Tesla reached out to us recently for some help getting their prototype Model S ready for an unveiling/press event at their Boulder Colorado showroom, definitely not the kind of request you take lightly when you consider this car is essentially priceless. Billions in research and years of work have gone into this car and its one of one!! We were absolutely honored by the request and had a lot of fun with this car. Being a prototype mock up there were some things we had to work around. The car for example hasn't been tested to be water tight so a traditional wash was out of the question and not being built to 'road ready' production specs we wanted to take the every caution, being careful not to damage anything. We started by vacuuming out the interior and then doing a complete waterless wash of the exterior. Each panel was saturated with cleaner and then wiped with a waterless wash waffle weave towel. 1 towel was used per panel. The most staggering part was how bad the aluminum trim was. Adam spent a lot of time rubbing out every inch of it by hand using Metal Polish 1 & 2. The 4" white focus pad was used to address deeper scratches in the trim. I took on the paint opting for the flex. There were some concerns about excessive vibrations on the car as its not a road ready production car the potential for loose panels or trim exists so the smooth operation of the flex seemed optimal. Most panels were easily corrected with 1 or 2 passes of the white pad with fine machine polish... a few required the orange pad + swirl & haze remover either via the flex or 4" focus pads and drill. Once corrected the entire car, including the freshly polished trim, and wheels was treated to a coat of Brilliant Glaze by hand which was removed with single soft towels. That was then topped with 2 thin coats of Americana paste wax and removed double soft towels. Adam spent some time polishing out the door sills (more aluminum) with Metal 1 & 2... then coated the entire door jamb and trunk surround with Brilliant Glaze. The glass was cleaned inside and out with Glass Cleaner and Glass towels, then coated with Brilliant Glaze. The interior was in relatively good shape, all that was needed was a wipe down with Leather & Interior Cleaner and a quick application of Leather & Interior Conditioner. The massive center stack touch screen control center was wiped with a fresh single soft towel and Detail Spray. Last the tires and trim were dressed using Super VRT and In & Out Spray. The car was rolled into the showroom where it was given a final inspection and any missed areas were touched up before a final detail spray wipe down. Enjoy the video and pictures... still can't believe I got to buff this thing out - just one more reason I love my job. Products Used: Waterless Wash Waterless Wash Towels Flex Polisher Orange Flex Pads White Flex Pads Swirl & Haze Remover Fine Machine Polish Detail Spray Metal Polish 1 Metal Polish 2 Microfiber Applicators Edgeless Utility Towels 4" Focus Pads w/ cordless drill adapter Brilliant Glaze Americana Paste Wax Americana Hex Grip Apps Single Soft Towels Double Soft Towels Glass Cleaner Glass Towels Leather & Interior Cleaner Leather & Interior Conditioner Red Foam Interior Apps Super VRT Foam Block Apps In & Out Spray [video=youtube;3mY8ikFGr0o]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mY8ikFGr0o&hd=1[/video]
WOW!! A Tesla!! Thats awesome. Love the color and the wheels. The interior looks pretty amazing!!! Congrats on getting the opprotunity to detail that car! Excellent work! Thanks for sharing!
Yeah, they are really sweet. The look of the car kinda reminds me of a Aston Martin, which are some beautiful cars!!
That just set the bar a couple of notches higher! Cutting edge technology mixed with arguably the best detailing products on the planet and you have perfection ! BRAVO!
The car looks crazy wet, and what a cool thing to be asked by Tesla to detail one of their prototypes. Not to thread jack, but was Tesla named after Nikola Tesla? If you haven't read about him...he is one interesting person. Back to the car... and your detail. Thanks for the pictures.
From what I gather they should be full production by the end of 2011, and "could" retail in the 50K price range. DOE loaned them close too 500 million in to build thier factory, I hope they follow through. This car could be a major driving force to get people to go electric.
Yep... I still have a hard time believing a car that looks/performs like this can be brought to market for $50k, but I certainly hope it will be. They're taking pre-orders now (up to around 5,000 of them as I understand) and I'm half tempted b/c when you factor in the cost to operate the thing and the fact it gets 300 miles on a charge its a bargain at that price. Heck based on what they're saying it costs the average person to charge from dead to full on their home outlet (not factoring in if you get solar) the thing would pay for itself inside of a few years at the price gas goes for. Not to mention the MASSIVE tax breaks given on it.
And it does not look like a POS like the prius or VOLT. 50k is very reasonable for what type of car it is, plus thier is a Tesla Charging station at Harris Ranch so i can go eat a nice steak and charge up the ride. LOL only negative thing I have heard is that it takes a while to charge the battery.
I hope it makes some kind of noise. Bit off topic, but when I'm on my bike and a Prius creeps up on me, I never hear it coming. Bit scary...
yes, it is. or if you are walking through a parking lot.... and one backs up. I think it should be law to put a back up device like those on a dump truck on a Prius. One its safer, two it would be funny as hell to see some hipster back up his prius with his boba tea and moth eye sunglasses but with the noise of a dumptruck.
I think they should mandate that any hybrid once it reaches 5mph its plays calliope music from the tail pipe.
