After anxiously waiting for my Tesla Model 3 (first day reservation holder), I proudly picked up my pearl white Model 3 and brought it home. After driving it for a few weeks, it became clear that I would need to take my care for a wash.

I have found with the pearl white that even a light drizzle or dusting of debris will cause the car to look extremely dirty. Then it hit me, how do I wash a brand new Tesla?

After driving my Honda for over 10 years, I was accustomed to finding a local, low cost, car wash and driving through. It was quick, cheap, and got the job done. But what would be best for my new Tesla?

Tesla discourages driving your new Model 3 through car washes. After doing some research, I learned that the Model 3 paint easily scratches, especially the pearl white. It quickly became clear that after 10 years of driving through a carwash, it was time to get the hose out and properly wash my Model 3 with the love and care it deserves.

Here’s the best process for washing your Tesla that I have found. It should take less than 45 minutes. I find it strikes a balance of getting a great looking finish while avoiding dreaded swirl marks. The products used are affordable and this process does not require an excessive amount of time and work.

When you wash your car make sure that the sun is not shining directly on to the car and that the body of the car is cool to the touch. Washing a hot car causes premature evaporation and water spots.
Remove all jewelry from your hands. Rings and watches have a tendency to rub against the car when you least expect it. Avoid wearing any clothing with metal buckles or zippers. They also like to rub and scratch cars when you are not paying attention.
Thoroughly wash two 5 gallon buckets and fill both buckets with water.
In one bucket insert a grit guard and add the car wash product to the bucket. This bucket will be your wash bucket.
Soak a wash mitt in the wash bucket.
In the other bucket with just water and no car wash product, insert the grit guard and washboard. This will be your rinse bucket.
Thoroughly rinse your car using a hose. Its best to use a stronger blast of water to loosen up some of the dirt. If you use an electric pressure washer, be careful not to use too much pressure.
Spray your tires and wheels with the cleaner. After the specified time (see packaging), use a wheel brush to gently scrub the tires and wheels.
Hose off the tires and wheels.
Soak your car again with the hose.
Use the soaked mitt and start washing from the top of the car. Wash the top of the car first as the dirtiest part of your car will be the bottom, and its ideal to not introduce dirt from the bottom of the car to the top.
Wash in horizontal lines and do it panel by panel. Remember to avoid circular motions, which cause swirls in the paint that are much easier to see at all angles as opposed to straight streaks that can usually only be seen at one specific angle making them much less noticeable.
When finishing one or two panels, place the wash mitt in the rinse bucket.
Never let the soapy water dry on the car. After washing a panel or two, hose off the soap.
When rinsing the mitt in the rinse bucket take the wash mitt and scrub it against the washboard to remove any trapped dirt. After rinsing, squeeze out the excess water from the mitt and reinsert the mitt in to the wash bucket.
Wash 1-2 panels and then rinse and repeat until the car is finished washing.
Using the drying chamois lightly pull the chamois over the surface of the car, from top to bottom to dry. Squeeze the water out of the chamois when it begins to get weighed down. Continue this process throughout the car body.
Use a separate microfiber towel to dry off the wheels and tires to prevent spotting. Use tire shine spray to get your tires looking new.
Scrub and rinse off your wash mitt and empty the buckets.
Enjoy your showroom shine!

The Recommended Car Wash Products That We Love

These products come recommended after hours of research and experimentation. While there may be better products on the market, the ones listed below are both affordable and effective for long term care of your car. Click on the links to get more information and pricing.

A 5 gallon bucket from Home Depot or Lowes. You will need a total of 2 buckets but car wash kit recommended below also comes with one bucket. If you don’t live by a Lowes or Home Depot, you can get these buckets on Amazon.

