As you might have guessed from the title, I have a whole bunch of little (probably 1/16th of an inch) "cracks" or what looks like cracks in the paint on my hood, does this mean my paint it going to start peeling soon? Is there any way to fix this other than having the hood repainted?

Thanks for any and all info!

 

Can you take some close up pics and post 'em so we can see?

 

Sight unseen it sounds like clear coat failer but see if you can post a pic like stated about. Is it original paint?

 

I'll try to get a picture up soon, I can't find my camera and my phone doesn't take decent enough pictures to show.

 

Ok, the pictures aren't fantastic but they do show the cracks.

 

What is the year and model of the truck?
Is it the...2001 F150 Supercab Styleside Shortbed?

I believe I can easily tell from the pics what the problem is.
It is not anything that a "professional detailer" can correct.
I have seen these same "fingers" before and that is NOT a clear coat failure.
Ford (I believe) had some real bad primer problems and that is a failure from the bottom up!
From what I understand the ONLY thing you can do is strip it ALL off and completely repaint.

If anyone else has another opinion please feel free to chime in and help out.
I'm sorry to break the bad news to you so please don't shoot the messenger.

Take it to your local Ford $tealership ASAP and report, complain etc. and get 'em to correct it.
I am sure they are aware of this problem! If they give you "I ain't ever seen nuttin' like dat' before?"
...they are blowing smoke up your a$$! I have seen it on our trucks quite a few times!

Please, Please, Please let us know what they say!

 

Mine looks a little like that too. It's an 03 s-cab, Dark Shadow Gray. I don't think it has ever seen the inside of a garage it's entire life.

About a year ago I hit it with some Meg's Ultamate compound after claying it. 2 coats of Meg's Tech wax 2.0 and it is just starting to come back a little.

Merlin are you saying that Ford will cover paint that is 9 years old? If so I'm ready!

 

I'm not sure but it IS their fault. I'd like to know their "official" position.
Ford knows about this. It was caused by faulty primer on their paint line.
I would also like to know what they recommend to fix a problem they caused?
It WILL spread to ALL the paint on the entire vehicle. Not just the hood!

 

Mine only shows on the hood. My thought is because the hood is aluminum and the rest of the body is steel. Thing is with the DSG paint you have the sun on one side and the motor on the other, so it is probably the hottest piece of metal on the whole body.

Wadda ya think?

 

I would approach the service department and say...

I was told to bring this in to the $tealership you the service manager could look at my paint.

Even though you know what it is now (don't tell 'em) let them speak. See what they say.
What is FoMoCo's "official" position on a problem caused by their faulty primer on the paint line?

I truly do not know and would like to find out.

 

Yep, it's the 01 in my sig.

Man, that's exactly what I didn't want to hear >.< The weird part is, there's none of these "fingers" on any other part of pickup.

I'm probably not going to be able to get it to the $tealership any time soon because I'm heading off back to college tomorrow and can't afford the time to have them fart around with it.

Maybe over the summer I'll have our local bodyshop/paint guy take a look at it because I have over bodywork I need to have worked on.

Thanks for the info though, I can't believe Ford didn't catch the bad primer before they painted thousands of pickups =/

 

I'm not an end all authority on this but...

Look closely and let us know if you find any more?

 

I don't want to thread jack the OP.......but I have not seen this on any other part of the body. So IDK. Even the roof looks solid and the top of the fenders.

Guess I'll keep rubbing it out until the paint is gone and then deal with it, It is a work truck. Plus it might take a while to rub through with my Human D/A buffer (dual arms).

 

I tend to agree with a little bit of what everyone has stated. This is what I heard thru the grapevine: Ford used a 2 step process, base coat / clearcoat. The base is soft and only serves to establish the color. It has no gloss. The clear top coat offers the shine and protection. I have heard that this failure could be due to what Ford blended with the clear. It was not flexible enough to handle the expansion and contraction of the surface. So, when the surface heats up on a sunny day, the surface expanded (mostly the one's absorbing the most heat), but the clear, which was applied in a controlled enviroment was not going expand. The weak link in the process was the base coat which splits under the stress.

Without seeing your photos, my guess is the cracks look like a bunch of crows feet. You can compound, polish, wax or even show glaze and never fix the problem because their below the clearcoat. They could eventually work their way up to the surface, moisture will seep in and then you will begin to see the clear dry and flake away. The moisture can spead like cancer once it gets between the base and clear.

We had a 2000 Ford Taurus we bought new in 2000 and just sold in Sept. 2011. The Harvest Gold paint job was absolutely perfect. The first thing I did when we got the car was to polish and clay the surface in the direct sunlight of San Diego. I was pulling up a very nasty light brownish residue. I did this on the surface until their was no more residue coming up on the clay. Then I repolished it. The car never saw a garage and was outside 24/7 in San Diego, San Antonio, Maryland and Virginia. It was subjected to extreme heat and extreme winters with no failure. By the way, never used a wax on it either.

My train of thought...and this is only speculation but I think the clear was blended with Teflon in an attempt to create an even better clearcoat. Possibly a failed experiment.

I did a clients 2000 Mustang Cobra who happened to be a chemical engineer in the Navy. He knew enough to tell the dealership "NO" to their aftermarket paint protection and found out later that what he didn't want on his surface was already there from the factory. During the removal process we saw the same light brownish residue in the clay. After this was taken care of, he never saw any paint failure and was a regular showing his Mustang at the Knotts Berry Farm's - Fords Forever Car Show in Anaheim, Ca. Even had some favorable remarks from Steve Saleen when the car was shown with 56,000 miles on it.

 

I have the crows feet cracks on my roof and along the four doors just under the windows. It really sucks Ford should do a recall and repaint our trucks