Exterior Issues (Paint Imperfections, Panel Misalignment, etc)

[Delta1Seven]

I'm not the type of person to nitpick, but after every wash I feel I find another issue with my car. I do work as an auto detailer, so I strive for having my car looking pristine. Please forgive me for all the water spots, I just finished driving in the rain.

First off, my trunk. It seems the black decklid is offset to the right a bit. The other issue is it's rubbing against the bumper when I close it and I noticed it has worn off some of the paint. This will obviously be more noticeable when it wears more of the paint off.

Although it is hard to see in the image below, the bottom of my truck also rubs against my bumper as it closes and has scratched the clear coat the whole length of the decklid. This is easier to see in person; the camera doesn't like to pick it up.

Next up, the famous misalignment of panels. My worst one is the front right wheel well.

My left front wheel well. The wash mitt gets cought on this every single time...

The left side of my hood tapers out to a larger gap towards the front. The right side appears to be fine.

Now, the paint imperfections. I still don't understand what exactly is in this photo. It feels like a rubber material, that was painted over (It's those globs in the photo). I'm afraid it will peel off and take the paint from the quarter panel with it, or worse, rust.

Here's another paint imperfection. This glob is of a hard materiel, and isn't fully painted (hence the white coloring).

Now I've noticed a few of these spots on my car. They appear to be debris under the paint. I assume it was on the panel before it got sprayed. Here is the driver side door right behind the mirror.

And here is one of these spots on the bumper. I'm worry about burning this off as I polish or compound my car later down the road. I don't want to have any issues in the future.

If I go to the dealer, will they fix any of these issues? I'm concern they might only make them worse.

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[Iceman2733]

Well glad to see I am not the only one with paint issues. My car has quite a few you show especially the debris under the paint and some in clear coat. Dealership didn't seem too concern by it or even car and I have several when I say several I mean 3+ large runs on the car. The rear bumper my rear deck panel is doing the same thing to the bumper. Actually both my cars have done it my first 15 a lot worse than this one. I wish you luck I can't seem to get anyone local to care it seems if you didn't purchase the car from them they do not care about issues.


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[Delta1Seven]

Well glad to see I am not the only one with paint issues. My car has quite a few you show especially the debris under the paint and some in clear coat. Dealership didn't seem too concern by it or even car and I have several when I say several I mean 3+ large runs on the car. The rear bumper my rear deck panel is doing the same thing to the bumper. Actually both my cars have done it my first 15 a lot worse than this one. I wish you luck I can't seem to get anyone local to care it seems if you didn't purchase the car from them they do not care about issues.


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I'm hoping they do something. Like I mentioned, I'm an auto detailer, so things like this annoy me. When I bought it a few months ago, it was dark out and I checked the car briefly. I wasn't looking for paint imperfections or panel misalignments, I was mainly looking for scratches or dings/dents.

My sister had a 2013 Focus. It had 5K miles on it before it started to bog down and even stall out when accelerating from a stop (automatic trans btw). Ford did NOTHING. It took her months for them to buy the car back. At first they said it was normal operating conditions... I'm like, no, a car does not stall out or drop to 100RPM when you give it gas.

And you're on your second 2015? Was it like a lemon or something, or did you upgrade to a GT?

 

[ManBearPig]

Not that this will make you feel better or help much, but I do recognize the issue you have with the goop on the inside of the left rear fender. When I looked at cars before ordering mine, I noticed that same issue on about 6 cars on two different dealer lots. All the cars had build dates of late August or early September. I peeled it off one of them to see what it would look like and it didn't peel any paint off the quarter panel, just left a rough edge.


The trash in the paint is pretty standard I'm afraid. My car has a couple little spots like that. I wouldn't think of having it "fixed" though. Even the best body shop will never be able to make a repair as good as the original finish.


As to the trunk misalignment....that's probably the one thing I would actually have addressed. A good body shop should be able to align that. If it weren't digging into the paint Id probably leave it but it will probably just get worse if left alone.

 

[lok-red]

It's been just 2 weeks I had mine (2016 eco prem Guard build 08/15) and I already see a rust paint bubbling up at the edge where the driver side front fender meets the hood. I am in a dilemma whether to get it fixed from the dealer or leave it as it is, we can never get the same factory finish from any body shop. I will take a picture and upload it.

Apart from exterior body panels, I also see the panels in my interior door trim misaligned too, especially where the power windows control bezel meets the door trim, its not mating smoothly rather leaving a sharp edge, both on the passenger and driver side. Showed it to dealer, they ordered a new set of bezels, expecting it to resolve it. Also I hear slight rattle from the inside rear view window should get it sorted out.