IMPORTANT! For the actual washing product kit get one of the following:

For any color car other than white and black cars get the Chemical Guys HOL132 Best Car Wash Bucket Kit with Dirt Trap, 16 fl. oz (11 Items): This works great on cars like James’ silver Model 3. It also comes with a bucket and grit guard so you won’t need to get the grit guard below.
If you drive a white car, get the Chemical Guys HOL204 White Car Care Kit (9 Items), 64 fl. oz: this is amazing on the pearl white paint on my Model 3. It does not come with a bucket or grit guard, so make sure to get 2 buckets and the grit guards listed below.
If you drive a black car, get the Chemical Guys HOL203 Black Car Care Kit (9 Items) which works wonders on Tim’s black obsidian Model 3. This kit does not come with a bucket or grit guard, so make sure to get 2 buckets and the grit guards listed below.

Chemical Guys GG-1010B Grit Guard Insert, Blue: insert this into the 5 gallon bucket that will be your wash bucket. This grit guard allows dirt to fall to the bottom of the bucket, keeping your wash mitts dirt and rock free.

Grit Guard The Insert with Washboard Combo Pack: This is the 2nd grit guard for your 2nd bucket, the rinse bucket; it has an angled piece that lets you rub the wash mitt to get the dirt off your mitt to prevent reapplying dirt on to your car and causing scratches.

Relentless Drive Ultimate Car Wash Mitt – 2 pack Extra Large Size – Premium Chenille Microfiber Wash Mitt: The perfect mitt for babying your car when you wash. Get the extra large size for more surface area to pull dust and dirt away and off of the surface of your car.

Mothers Wheel Brush: Use this to lightly brush your tires and wheels when cleaning them.

Best Wheel and Tire Cleaner on Amazon! – Safe for all Wheels and Rims – Works on Alloy Chrome Aluminum Clear-Coated Painted Polished and Plasti-Dipped Rim – Wheel Cleaner by CarGuys: Use this to spray on and clean your tires and wheels.

Tire Shine Spray – Best Tire Dressing Car Care Kit for Car Tires after a Car Wash – Car Detailing Kit for Wheels and Tires with included Tire Shine Applicator: Use this after you clean your tires to keep those tires looking sharp and shiny!

CleanTools 51149 The Absorber Synthetic Drying Chamois, 27″ x 17″: Instead of a drying towel, chamois works great. It’s been around for a long time and it is a tried and true method to dry your car. It leaves no lint and is very light on the car so there is far less of a chance of leaving scratches.

Why does Tesla paint seem to scratch so easily?

There has been much discussion on multiple online forums regarding Tesla paint quality and hardness and not just for the Model 3 but for many Teslas. Do a quick search and you will see that the Model S suffers from the same ailment.

When referring to paint in the article, I am referring to both the paint and clear coat that the manufacturer puts on your car. While I am no auto paint expert, I do work with paint for a lot of my other hobbies. From my experience and my research I know that paint takes time to properly cure. No matter what type of paint is used, the paint must be given time to cure or “dry” so that it can form a hard protective coating.

How long does it take for paint to cure? I’m not sure. But I do know that the paint on my Honda had a lot more time to cure than the paint on my Tesla.

If my Honda was imported, it had to leave the factory paint shop, go to a staging area to wait to get loaded onto a ship. From there my car was shipped across the ocean and then offloaded and sent to another staging area. Then who knows how long before that car gets transported to a dealership where it sat in a dealership lot for a time before it found its owner.

How does it work with Tesla? With all the Model 3 vehicles basically made to order, as soon as the car rolls off the factory floor (or tent floor), those vehicles may sit in a lot for a very short time before getting swooped up and sent for delivery. The time for the paint to cure for the Model 3 is measured in days rather than in months as was the case for my Honda.

Other proposed causes for the “bad” Tesla paint include government regulations, particularly California’s strict environmental laws and the theory that Tesla has just decided to use an inferior paint product. While none of these theories make a whole lot of sense to me, in the end it is probably going to be a multiple of factors.

But even if the problem with Teslas paint is something more than just cure time, we have to understand that no matter how hard and how thick the paint job, if you wash your car incorrectly and rub a cloth or sponge or fabric that had dirt and rocks in it, the dirt and rocks will beat the paint up almost every time.

