I noticed a few little paint chips on the hood of my brand new lightning. The guy at the dealer's body shop said that i could have him touch it up, or i could have the whole thing repainted. I have heard that once repainted, the paint starts to flake off after a while. Should I have him touch it up, or should I have him reapint the whole hood? Thanx in advance.

Justin

 

If the shop is good, you will never know it was painted. Is the dealer doing this free! If they are I am suprised. If this is stone damage. If you want I may be able to help prevent further damage W/ a clear strip of 3M film for the hood . Shoot me an e-mail if I can help. BL

 

Personally............ I'd leave it alone. I know way too much about automotive painting. Silver would be a nightmare to match. Not only do you have a hard time matching the color, you have to match the metallic also. Then..........Try to match the texture to the rest of the truck also. How can someone use the same gun and air pressure that the factory robots use ??? Some places would shoot the silver, shoot a clearcoat, then color sand & buff. Now you have a finish that is dead flat smooth on the hood, and the rest of the truck has slight orangepeel. Now your hood sticks out like a sore thumb............. Not to mention that I'd find it hard to believe that anyone is going to match the Silver paint.

It's up to you on what you decide. I've been around cars, trucks, diesel trucks & boats & painting for over 27 years. I can spot most wrecks/repairs/repaints from 20' away.

I'm not trying to discourage you, but want you to know what you're most likely looking forward to in re-painting or touching up the hood only.

 

Amen on matching Silver Been there done that, one of the best painters, atleast he said he was, repainted a door on my van. Looked good until I parked it at the mall. As usual, I parked waaay away, when I was leaving I spotted my van out in the corner of the lot and the van was silver but the door was gray! Either paint the whole truck or leave it alone

 

I don't know what type of shops you guys are dealing w/ but I to have been in the biz all my life! It is amazing what a profesional painter can do. I know a lot of them first hand. Yes trying to match metal flake or silver is hard i agree, but times have changed over the years & the equipment for painting & blend is super. Just another .02

 

I've never had a hard time matching the Ford YN silver. Now the YZ white...that's a different story.

 

Thanks for the advice! The chips in the hood are being repaired for free, as the truck is only 2 days old. The dealer is suposed to have a state of the art painting facility, and they said they can exactly match th color. I think I will give it a go with just the repair, and not the repaint.

 

If they're willing to paint it for free, maybe they'd be willing to take the hood off another one instead (assuming they have another silver one on the lot). Especially if you picked it up this way. Talk to MDSBort about his front bumper cover!

 

Anyone had trouble matching the black clearcoat that comes on Ls?