we all know the paintwork on the tesla model 3 is not the most robust and you want to avoid causing
any damage when you clean it so in this video i'll show you how i clean my model 3 and why you
want to adopt a self-cleaning regime yourself and not trust others with the precious tesla model 3.
so i can go from this to this in about half an hour now i think it would take me longer if i was
to find somewhere to clean it drive it there wait for them to do the job and then drive it back then
do it myself the caveat to this though is that i do have my model 3 ceramic coated for those of
you that don't know what ceramic coating is is basically a layer of ceramic that gets added to
your car and it makes the surface a lot harder and more hydrophobic the idea is it should help
prevent micro scratches reduce stone chips and make the dirt a lot harder to stick to the surface
of your model 3. so a heavy rainstorm could actually end up cleaning your car for you you can
choose different standards of ceramic coat lasting from anything between two and five years i opted
for the five year option because that's going to last me a lot longer and it's a little bit thicker
when you first get it how this fits into my cleaning process is in theory once the water hits
the dirt it all flies off and makes cleaning a lot lot easier that's how i can get it done in about
half an hour the other huge bonus is you don't have to add any products at the end of cleaning
process there's no wax or ceramic wax that you add or polish it's just clean dry done the downside is
it's not cheap though it'll cost you anything between probably 700 and a thousand pounds
and they'll also probably add in a polishing process in there as well because if like me my
model 3 came with some micro scratches already on from when tesla had cleaned it in preparation for
delivery and if you put the ceramic coat on top of the micro scratches then they're going to stay
there because it seals them in so you need to remove all the micro scratches make the surface
completely perfect and then apply the ceramic coat so whether you choose a ceramic coat or not
is going to completely depend on your budget and realistically how much you care about your paint
work i'll show you some of the products i was using before i got my ceramic coat because i got
my ceramic coat in the february which would have been almost about six months after i got my car
they left the car looking good but probably didn't offer the same amount of protection
as a ceramic coat would also i'm not getting any money for recommending any of these products
it's just all the products i've found through research on youtube mainly looking at detailers
youtube channels because they're the ones that know how to best look after your car so the normal
process would be snow foam with a jet wash rinse it all off wash with car shampoo and emit rinse it
all off and then simply dry it all and that's me done because don't forget with the ceramic coat i
don't need to add a wax product at the end of it first of all then the snow foam process the idea
is the detergent is going to create a thick lavary foam all over your car that foam is going to cling
to the dirt and as it drops and drips off the car it takes all the dirt with it to create the foam
you're going to need a jet washer now i bought the karcher k2 which cost about 100 pounds and seems
to do the job absolutely fine with that setup i got a free sample bottle of car shampoo which came
like this and once i've used that i can now use that as my container to put my own snow foam in
which is pretty handy it comes with the nozzle so just make sure you get the right version and that
you get the nozzle included and then there you go you're good to go making your own snow foam
so the product i used before i got my ceramic coat was this which was built humber auto snow foam
researched through many detailer youtube channels and it seemed to do the trick really well it was
really great at cutting through all the grime and grease that you picked up from the road
and that's because it was very alkalotic it had a ph of 13. the problem is it will also strip
away my ceramic coat so if you've got a ceramic coat on your car make sure you're aiming for a
ph neutral snow foam so we're looking for around a ph of seven and because of that i swapped over
to this one which is valet pro you can see i need to order some more of it but this was supposedly
where it says on the bottle ph neutral formula um i've looked into i think the ph is actually eight
so it's not strictly ph neutral but it's as close as you're gonna get and this seems to do a much
better job of not removing any products that i might put on the car what i hadn't realized though
was that every time i was washing my car with the built hamburger product because it was alkalotic
it was actually washing away all the wax product or ceramic wax i'd applied last time
so each time i wash my car which is probably every couple of weeks it was like starting from afresh
and a lot of these products they're better to use over time and you kind of build up
the product as you go on and on so it might be worth switching to ph neutral snow foam anyway
even if you don't have a ceramic coat talking of wax products i used two before i got my carcinoma
coated one was auto gling aqua wax and this was really this is a lazy man's wax i'm not gonna
lie because you basically spray it on the car when your car is still wet and then you're effectively
drying off the car whilst you're waxing it and then you'll need to do a little bit of buffing
at the end and i just found this gave really nice feel to the model 3 as well as pretty good water
protection the other product i used was meguiar's ceramic wax which was promoted as giving your
model 3 a ceramic coating just one that didn't last as long as the one you paid a thousand pound
for it was a little bit trickier to use sometimes i put too much sometimes i put on too little but
once i got the hang of it it seemed to work really well the problem that i had with it was the fact
that you're meant to use it over time and if you use it frequently it builds up onto your car to
give that ceramic coating effect now because i was using built hammer auto foam ph 13 it was
stripping it away so it was like i was starting to fresh every single time i cleaned my car so
i don't think i ever really got the true effect of it now my mate started using it when he was
using the ph neutral snow foam and he started to get the ceramic cutting effect where you get the
water beading and it seemed to work really well as a product i just wish i'd discovered that before i
got my ceramic coating so those are the products that be added at the end of the final rinse
before you dry your calf completely now because i've got the ceramic coating i don't have to add