When to wash a brand new Tesla Model 3

If you have ever had any paint and body work done to your car, you may remember being told not to wash the car for a month to allow the paint to fully cure. Assuming that your brand new Tesla Model 3 just rolled off the lot less than a week before you took delivery, I would recommend not washing your car for at least 3 to 4 weeks.

Even with proper technique you can end up scratching and swirling soft paint that has yet to fully cure with something as benign as a paper towel no matter what car it is.

How I wash my car

I consider myself a man who pays attention to the details, but I am not quite obsessive compulsive (OCD). For those OCD car care folks who are cringing at the fact that I washed my car before having it detailed and protected by some sort of coating like a ceramic coat, I will tell you that I am definitely researching different coating options.

In a future article I will cover the topics of different coatings, from clear bras to ceramic coatings. As of writing this article I am currently in the research stage with ceramic coating and I have found some great information and options to have this work done.

If you are like me and you want a clean and shiny car and you are not completely OCD about the finish, then I think the wash method outlined below is a great way to keep your car clean whether or not you get a ceramic coating.

After having had my Model 3 for about a month I was excited to get it back to a showroom shine and started researching the best way to wash my car. I quickly learned that the two bucket method of washing cars is a great balance of practicality and results.

Because I did not have hours each week to spend washing my car each week, I liked the two bucket method because it takes me about 45 minutes or less to get my car looking amazing and by using the recommended products with the two buckets you significantly decrease the chance of putting swirl marks and scratches into your new car.

Here is what I did. First, I purchased two orange 5 gallon buckets from Home Depot. Then after hours of research and speaking with other Tesla owners, I found that the car wash products that are listed above to be the best.

Once you have all your items together, you are ready to get started. Again, here’s the process in 20 steps that I listed above. It should take less than 45 minutes:

When you wash your car make sure that the sun is not shining directly on to the car and that the body of the car is cool to the touch. Washing a hot car causes premature evaporation and water spots.
Remove all jewelry from your hands. Rings and watches have a tendency to rub against the car when you least expect it. Avoid wearing any clothing with metal buckles or zippers. They also like to rub and scratch cars when you are not paying attention.
Thoroughly wash two 5 gallon buckets and fill both buckets with water.
In one bucket insert a grit guard and add the car wash product to the bucket. This bucket will be your wash bucket.
Soak a wash mitt in the wash bucket.
In the other bucket with just water and no car wash product, insert the grit guard and washboard. This will be your rinse bucket.
Thoroughly rinse your car using a hose. Its best to use a stronger blast of water to loosen up some of the dirt. If you use an electric pressure washer, be careful not to use too much pressure.
Spray your tires and wheels with the cleaner. After the specified time (see packaging), use a wheel brush to gently scrub the tires and wheels.
Hose off the tires and wheels.
Soak your car again with the hose.
Use the soaked mitt and start washing from the top of the car. Wash the top of the car first as the dirtiest part of your car will be the bottom, and its ideal to not introduce dirt from the bottom of the car to the top.
Wash in horizontal lines and do it panel by panel. Remember to avoid circular motions, which cause swirls in the paint that are much easier to see at all angles as opposed to straight streaks that can usually only be seen at one specific angle making them much less noticeable.
When finishing one or two panels, place the wash mitt in the rinse bucket.
Never let the soapy water dry on the car. After washing a panel or two, hose off the soap.
When rinsing the mitt in the rinse bucket take the wash mitt and scrub it against the washboard to remove any trapped dirt. After rinsing, squeeze out the excess water from the mitt and reinsert the mitt in to the wash bucket.
Wash 1-2 panels and then rinse and repeat until the car is finished washing.
Using the drying chamois lightly pull the chamois over the surface of the car, from top to bottom to dry. Squeeze the water out of the chamois when it begins to get weighed down. Continue this process throughout the car body.
Use a separate microfiber towel to dry off the wheels and tires to prevent spotting. Use tire shine spray to get your tires looking new.
Scrub and rinse off your wash mitt and empty the buckets.
Enjoy your showroom shine!