Body panel alignment issues

[Jeffola]

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[JWS]

Plastic alignment on the trunk lid is pretty good, about the best I've seen. The left Trunk over the lights looks a little low. May be the lip of the trunk, because the reflections on the bends look aligned. Trunk may still be a little low on the left up by the window.

Bumper on right is aligned on the outside, where it should be aligned with the quarter panel on the inside, like the left side, as the bumper is designed narrower than the quarter panels at the lights.

 

[Papaya]

I did turn the picture for you and point out the left corner of your trunk lit. I am not pointing at the poor quality of the roof installation at all. :doh:

 

[davekro]

I opened a case with Ford Motor Company and have an appointment on Friday at the body shop for them to take a look at the issues with the automobile. This morning when I was taking my garbage out I noticed that the top and back window are again crooked, after being repaired at the body shop last week. I'll post a photograph for everybody to take a look if you look at the bottom of the back window and the top of the roof you'll see that both dip on the left-hand side.

So after the fix, the window looked level to you. Then several days later the left side dropped to it's original (low) position? I'd be very curious if they are willing to say what they did to 'fix' it the first time. And the plan for the second.:frusty:

 

[JoeySD]

I wonder why Ford did away with all of their Quality Control staff ?? (I'm being sarcastic)

 

[JWS]

Most of the Fast Backs have a left side window drop and the Vert just didn't want to miss out on the action!

 

[JoeySD]

This just doesn't make sense for a $40k car !!!

Has anyone from Ford spoke up to address all of these body fitment concerns which still seem to be on going?

 

[unintelligible]

Here's the first goto

Holy crap, that is awful. What did they do, build & ship the car with the top down?? How do you miss that in QA? :doh:

 

[valentinoamoro]

Here's the first goto

No kidding. That is disgusting, its like a clown car with that window.
I just got my car back from Ford bodyshop. The dealer fixed the passenger fender out of alignment issue to my satisfaction - this was the worst part. There is still a moderate gap in the left side of the trunk lid (but its more even now) where it meets the rear haunches/rear quarter panel and not sure if they forgot to fix the gas cap protruding slightly.

My hood still has that slight raised right and left side (center is aligned) but its much better after I tweaked the knobs under the hood - def nothing that stands out and not much can be done anymore other than major surgery (which the body shop and I dont want to do) as the stoppers are at their min settings. I'm also lucky my rear window/backup light is fine and the doors are pretty much fine (VERY slight differences in gap between right and left).

According to my dealer Ford regional engineering rep (they work with him) is dealing with a crises here in the Pacific NW on the Mustangs - they have had a FLOOD of complaints from clients about body alignment issues and a ton of missed sales because of that. They said out of ALL the Mustangs they've received, only one (a Vert) was perfectly aligned. Apparently the dealers are pissed and Ford is aware of that - but the tooling is not upto snuff as the S550 is way more complex from a design perspective than the S197 (which had the same issues but it just didnt show as it was more slab-sided) and their robots/hand assembled parts cannot maintain the correct tolerances. I dont know what their solution is.

 

[Papaya]

You can't post here in the forum that Mustangs have an issue. There are members who put us who have these issues in a corner to point us out as "the bad guys who only like to make the Mustang / Ford look bad". IMO we don't need to point that out. Ford did it on their own. I got right away an appointment for the body shop and Ford Service did give me a CASE number right away. Ford knows that there are issues. My 2cent.

 

[valentinoamoro]

You can't post here in the forum that Mustangs have an issue. There are members who put us who have these issues in a corner to point us out as "the bad guys who only like to make the Mustang / Ford look bad". IMO we don't need to point that out. Ford did it on their own. I got right away an appointment for the body shop and Ford Service did give me a CASE number right away. Ford knows that there are issues. My 2cent.

Who cares about those guys - I am enjoying my Stang greatly and love the car. But I'm not some blind loyalist who will follow the leader off the dark precipice. The body panel alignment is clearly an issue with the majority of these cars (not based on forum comments but also on my personal experience looking at over 30 S550's on lots and the dealers comments). Thats a fact and its not acceptable on any car, esp with 15K Toyota's coming perfectly aligned.

However, Ford is working with me here and the car is nearly dialed in to my satisfaction - if they were to do nothing further on my car I'd be 90% satisfied with the alignment. However, many people with problems that cannot be easily adjusted away (like the rear glass etc) unlike the hood and fenders are now having to live with a 40+K purchase with glaring issues - and Ford needs to address this ASAP and make it right for all its customers. That convertible rear glass in the prior photo is DISGUSTING.

 

[Sixth]

my district manager and service department at the dealer i picked my 15 up said...thanks for your money...now fuck off...

 

[tsunami]

"Convertibles don't seem to have the multiple fitment problem that the hard tops have"... The verts have a completely different designed rear-end. So the computer jigs must be different for them. I know that they didn't start assembly until a couple of months after the hard tops. Are the convertibles run through a completely separate assembly-jig line from the hard tops? That might explain why I have seen members only comment about soft-top problems, not panel problems. Fusions seem to be coming through Flat Rock without too many problems (different jigs).
A Forum member commented that Ford has finally realized that the complex shape has made it nearly impossible for Ford to get the fitment tolerances down to acceptable levels. My vert has been held for nearly a month...I hope that the hold has been only for the 'firewall' problem. If the car arrives in decent shape, I guess the long wait will be worth it.

 

[PonyGrrrl]

Thank you valentinoamoro. You are helping with trying to convince the doubters and some Ford "sales mgr" that there are only a handful of cars with problems".....that this is a REAL and big problem for Ford.

I was not full of it when I tried to point out what was going on...anybody with common sense could figure it out in time.

So, to those that enjoyed bashing me...since they had nothing intelligent to say and nothing else to do in life...wake the hell up and open your eyes and ears.

I agree 100%, EVERY Mustang on my dealers's lot had massive amounts of misalignment issues. I'm really not happy with my CSR, who hasn't even seen my car, siding with the lying Ford field engineer that mine is within tolerance. Every single panel on my car is crooked and my rear driver's side window isn't even on flush. When it stops raining I will take pictures of my panels and post them. I am not happy that they aren't fixing my car and I think it's ridiculous that I paid for a car with these issues. Is there anyone above the regional csr's we can talk to?

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