that because you don't add any of the products if you've got ceramic coating on your car
so the valet pro instructions are that you'll add 150 milliliters of product to one liter of fluid
which this container is 500 mils so you might actually end up using two of these depending
on the size of your car and put 75 million each then you're gonna snow foam the entire of the
model three let the foam really work into the dirt and grime and hopefully drip most of it off
your car don't leave it for more than 10 minutes and ideally you don't want to let dry completely
especially in direct sunlight in fact i think there's even a warning on the bottle so avoid
that if you can so the reason for the snow foam process is that it's a touchless clean and the
idea is that the dirt and grime will cling to the foam fall off before you even get near to rubbing
anything into the soft painterly tesla model 3 and that should prevent any micro scratches or swirls
appearing in your paintwork once it's had time to react to the grime then you're going to jet wash
it off now start panel at a time so you don't miss anything and start at the top and work your way
down so that all the dirt kind of runs off your car avoid putting the jet washer on any cameras
or sensors of your tesla model 3 and hopefully all the tougher dirt and grime is going to come off on
this process that didn't come off with the phone so in theory we pretty much have a clean car now
so as we rub it with our mitt we're not going to be rubbing anything into the soft paintwork of the
tesla model 3. you then put the car shampoo in one bucket mixing it with a jet washer because that'll
activate all the substances in the shampoo and make it nice and foamy the foam will act as a bit
of a lubricant on your model 3's paint surfaces and avoid any micro scratches appearing from any
residue that is left on the car that you might rub in so don't be afraid to squeeze it and get
all that foam out the mitt with the car shampoo i didn't do a huge amount of research i just bought
one that was ph neutral so if anyone's got any recommendations please let me know but the one i
went for was auto glim shampoo and conditioner because i'm worth it the reason for the two
buckets is in theory as i rinse in the second bucket all the dirt and ground should fall off
my mitt and not hang in the water and reduces the chance of me rubbing that into the paintwork of
the tesla by the book i should have a grit guard in the bottom of the rinse bucket but i don't
so shoot me so it's mitt into the wash bucket get loads of foam squeeze it onto your model 3 for the
lubricant into the rinse bucket squeeze out all the grime into the wash bucket rinse repeat rinse
repeat that's all you've got to do until you've got a lovely shiny tesla model 3. now i do panel
at a time because i've got a really bad memory i was a bad as a kid i used to put my lego products
somewhere and then forget where they were so i couldn't build them so i just start panel at a
time and then i can't lose track and miss a panel as i go along i also start the top of my model 3
because then hopefully any water is just going to drip down and generally the bottom is dirtier so
i'll save that till last once that's done i then rinse off again but this time i put my karcher
on the mix setting because i think that creates larger water droplets which is better at removing
the leftover foam and you're not looking to clean or blast any of the product off at this stage
and that's it then i finally go off and dry my car off now i have this product which is awesome
and it's basically a squeegee but this is great for cleaning and drying off the roof because it's
all glass you can run this over the surface really easily now i start off with just a normal window
or shower squeegee and then i managed to get this on amazon and does the trick you'll supposedly be
able to use this on paintwork as well but i don't miss that so i just use this on any of the glass
surfaces and it does the trick brilliantly then i go over all the paint surfaces with my poorer
quality microfiber cloth just to get the majority of the water off rinsing it out often again panel
at a time because i'll forget otherwise ideally you want to clean your tesla model 3 in overcast
weather because if you clean it in direct sunlight it's going to drive naturally and leave all those
ugly watermarks all over it if you have to clean your car in the sun like i did here make sure you
dry the side that's facing the sun first because that's gonna obviously dry the quickest once i've
took the majority of water off with the pour of microfiber cloth i then go over it with a better
quality one just to really get that shine out and put all those finishing touches to it and
no matter how hard i try the wing mirrors always insist on dropping water about a half an hour
after i finish cleaning my car all down the sides and then they dry and leave water marks anyway
if anyone's got a solution to this please tell me because i try and dry every time i'm
thinking maybe a hair dryer and then that's it i tuck my model 3 away so it can be nice dry
and shiny in my garage ready to be rained on the next day on my way to work in typical uk weather
i usually clean my car about two to three times a month it depends how much i've used it and
how dirty it is to be fair today it wasn't that dirty i was just doing it so i could demo how i
clean my model 3 for you guys the ceramic coats are based on if you wash your car once a week
so if you've got a ceramic the last three years it will probably also say or 150 washes so waxes
ceramic waxes and ceramic coats are going to help protect your model 3 soft paint work for a lot
longer the snow foam stage is going to remove all the dirt and grime that might get rubbed
into your paintwork and cause micro scratches avoid automatic car washes letting anyone wash
your car and even tesla service centers because if they don't apply the right process then that dirt
is going to be rubbed into your soft paint work and cause micro scratches on your tesla model 3.
follow that advice and it should mean you have a brighter shinier tesla model 3 forevermore
next week's video is going to be tips and tricks for driving your tesla model 3 in winter
hit subscribe if you don't want to miss that and i know it's only october but i've turned
the heating on in my house so in my eyes it's winter and also some of these tips and tricks are
going to be applicable now because we're getting those colder nights especially if your model 3 is
parked outside i'll never say no to a thumbs up so please hit that if you like this video
and also if you've got any friends with dirty cars feel free to share this video with them
because the tips and tricks don't apply just to tesla model 3s it will apply to
any dirty car that's all for now thank you for watching and i will see you again soon
you