One of the many shocking aspects of Tesla’s viral Cybertruck is its paint — or, its lack thereof. Automotive detailers spend thousands of dollars and thousands of hours in the pursuit of providing drivers with a mirror-like finish on their car’s paint with dedicated detergents and polishes as well as dedicated equipment, but none of the tools used for detailing almost every single other car on the road work for the Tesla Cybertruck. Some owners report nasty fingerprints that linger, uneven tarnishing of exterior panels, and difficulty cleaning their trucks after mere days of ownership, but finally there’s a solution that may be under your sink right now.
After testing numerous different waterless washes, detail sprays, glass cleaners and even isopropyl alcohol, Coleton found that a combination of Bar Keeper’s Friend to lightly buff the surface followed by a liberal application of Windex produced the best results in cleaning off handprints, removing discoloration and tarnish, brightening the stainless steel body panels, and removing dirt, bugs, and other road grime.
My last landlord was very anal about how my roommates and I cleaned his stainless steel appliances, and he specifically requested that we only ever clean them using a Gleen Stainless Steel Cloth and water. In practice, the Gleen cloth cleaned our refrigerator well when paired with water, removing fingerprints while preserving the grain of the stainless steel refrigerator, so I wonder if this method would work well for Cybertrucks. Personal anecdote aside, here’s what Coleton learned from his time detailing a Cybertruck.
Step one was to wash the Cybertruck like you would any other car, using a pH-neutral car shampoo to remove surface dirt. After that wash is completed, tackle the truck in sections starting with a clean microfiber cloth, and applying liquid Bar Keeper’s Friend. After the section is coated in Bar Keeper’s Friend, get a clean cloth and start wiping that Bar Keeper’s Friend off using Windex, and voila. The combination of these two household cleaning products produces a sparkling Cybertruck that may blind you due to its reflectiveness as Coleton noted while cleaning the hood.
While this method seems abrasive, it also seems to work well to keep Tesla’s stainless steel alloy body panels clear from the fingerprints and tarnish which build up after only a couple days. The value of the Cybertruck’s unique body panels is yet to be determined in the real-world, but at least there’s now a remedy to keep these expensive rolling refrigerators shiny for your neighborhood hypebeasts to tweet about.
