best of my ability, however I have no interest in hard selling as I think it's tacky and a bit boorish. I will however, if people are
amenable, post write-ups for work I do for members here, not only as a point of interest, but to also give people an idea of the sort of work I do.
To that end, I thought you all might be interested in the detailing and Opti-Coat work I completed just this weekend gone on one of the Tesla Australia Melbourne demo
cars.
Here is the car as it was delivered. Being a demo car as you'd imagine it has been working extremely hard since it arrived on the truck from Sydney last week. It was
dropped off the evening earlier having just come back from Bendigo on a test-drive.
Starting with a chemical decontamination of the wheels. This process finds and breaks down ferrous iron deposits that attach themselves to the wheels. Hot brake dust
etc which effectively sinters onto the wheels, making it very difficult to completely shift without the use of purpose-designed products. This pics shows the normally
clear chemical activating red when it finds deposits and breaks them down off the wheels.
Then onto the same for the bodywork. Though you can't see it activating red here because of the colour of the car, you can see it's found a reasonable amount of
contaminants by the way it is sitting on the panel.
After this the car is covered in a full foam pre-soak to start the process of breaking up the dirt and also starting to remove any pre-existing waxes and sealants on
the car (these have to be removed as par for the course so the car's paint can be assessed without waxes, glazes, or sealants potentially hiding any swirls or
scratches).
After this, the car is then washed with a traditional bucket and mitt method. It then goes through a physical decontamination of the paint with a clay prep towel. This
process makes the paint smooth and removes any surface contaminants sitting on it.
After that it's on to the paint inspection. Considering the very young age of the car there was a reasonable amount of swirling. Not helped either by the car being
solid black. Being a demo car though it's to be expected. Not a day will go by when this car isn't clocking up serious kays and having people jumping in and out of it,
so it will definitely have a hard life compared to most standard cars.
The car was given a two stage paint correction (machine polish) over the space of about 12hrs for the paint correction alone. Here are some before and after photos
Bonnet Before
After
Before
After
Some gnarly buffer trails/holograms across the car, indicating it had been subjected previously to a cheap detail.
After. Much better
Before
After
More scratching
After
There were also a couple of circular marks at the front of the bonnet, roughly in the middle. My assumption is that this was most likely as a result of a journo's
camera mount while reviewing the car
After
Mirrors
After
Some reasonably deep scratches near the recessed door handles.
After
Before
After
Before
After
Rear Quarters
Before
After
Before
After
A Pillars - Before
After
Tops of the doors
After
The tail lights also got some correction to remove scratches - Before
After
Some shots of the beautiful interior after it got a vac and wipedown
Door sills cleaned and dressed with a plastic/vinyl dressing. Painted areas received wax protection
The tablet screen was also wiped down to remove fingerprints
I do love this display display.
The seat backs were treated with plastic/vinyl dressing also