Body panel alignment issues

[davekro]

Sounds like I had better take ColoradoGT's advice and schedule a meet and greet with my dealers GM, so that If my convertible come sin with issues in mid March, I may have a 'slightly' better chance of getting remedies before accepting the car.

I will be near my (distant) dealer on Sunday so plan to stop in and inspect the 7 convertibles on their lot now. Would it be rare for a GM to be on site on a Sunday? I'll call tomorrow morning to see if this Sunday is a possibility for this GM meeting.

"IF" my dealer were to have someone really up on the current Mustang quality issues, might I ask for a particular title (sales mgr, service mgr, other), or just ask who here today knows the most about the new Mustangs and the current issues some of the cars are having? They may not be willing to share anything they may know (most likely). But I might be able to go on record that I have a concern about my ordered car, and what lengths are they willing to go to if it has significant panel alignment issues.

Sunnyvale Ford does not list a body shop on their website. I'll ask tomorrow. Not a warm fuzzy to send car to an outside body shop not super familiar with these issues. I wonder if they'd be willing to send one of their (not mine until fixed) cars to a local Ford dealer with a body shop??

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[cush]

Cush: did your body shop think about replacing the trunk striker bolts or replacing the washers with thicker ones to prevent them from 'oil canning'?

They replaced the bolts with ones that had larger heads. It prevents the washer from caving in.

 

[Jeffola]

After fix, drove it home and the bumper popped loose, driver side

I AM PISSED, I have a huge concern about the quality of this vehicle and its ability to keep itself together over time.

I just sent a letter to the dealer and want Ford involved. After waiting on this car for months and months I am growing weary of its quality over the long term.

:headbonk:

 

[MagneticA]

Just how widespread are these issues?? Let the forum know...

http://www.mustang6g.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17662

 

[PonyGrrrl]

I AM PISSED, I have a huge concern about the quality of this vehicle and its ability to keep itself together over time.

I just sent a letter to the dealer and want Ford involved. After waiting on this car for months and months I am growing weary of its quality over the long term.

:headbonk:

Where did you get yours? I see you're close by me, I am in Coral Springs too. Call Ford and take it over to Auto Nation Ford of Margate's collision center they are awesome.

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[Bay1Stang]

PonyGrrrl do you have before/after pictures anywhere? My trunk lid and rear glass is misaligned and debating if it's worth doing.

 

[PonyGrrrl]

Unfortunately, I don't have any pics before close up but I have pictures of the car before. The glass on mine is barely off, driver side is slightly lower, not noticeable or worth touching. The bumper had to be realigned, it was pushing in on the driver side rear fender and so far away from the passenger rear fender you could see the bracket the two panels are attached too. The right tail light was out too far and the left tail light was pushed too far in making the trunk look very crooked. The trunk was not touched, but either both fenders are slightly crooked or the trunk is, not very noticeable. I'm thinking about calling Ford tomorrow, I'm no very happy with the Ford field engineer stating everything is within tolerance otherwise and that's it, I could accept that if it was just one or two panels that were slightly off. I don't consider every panel, trunk, hood, doors, and rear glass within tolerance., coupled with the panels having a crappy press leaving creases in them. The engineers are covering their asses because it's obvious with these issues there is a design flaw somewhere in manufacturing and they should be fired for passing this shit off on customers. These cars shouldn't have been delivered to any of us with such obvious flaws. I've seen a few convertibles with none of the panel issues a lot of us have so it's not normal.


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[JWS]

I AM PISSED, I have a huge concern about the quality of this vehicle and its ability to keep itself together over time.

I just sent a letter to the dealer and want Ford involved. After waiting on this car for months and months I am growing weary of its quality over the long term.

:headbonk:

While I was waiting to pick-up my car, I looked at a couple on the lot. With the salesman present, I popped one like this back into place.

Don't know what can break on this, as I haven't pulled my bumper off yet to replace the rubber part that was dented in delivery.


Do you have the part no./size of the replacement bolts for your trunk?

At this point, my trunk lid pretty much stays where I've put it, but don't know if the linkage and struts will overpower it and move it back into the original location.

Bought a cheap digital caliper with depth gauge from Harbor Freight and will spend the next week measuring gaps and flushness against the specs.

 

[davekro]

"Bought a cheap digital caliper with depth gauge from Harbor Freight and will spend the next week measuring gaps and flushness against the specs."

Can you post a link to the caliper you bought? Hard to picture one that measures flushness. Also, the spec that you posted for one gap previously, is that the same for all hood , trunk etc. gaps?

 

[JWS]

Just a stick coming out the bottom of the caliper. Place the bottom of the caliper on one panel and the depth stick contacts the other panel. The gaps aren't that big for the caliper to rest on the highest panel. If the gap is bigger, use a measured shim and zero the device and subtract the thickness of the shim.

$20

http://www.harborfreight.com/6-in-digital-caliper-with-sae-and-metric-fractional-readings-68304.html

 

[davekro]

Just a stick coming out the bottom of the caliper. Place the bottom of the caliper on one panel and the depth stick contacts the other panel.

LOL,
I never noticed this feature of my analog caliper. I can see how this works well when the two panels meet on a flat surface. Learn something new every day! Thanks

 

[davekro]

Specs for hood to front bumper are 4.00 mm + or - 2.3 mm
Flushness is -0.75 mm + or - 2.3 mm

Mine is closer to the Max gap.

Problem is, you almost need to have the hood right up to the bumper for the creases to line up. Same deal on the trunk lid.

JWS,
Can you point us to where we might find the tolerances for other gaps like
front door to front fender and rear quarter panel
hood & trunk sides
Any other gaps we should check?

Thanks

 

[JWS]

Got them through my Dealer's body shop, after they contacted Ford Engineering in Dearborn, after issues were escalated from the Regional Ford CSR.

 

[Jeffola]

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.

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