guess i found out why ford uses pinstripes between the two tone colours on their trucks. i was over at the dealership yesterday having them order a new rear passenger door stripe because mine is on crooked. well, after i got to looking closer, i discovered the paint lines don't match from the doors to the fenders, or even between the front and rear doors! the pinstripes basically act to cover up this lack of detail refinement. shame on ford! a 36k+ plus truck and they can't even get the paint line straight from bumper to bumper!!

 

i am not too happy with how mine are on either...they aren't so much crooked but they start and stop randomly...in other words, one stops right at the wheel lip molding and the other is half an inch short of it....one reaches the end of the dooe and another goes around it. I was going to pull them off someday and replace them with something but haven't seen anything suitable yet.

as far as the paint...i'd cut them a little slack because they paint them knowing the cutline will be covered.

 

I am having one replaced tomorrow because it has persistent bubbles in it and it is on crooked.

 

logical,

i don't see any reason to cut ford slack over a raunchy paint job. these vehicle aren't inexpensive! what is even worse is my neighbors cheap *** tercel has a better paint job than either of my two s-crews...

 

I've got the same problem with the stripes not fitting right around the rear fender well. On one side it stops way short and on the other it is way too long.

I showed this to the salesman at the dealership when I picked it up and he shrugged it off. I agree, for the price we paid it ought to be right.

 

Troy-

I was speaking specifically to the less than perfect cutline between the bodycolor and the lower two tone trim color which by design gets covered with the tape. I have no idea how good or bad mine is because well, it is covered with tape. I agree that anything that shows should be perfect.

 

logical,

my pinstripes don't go completely around the edges of the doors. do yours? i bet if you look closely you'll see that yours don't either. that is where i discovered how horrendous the cut-line is...

 

Ya'll made me very worried about the perfection of my KR and i decided to really check out the taping. i was so pissed off about it while at the dealership today i voiced my opinion and they replaced all of the tape on my trunk having it rap around the doors....etc, etc....no more bubbles and the tape matches up smoothly. with the weather here in michigan i give it a month before it starts bubbling again though.

 

Hey guys,

My pinstripe really bites the big one too. I noticed it at the dealer when I picked it up but just couldn't nit pick it to death then. I noticed it the most when I washed it for the first time a couple of days after I brought the babe home.

I'm going back to the dealer tomorrow to get the remainder of my LT Wrangler AT/S tires installed and I will mention the stripe then. My bet is they will try and get me to accept it the way it is. I will let you know how it turns out though.

Yesterday, I noticed that on my passenger side rear door, at the end of the pinstripe and opposite the jamb, there is a bubble of clear coat. I was able to take my fingernail and pop the bubble but it was hard as a rock and so I was able to determine it was the clear coat that had run.

Man, the painting robots Ford is using must be on drugs or something. Either they need to fix what is wrong or the warranty claims are going to eat their lunch. I wonder if some of the bubbles under my stripes are from air or from too much clear coat that has started to run, maybe even paint runs?

I guess the dealership will fix almost anything we complain about that is obviously wrong, it's just the inconvenience factor plus the loss of quality perception that owners will develop.

Hey Skagel,
Did your Mom buy the screw tonight? What about your sister, is she too going to buy a screw? Are any of them interested in the KR screws? If this all works out, your whole family is going to get screwed, "A".


My $0.02

DaveMan

 

Daveman,

yes, my mom ordered herself a white lariat screw. she didn't want the KR. My father always bought white cars and trucks. Infact my mom has 6 count them 6 cars and trucks that are all white sitting in her 12 car garage. yeap that is right 12 car garage. they bought a garage that happened to have a house attached. Guess that explains why a 26 year old single chick owns three cars and a truck.

My sister didn't come with us, but i am taking her down next week to check them out. I think she is looking at a Ranger. She's a blond who depends on her big sister to change her oil so i think she might be an easier sell on th screw then mom was on the KR.

Mom wanted a special package that is available late in the 2002 model year so it may be a couple months before i you see her baby posted in my gallery. oh yeah i have one now with a bunch of pictures of Thomas

 

Skagel,

When you are you going to create your signature, or are you interested in such piddly stuff? If you do, then you can put Thomas's best side on the cover and post all his best specifications there too. Did you ever figure out how to put a link in your signature or the body of your text to your photo gallery? I also put my link to my gallery in my signature so people could just go there with one click!

Did you see my latest on the KR trip thread? Check it out and reply if you want to.

Talk later,

DaveMan

 

skagel, couple questions: when i was at the dealership the other day, the body man told me that he had to order my pinstripe, and that they came pre-cut to fit the door. is he full of sh_t? it sounds like yours weren't pre-cut? did your dealership put on the exact sames ones that came with the truck, or something slightly different? thanks...

 

Troy,

Good observation, I thought the same thing myself. The dealer must have used something different or at least very similar 'cause what you said seems right. Every part on the truck probably has it's own part number and therefore would be made to whatever the drawing calls out for that part number.

Sad to hear things are not going perfect for your truck. I was looking yesterday at some of your posts and threads and the first couple of days of ownership were great. Several days after ownership you were createing threads that were starting to question the quality of your new '02 truck .

Oh BTW, I forgot to mention that during the first wash of my truck, I found several pieces of masking tape on the bottom edges of the front fenders and front doors. It looked like someone just was not very thourough in making sure all the tape was removed as one would expect. I'm shaking my head while typing, want to figure out what I'm saying too!!

My '00 Scab 4x4 had narry one flaw and I drove it for nearly two years and never went to dealer for the slightest little issue.

Oh where oh where has my quality gone, oh where oh where can it be..........hey, sounds like we can make a song here!


DaveMan

 

daveman,

i'm still very pleased with the truck. and, overall the paint job on my kr is much better than the one on the xlt i traded in. other than the hidden cut-line two tone issue i've mentioned, the truck seems to be without other paint flaws. as far as i can tell, the interior is perfect. it would just be nice to see a little more attention to detail from ford, especially on such an expensive vehicle!

btw, i can't believe how many compliments i've gotten on the kr. i only occasionally got a compliment on the silver/blue s-crew i traded in. imo, there is no denying that the kr does indeed look classier, richer than the xlt or lariat...

 

I am sorry to tell you guys that i didn't pay much attention to what they did to my truck. I was way to into my mom ordering her 2002 screw lariat. And the salesman i use i was referred to by a family who buys on average 4 trucks from him a year. And we are talking Expeditions, Lightenings, and Lariats not Rangers so i know he is taking very good care of me. That and the fact that my family is working on a third truck purchase from him in the last two months alone. but it looks like the same tape to me.

Ya'll can inspect it in Texas.

Don't get me wrong i am just as **** as the next guy about my truck....heck i keep my vehicles in a climate controlled garage.....how is that for ****?