I read somewhere that I should use a "clay bar" on my L to pick up contaminants.

I'm following instructions to the letter, la de friggin da, and I can see it's picking up some crap, you know.

I fold it after each panel, doing it right (I hope), and after one panel, maybe I was doing some lower portion of the truck, I notice the bar has red on it! And no, my truck isn't white. Or black. Or silver.

What the hell? Am I rubbing too hard? If so, I would have seen red everywhere I used the thing.

Did they miss a little clearcoat, maybe?

These L's are clearcoated, right?

 

Sounds like they missed a little clear coat or had to re-shoot the panel. The clay bar is not that abrasive that its going to take paint with it. I do not think you can rub too hard, Ive used clay quite a bit. Call the dealer first thing.

 

ELKTAGAZ!

You're from Gilbert too? Gotta hook, baby.

 

I meant to say....

Gotta hook UP, baby.

 

Acoder,
Something sounds wrong--not on what you are doing, but with your truck. Not to alarm you, but there is no way you would be taking away the clear and going down to the paint. I have to tell you about an experience I had with our Dodge truck. When we bought it, brand new, I had new tires and wheels installed the next day--thank God! Because when they had it lifted up, I saw a little bit of masking tape on the bottom below the door. I looked at the piece of tape, grabbed it and low and behold there was paint overspray. Then crawled under the truck and there was lots of tape. Started looking in detail and the door, fender and hood had been repainted! Took it back to the dealer and they immediately let me take another brand new truck off the lot--no questions asked.
Sounds like part of your Lightning has been repainted. You need to determine if it has and if so, take it back to the dealer and tell them to get you another one. I am not 100% certain of the laws, but I believe there is a certain small dollar amount of body/paint work that a dealer can perform without having to disclose it to you, then once the damage is in excess of that amount, they must disclose it to you.
If you need help or have any more questions, let me know.

 

Fella..you got you a repaint! Demand another truck..or some beer and a few "table dance"...

 

Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I only noticed it while doing the clay bar on one section (or panel). I need to redo it and figure out the size of the section.

Seriously, will a dealer laugh if I say replace the pickup? They're balking now over a scratch that SOMEONE obviously tried to cover up w/ a front license plate bracket.

 

dude! your the guy with the license plate gig?...lol BULL****...tell them you want another truck or your lawyer will call them...that works 50 percent of the time...and you don't have to pay a lawyer! just look convincing when you talk your bull...i learned all of this in Tejas...lol

 

I use a clay bar about once a month and never seen anything like that and hope I never do. Talk to the sales manager and tell him you are pissed off to the point that you are considering to contacting a scum bag lawyer. It is the LAW that they inform you of any damage your truck has experianced during the build and delivery process.

------------------
K&N
downs Intake(piece of *****)
JL flip
Best ET: 13.266 @102.938
Best 60'1.910
Best Stock ET: 13.54@100.8
1.968 60'

 

It almost sounds like your picking up overspray that was on the truck from someplace. the original paint is a base/clear system. And if if was repaired, they usually do it the same way. For instance. If you had a scratch on the fender, they would.
1 repair scratch. (sand,primer,etc
2 apply base color/blend out on rest of fender.
3 apply a topcoat to entire fender (CLEAR)

So hopefully what your picking up is some slight overspray from the base red color on panels that were not properly covered. If you indeed are picking up red color from your paint, and it's not overspray .... then it's not a quality repair, and will turn pink with time.

If your in doubt about what is going on, try and find someone does. Surely you must know someone who knows someone who knows someone who is, or used to be auto body painter

------------------
Cars and Trucks are made to be driven. NOT worshiped

 

Acoder,
Yes absolutely you can get a new truck. I'm telling you when we bought our Dodge we had already signed all the paperwork and the truck had 250-300 miles on it when we took it back to the dealer. I had called the salesman, told him the truck was repainted and I want action. He called me right back and told me they could repaint--I stopped him before he could finish his sentence and I said no way, you are not repainting again--I don't want a new vehicle that has non factory paint. He said, then the other option is bring the truck back and we can get you another truck. I said, I'm on my way. We get there, he comes out with manager and the manager says, ok, why do you think the truck has been repainted? I was ready for a knock down drag down fight. I show him the first spot, then I go to show him another spot--he stopped me right then and there, raised his hands and says, yup, you're right it has been repainted. Let's get you another truck. We hit the lot and could not find the exact truck we wanted. I said how about a dealer transfer? They said if another dealer will part with a vehicle that you want, then sure. He said, go home since its late and come back in the morning and go ahead and still take this truck. Next day we came back, they did a dealer locate, the other dealer drove the truck over and we did the deal.

I need to see this truck this weekend and I can tell you how much of it has been repainted. You need to take action on this one.

 

I believe you're ok. i have seen this on both my previous car and my 2001 L. from what i understand, it's rail dust from shipment thru the train system. there maybe some information on the zaino web site. i always thought rail dust was red/maroon, like rust.

www.zainobros.com may have some info.

 

I had problems with spider cracks in the paint on a ford that I owned. I took it to the dealer to see if they would repaint it.
They used a tool, it looked like a pen, to measure how much paint was on the car. The tool was a magnet. It measured the resistance to pull it off the paint job. they told me the car had already been repainted, and not by them, since I bought the car used there was nothing I could do.
get your paint measured.

 

bigdaddy:
haven't heard from you for awhile - we met at McCafferty ford when you were getting the front end clunk fixed. how did it work out ? i traded my 2000 for a 2001, by the way - taoo many problems.

dave o
dsom16@earthlink.net

 

Rail dust ?,

I think Dave00L is onto something. That actually makes sense. I vote for rail dust.