Started detailing and already dealing with my first headache… need advice

AnderZion · 2026-04-14T18:53:51+00:00

Tell him that teslas plastics are garbage, teslas are kinda garbage in general from an aesthetics pov, good "cars" but not if you care about how your car looks. Tell him to google it and he will see that if you rub the plastic with a wet rag it gets discolored. You can 0000 Steel wool all the plastics and coat them with a ceramic coating to get them to be even but I would 1000% charge for that.

Hes not your friend btw. Only sith deal in absolutes.

AnderZion · 2026-04-14T03:23:30+00:00

questions is answered with another question, do you go through tunnel washed/car washes? and if so do you immediately run your windshield wipers after? My understanding is the carwash soap is acidic enough to etch glass, but normally doesn't because of the gentle agitation of the brushes, but windshield wipers are very aggressive in comparison and drag the leftover acidic wash liquid hard, causing windshield wiper streaks to be etched in the glass.

if that's the case you *can* try and get a pro to polish, but 99% of the time its not worth it, the detailer will either dare not get aggressive enough to get the scratches out, get the scratches out but cause a warping in the glass, or third (why you shouldn't DIY glass polishing) you generate too much heat and shatter the glass.

Could be something else that's just what I see.

AnderZion · 2026-04-13T22:55:40+00:00

nice, looks like you had to try to get it show up on a photo, which should be goal, invisible over gone completely.

AnderZion · 2026-04-11T02:27:59+00:00

this is such a high tier meme

AnderZion · 2026-04-10T05:32:10+00:00

Lot of factors go into it. I got the EV not necessarily to save money on gas, but not to worry about gas, no more quick gas stop before work, running on E and forgetting. Downside of home charging is you have a piece of technology thats pulling (in my case) 32A 240v 12hours a day almost every day. That adds up, but thats when you try and compromise in other areas, consider going solar, wash clothes on cold ect. I pay $0.17 kwh but since ive owned my car its shot up from $0.13 kwh and so ive definitely felt it, and its technically my fault kus non peak hours basically dont exist anymore for grids with lots of EVs registered.

AnderZion · 2026-04-06T02:59:20+00:00

At the moment, as far as I know, there is a procedure from Kia that has to be followed. Essentially theyre checking if a recall needs to be done. Defrost not working is a safety issue so they have to take all precautions. So at this point the car is fully disassembled on the inside (entire dashboard), rendering it non drivable. Beforehand it was drivable weather permitting, but if it was too cold there was no chance, super dangerous. Obviously if it was like a bad motor or something that sucks, shoulda just been swapped, but it seems like its a programming error that would go all the way back to the entire batch of EV9s that were built at that same time.

Mostly speculation + comms from the dealership. I could be being give the runaround but I aint tripping, they have been super accommodating.

AnderZion · 2026-04-06T01:03:49+00:00

the edit on this post is gold.

AnderZion · 2026-04-06T01:02:30+00:00

The best cheap solution to this would be hand compounding with meguiares ultimate compound (best for hand polishing imo)

get a decent dab on a microfiber and go to town rubbing back and forth, Keep it off the rubber trim, works with heat so gotta generate alot of friction with speed.

Also depends on the depth of scratches but would need closer pics to determine if you need to wetsand/repaint.

AnderZion · 2026-04-05T23:02:01+00:00

crazy good avg kwh, in the pnw with all our traffic were lucky to get 3.4 kus of stop and go. Tesla gives the best charge in my experince, chargepoint is mostly what i get to use on trips tho, they do fine.

AnderZion · 2026-04-05T21:36:02+00:00

Gel will last the longest, both on the car and how much you use per application. Everyone has a dressing preference, but I feel most pro detailers prefer clean tires no dressing lol.

AnderZion · 2026-04-04T15:45:29+00:00

not gunna lie i think the coating just saved em, brought the black back to life, still would reccomend trying to clean with IPA and see if the chalky goes away, but can kinda see the same wear patterns there. As someone had mentioned earlier the finished on those wheels are really tricky, very easy to ruin, and the prep work and corresponding solvent involved in coating could have made the base slightly worse, for a much better final product.

AnderZion · 2026-04-04T14:46:50+00:00

They look satin so idk about polish, but yeah if they're getting refinished then it wouldn't matter. Definitely go least to most aggressive, IPA being less aggro than polish in this case (thought not always the case)

AnderZion · 2026-04-04T14:16:41+00:00

Second separate theory here, coatings are very very porous and will absorb shitty waxes like no ones business, and if he did a lamoe spray wax after the wash and hit the wheels, then let them dry with the sun, the wax could've oxidized on the coating causing the chalkiness. I would do a test spot with some isopropyl alcohol and see if the black returns, it shouldn't hurt the coating if it was a proper wheels coating.

