This article originally appeared on Business Insider.
A Cybertruck owner had his stainless-steel truck polished to a mirrored finish, which he says solved the vehicle’s oft-reported dust and fingerprint issues.
Tyson Garvin, a boating enthusiast from Joplin, Missouri, knew he wanted to polish his Cybertruck from the moment he preordered it nearly five years ago.
“When we ordered it on Tesla’s announcement day, I knew I was going to polish it that day,” Garvin told Business Insider in an interview.
Finally, after years of patiently waiting, Garvin got his truck in April. But after seeing it in person, he told BI, he wasn’t quite happy with the sight.
“I didn’t like it when I first got it,” he said. “It was actually very dirty when I picked it up. It was a very bad delivery experience. And just the look of it — the dull stainless steel isn’t evenly brushed.”
That’s when Garvin tapped Brylee Waits over in Neosho, Missouri, just south of Joplin.
Waits began a polishing business about three years ago. He named his company after what his former coworker used to refer to him as at his old job: The Polishing Guy.
Brylee Waits, right, and three of his employees. Brylee Waits via BI
“It just kind of grew from there,” Waits told BI. “It’s something that I could pass down to my kids, and we could live a lifestyle where I don’t have to struggle every day.”
Waits’ business mainly specializes in semi-trucks — not stainless-steel electric vehicles.
But Waits hates saying no, he said, so when Garvin approached him in early May at a local lifted-truck show and asked him to chrome out his Cybertruck, The Polishing Guy took the challenge.
“I wouldn’t say it was the hardest project,” Waits said. “I guess it was a tough project just because it’s never been done.”
Overall, Waits estimated that the job took about a week and 120 hours of work with three other employees.
Tyson Garvin takes a selfie off of his mirrored Cybertruck. Tyson Garvin via BI
Garvin told BI that the outcome was a vast improvement to his truck — not just aesthetically but also practically.
“It doesn’t have all the porous stainless steel that holds all the oil from your fingerprints,” he said, adding that bugs and dirt also made the truck hard to clean.
But with the polishing job, Garvin said the vehicle was much easier to maintain.
“The more you clean it, the shinier it gets,” Garvin said.
A Tesla spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment sent over the weekend.
After Garvin shared the finished product on social media on May 27, Waits told BI he received more than 60 inquiries about Cybertruck polishing jobs. He now has four trucks waiting to be polished.
A disco ball on wheels
Some skeptical commenters wondered whether the mirror finish would pose a road hazard. Garvin said he hadn’t run into any issues.
One of his concerns was that the headlights from a car behind him would reflect off the truck’s tailgate at night and give the appearance of another car facing that driver.
The rear of Garvin’s polished Cybertruck. Tyson Garvin via BI
Garvin told BI that, thankfully, the Cybertruck’s tailgate faces slightly downward toward the road. When his wife followed him while driving, Garvin said that all she could see was the ground’s reflection.
“There’s been a lot of talk on the internet from people saying whether someone could polish the Cybertruck or not,” Garvin said. “Most people said you couldn’t because of certain kinds of stainless steel used in the manufacturing process, but none of that mattered.
“They just didn’t know any better.”
