Boy, this reminds me of some stuff. This is going to be a long post. Just today, in my wife's '02 focus, I discovered a place for the first time where it looked like paint was applied with a fingernail polish brush. Don't know why I didn't see it before now, and we have owned it since new, so it had to be done while sitting on the dealer's lot to be sold. It's about 2" x 1/4". Also, her black paint has white streaks that look embedded in it running up the hood. Guess I am going to have to clay it, but i've never used any before. My '02 scab had the same paint over 2 pieces of tape problem and I got them to repaint it. There were also 2 spots on the door and bootom edge that were missed, and the dealer's painter missed them too when they got this. The biggest problem, though, was the paint on my hood was so thin that you could see the primer through it! It took a couple of months for me to see that, even though I looked it over carefully at the dealership (Very Carefully, because I bought a car in '88 that had acid rain spots and the dealer told me they would buff out, which they didn't and they repainted it twice and I still never had a like new paint job). The dealer offered to repaint my hood and I told him no, that I wanted a new hood painted from the factory (even though the robot took the day off when he did mine) and he told me none of them come painted so I was sol. Instead of taking a chace on them not preparing it right and stuff, I did argue enough to insist on getting a brand new hood for them to paint from scratch and got them to put on the repair ticket that the hood was replaced due to repainting and not due to an accident (noticed a couple of years later that the vin# on the hood of my '88 did not match the other vin#'s on my car, and I don't know why). Bottom line is, you are just about screwed if the paint isn't right once you buy it because of the near impossibility of getting it right, but the earlier you go back, the more likely it will match. Sorry for the long post, I just had to vent!

 

So any news from the dealer if they are going to do anything with you're paint and/or hood?

 

Sorry I wasn't clear on that. I got them to order and paint a new hood. The spot they missed on the side/door isn't really noticeable unless you look. He said they would fix that when I get ready. It's just never convienient to be without you truck for several days and the dealership is nearly an hour from the house. This was done last fall. Also, I just recently noticed where they made a couple of ?drips? on my area above my grill but below the hood. It's not a run. The ?drip is actually pliable and I could pull it off if i wanted to. It's got a couple of little wrinkles to it and there are 2 of them. It makes me think they put the hood on, and then painted it, but why would they do that? Seems like all the masking and risk of overspray wouldn't be worth it.

 

Excellent on getting them to repair the hood...

 

So the other day i headed over to the local ford dealership, FORD WEST. They fixed the pin stripe in no less than 2 minutes. As for my paint, the truck is at the body/paint shop to repair the cracking on the roof and what appears to be take under the clear coat or paint on the fender above the right front wheel. Good thing it is all being reaired under warranty. It went into the shop today and should be done by wednesday or thursday. Here are some pictures of the defects

 

Yeah, I have a few minor cracks in the gutter myself. Just not sure I want to mess with it under warranty or not... I don't like the thought of repainting my truck... My experiences with body shop paint is pretty bad and thus, I might just live with it and monitor it closely.

RP

 

RockPick,
The shop im having it done is not exactly at the FORD dealership. Its a local shop that ford puts their name behind. The place seems pretty good since its been there 15 years and when i went there, there was 4 hummers, 3 jaguars, 1 escalade, and like 8 BMW's. So i think im safe with quality. But if there is a mistake, my dad can really talk(He talked the sales man to bring down my truck from 19,100 to 15,900)