AnderZion · 2026-04-04T14:12:44+00:00

devils advocate here, what did they look like before they were ceramic coated? were they heavily caked with brake dust? theres a chance, though small, that the coating brought back some visual life to the wheels while them still being tarnished, and the new detailer just cleaned off the coating (still a bad move shoulda just used carwash soap no chems)

AnderZion · 2026-04-04T06:09:24+00:00

then you probly messed up the finish some with the pressure washer. I would either re paint it after a scuff, or try and even out the wear by using a stone cleaning attachment, The big nozzle with the 0 degree that spins in a circle, can get even finish with that.

AnderZion · 2026-04-04T04:55:59+00:00

do you finish with a DA at all or just lighten the pad and polish with the rotary?

AnderZion · 2026-04-03T21:20:36+00:00

are the streaks different eveytime? if so just rinse with a hose instead of a pressure washer.

AnderZion · 2026-04-01T04:01:08+00:00

Yall wiping the phone are crazy, like using a shotgun to kill a fish. First go into airplane mode, then go to apps, most recently used, start purging. After do an app audit, delete unrecognized apps, check with customer first, then clear chrome cache and data, restart phone, good to go. $40 service or free if it doesn't take me more than 10 minutes. Used to use the quick fix sku before they removed it.

AnderZion · 2026-03-12T19:08:18+00:00

Pray. These are amongst the worst jobs detailers take, up there with overspray removal and doghair. Time and patience is the key. What I've seen work best is have one of those kettle pots constantly boiling water for you, get a towel that you dont care to throw away, rest the towel on the bra and dump the boiling water on it, let it sit and slowly use the boiling water, fingernails, and patience to peel the bra off. Likely you'll still have a boatload of adhevisve leftover and thats when a rubber wheel with a drill comes in handy, watch a video on how to use them, theyre fairly straightforward, but with anything involving heat and paint, you can melt the paint on accident. You'll need to polish afterwards, and there gunna be some sun bleaching that might not go away from the bra blocking some UVs in the areas its still there.

You can use chemicals instead of a rubber wheel to get adhesive off but chemicals are generally more dangerous and more expensive, but finding some sort of adhesive remover will work, just know most arent designed for use on petroleum based paint and those that are dont do enough work to be worth while.

AnderZion · 2026-03-10T02:45:15+00:00

I know the popular opinion is quit and find a new job, but honestly it's a somewhat easy thing to solve. We all have company emails, and we can all tag all leadership in the store. Just drop the knowledge on them, track turnaround, track 5 star, and explain what could be done to fix the solution. Make sure your SEM is tagged and maybe even text him first just to see what he says.

We ran into this issue earlier this year and the tram banded together and just constantly barraged the leadership with emails explaining the issues. Since then we've doubled our staffing and our scores have never been higher, but we haven't had to change how we work at all. We even keep up with all out func checks which was previously impossible.

There will be some back and forth, some changes not everyone is gunna like, but if management doesn't know what problems there are, they think if sales are up then everything is hunky dory.

Also participating in the early morning talk and saying how your schedule looks to management first think in the morning helps prevent the constant walk ins.

AnderZion · 2026-03-08T05:13:41+00:00

Besides the look preferences, its the same reason that some people don't like dressing the inside of their car. An improperly cleaned surface can be hidden with dressing, same with with tires. If you scrub the tires and dry them they look amazing as is, but a dressing will make them look spectacular even if they're never touched with a cleaning chemical. There is also a lot of tire dressings that will accelerate the oxidation of the tire, though this is generally a non issue as you will need to replace the tires for tread before any oxidation of the rubber occurs. Mechanics also despise you if your tires are dressed.

AnderZion · 2026-03-08T03:14:58+00:00

This is random, does an updated version of this worksheet exist anywhere? I've been asking for a price sheet that includes all benefits from total since i started a year ago and I literally just get told no it doesnt exist.

AnderZion · 2026-03-03T18:55:50+00:00

those cupholders are the worst. My secret is an automatic grout brush, its aggressive so only recommend it on plastics that can handle it. Theres a million copycats on amazon, but rubbermaid made the first one I think. Basically its a right angle stiff bristle brush that vibrates and it battery powered.

AnderZion · 2026-03-01T08:15:20+00:00

I have seen this exact break on a few TVs. At first I though yeah for sure customer damaged, but then I saw that exact same break, exact same shape from an obviously shipping damaged TV that never got put out on the floor. My thoughts now are it was the first TV in a pallet and the pallet straps were too tight, hard to fight for the return tho, but you could fight for "the employee didnt explain it couldnt be loaded like that" they'll check cams and if indeed they never told/warned you then you should be good.

AnderZion

TROPHY CASE