Aside from a few minor trim quibbles, my '04 has been flawless.

 

Quintin,

Just looking through your gallery and saw some pics of the Chattachoochee river. It would appear that you are very near where my girlfriend lives. Currently she lives in Johnson Mills lofts and she is attending Southern Union but plans on transfering to CSU in the fall. In fact I was just there last month for about one week while I was on spring break.

Small world

Ox

 

Is the wave in the middle . I work at a stamping plant and i asked tool & die about the wave at the top where the window frame is. He explained the process of the bending and strecthing that they are working on a better process. I left mine alone but the waves are very noticable when i look out my mirror. Also i Managed Dealer body shops for 8 years. If they are a modern shop useing the right tools the repair will be minamal to the avg eye. I have a shop here where i live i have had the unfortunate opportunity to use and there repair was outstanding. Remember the word is REPAIR . But they did such a fantastic job on my 03 150 i would say it was back to pre accendent condition.( my daughter was driving it ha ha ) If this 04 has a cituation it will go back to the same shop.

 

SoundPer4mance - I don't have the TSB offhand, but I'll get it for you when I go to pick my truck up from Capital Ford tommorow .. along with an update on how their work looks. I must confess that I'm a bit nervous about it right now.

 

I went to pick up my truck from the Capital Ford body shop in Raleigh yesterday. Unfortunately my worse nightmare came true. I brought my truck in to fix a cosmetic issue that is Ford's fault (wavy sheet metal on rear doors), and I get it back looking like pure shi-at.

The two new rear doors were both out of adjustment - you had to slam both to shut them, and when you opened them they "popped" open. There were severe scratches in the paint on the inside rim of both new rear doors. The molding on the outside just below the window in the rear corner of that window on each new door was not seated properly (they said that's how they fit ... i told him to go pull a new truck off the lot and show me that's how they fit on a new truck ... or how they fit before I dropped mine off). There was a scratch just below my right taillight that was not there before (to be fair there was a scratch below the left taillight that I take full credit for and it was there before). The "rock guard" paint/material on the bottom of the doors is smooth (almost rounded off) where it meets the rest of the door on the front doors, but on the two new rear doors there is a sharp line where the tape was just pulled off ... looks like crap and stands out like a sore thumb. And to top it off you can stand back and look and see a difference in color between the new rear door and the bed of my truck. You can't see it on the front doors because they blended it in ... but my problem is that the new door is noticeably lighter than the old color you'd have to blend my whole G-damn truck to fix it.

So I left my truck there and told them not to rush anything .. don't try and get my truck out fast to "keep the customer happy". I spent 30K on this truck, take your time and fix it right the first time. As you can tell I'm pretty friggin peaved ... it just goes to show that your vehicle will never be like new once you let a body shop (even one with a good rep) rip your vehicle apart.

So at this point I'm on hold. To make matters more unbearable ... my AirForce One CAI came in last Friday and is sitting helplessly in my garage just waiting to be installed ... painfully reminding me everyday how much I miss my baby. Now I'm in a Ford 500 with no gettyup power, until they get done massacring my truck.

 

Thats why from now on any body work I'm demanding be done by a body shop. I just don't think the majority of Ford dealerships are worth a two pennies when it comes to body work. My dealership muttled the heck out of my truck just when adding stuff and not fixing big things. If they can't do the small stuff....how they gonna do the big stuff? Best of luck to you, and don't let them drag it out too long though b/c you could go without the truck for another month. You'd be suprised for how long it will sit in the back while they "think on it". Thats when careless damage like scratches happen.

 

It's a bummer to read that they flubbed your fix.. Some folks just
don't get it . You would think from a word of mouth view of things
they would want to get it right the first time so people would speak highly of their work.... But then again when I brought my truck into my dealer for it's first oil change I had to crawl under it myself too wipe off the old oil from when they took off the filter,
( they couldn't even get that right ) I hope they get it right for ya
without making you wait too long .... good luck

 

Just so you guys are clear ... Capital Ford has their own body / paint shop (fairly large shop) ... very good reputation so I figured I would be ok. So this wasn't just the dealership ... it is a local body shop with a good rep that screwed my truck up.

 

Holy !@#$ you really got me freakin out right now. my truck is in the body shop for the exact same thing and they said they cant get the stuff off so they are putting on new skins. now im really worried. crap. if it comes back like yours im going to demand they fix it or give me a new truck.i hope my truck is alright.

 

Hi Mad ... I've heard that if you get a good body shop then you'll never know the difference. I'm at a good body shop and my truck is FUBAR ... perhaps I was just the exception to the rule, which is just my usual luck. I wish the best for yours, because it was very hard for me to contain myself and keep from choking the living daylights out of the guy that tried to deliver my truck back to me looking like buttcrack. I'd hate to see a wave of death-by-choking-the-living-crap-out of body shop ppl across the country ... but the fact is that if I don't do good work at my place of business (IBM) then I get fired and I think that ppl in the auto repair industry should be held to the same standards. Hell, my dad is a mechanic and has been for 35 years and he would never give somebody their vehicle back if it wasn't right.

Ok, I'm finally starting to feel some relief now that I've vented here a few times and to about a half dozen friends ... but seriously, good luck ...

 

I work a couple blocks away from where those pictures were taken; it's a nice place to get away from the rat race for an hour or so during lunch and clear my head. I was gonna see about getting an apartment in the 11th Street Lofts just up the way, until I found out how much they start at a month.

 

I FINALLY got my truck back yesterday afternoon after 5 1/2 weeks at the body shop. The doors are now in adjustment and the paint looks good, including the rock guard at the bottom of the door. The molding around the windows has been replaced and looks as it should.

Unfortunately I noticed this morning some scratches on the front bumper molding. I've washed this truck entirely by hand since I bought it and I am positive that what I now see wat not there before. First thing I'm going to do is wash the truck really good and look over everything ... because I thought I could see swirl marks in the clearcoat on the bed now.

So this is just a warning: never bring your baby in to a body shop if you can avoid it because they will do nothing but fudge it up. Maybe some people would not notice or care about some of these issues ... but I'll be damned if I'm gonna pay 30K for anything and not take maticulous care of it and be p.o.-d when somebody else does not treat it with that same respect ... especially the place that I bought it from.

Does anybody know how I can find out the name of the person that owns Capital Ford in Raleigh? I'm going to write a letter and send it up there and would like to have it addressed to the owner. Also, FMC is getting a letter and the BBB. Any other ideas out there?

 

Nope, just good luck and god bless. I'm going throught the same thing with mine except it's not b/c of wavy doors. Just swirl marks all over the truck when it was in to have deep scratches fixed. So far dealership is trying to say that swirl marks are normal and I'm being too picky. I should send RockPick in their to convince them of otherwise.

 

its owned by the micheal group, i will look for the actual name of a contact.

 

Tim Michael.