 

[GT Pony]

First off, my trunk. It seems the black decklid is offset to the right a bit. The other issue is it's rubbing against the bumper when I close it and I noticed it has worn off some of the paint. This will obviously be more noticeable when it wears more of the paint off.

Although it is hard to see in the image below, the bottom of my truck also rubs against my bumper as it closes and has scratched the clear coat the whole length of the decklid. This is easier to see in person; the camera doesn't like to pick it up.

Your trunk lid latch needs to be adjusted to raise the trunk lid up slightly. My GT had some of the same issue going on (bottom of the trunk lid was rubbing on the top of the bumper), and moving the latch on the body side up a mm or two cured this problem. I buffed out the scuffs and they lucky all came out. My trunk lid closes much easier also after the adjustment.

Here's another paint imperfection. This glob is of a hard materiel, and isn't fully painted (hence the white coloring).

I had one of these also, and I carefully took an Xacto knife and cut off the plastic flashing, then used touch-up paint I got from the dealer to fix the paint. Buffed the touch-up after it dried a day, and it came out looking OK.

 

[SoCalTim]

My trunk does the exact same thing. I recently did a full 2 step correction on my DIB with a random orbital, and whilst I did my best to remove the marks on the top of the bumper, I could not achieve 100% correction.

I can live with it, not a big eye sore by any means, but I agree that it is very frustrating especially if you are into detailing your car and pay attention to these things.

 

[Faris14]

My 2016 Mustang GT has tons of these paint issues. It has over 15 debris under the paint and some in clear coat I guess. The car is two weeks old and the more I look, the more I find! Took the car to the dealership this morning and they took pictures and sent it to Ford because it's a warranty issue. They called me three hours later saying that they got the approval from ford to work on the car and fix it! I wonder if they can really fix it. What do you think guys? should I let them do it? My appointment on Thursday.

This is only one side!!! There are more in the front and other side.

Close look

 

[GT Pony]

They called me three hours later saying that they got the approval from ford to work on the car and fix it! I wonder if they can really fix it. What do you think guys? should I let them do it? My appointment on Thursday.

Before giving the go-ahead, I'd show whoever is going to attempt a fix every spot that you've found and have them tell you the method they plan on using to fix each spot.

 

[ironhorse]

Trunk alignment

Your trunk lid latch needs to be adjusted to raise the trunk lid up slightly. My GT had some of the same issue going on (bottom of the trunk lid was rubbing on the top of the bumper), and moving the latch on the body side up a mm or two cured this problem. I buffed out the scuffs and they lucky all came out. My trunk lid closes much easier also after the adjustment.

I have same trunk alignment issue with my trunk lid scratching the top of bumper. Great advice to raise the latch. Sounds like the right solution to fix the issue. Is it as easy as it looks? Any advice/tips to do this? Also, what did you use to buff/rub out the scratches and make it look better?

 

[Hogie]

I wouldn't count on the dealership making it any better. That color shows spots way worse than competition orange.

 

[ManBearPig]

While it does suck, I can almost guarantee you that if you have them try and fix it, your problems will get worse. To truly fix each of those areas that have trash in the paint, they will have to sand down the imperfection, spot in color, scuff and re-clear the whole panel. This leaves way too much room for error. The clear could peel later if they don't prep it properly, there will inevitably be sanding scratches or masking lines somewhere, and you'll have a brand new car with almost every panel having been repainted.

 

[ohbuckeyes]

My car had mis aligned panels, So bad in spots it rubbed the paint off on corners.
The dealer realigned them "as best as they could" and then used touch up paint on the corners.

It was good enough for me, but still isn't perfect

 

[Faris14]

Before giving the go-ahead, I'd show whoever is going to attempt a fix every spot that you've found and have them tell you the method they plan on using to fix each spot.

Honestly I don't know much about painting. I'll tell them to try to fix one spot first and see the results. I'm not sure if they're gonna be able to truly fix it. Please let me know if you have other suggestions. Should I tell them to replace the car!

 

[Faris14]

I wouldn't count on the dealership making it any better. That color shows spots way worse than competition orange.

I know and I'm not sure what I should do in this point.

While it does suck, I can almost guarantee you that if you have them try and fix it, your problems will get worse. To truly fix each of those areas that have trash in the paint, they will have to sand down the imperfection, spot in color, scuff and re-clear the whole panel. This leaves way too much room for error. The clear could peel later if they don't prep it properly, there will inevitably be sanding scratches or masking lines somewhere, and you'll have a brand new car with almost every panel having been repainted.

You're right I'm afraid they will mess it up. This is what they suggested to fix the paint imperfection. They said they will sand down all the spots and re-clear them. However, I'm not sure if this method would work and it wont make my problems worse. I'm not an expert in painting. What would you do if you were in my situation with a new car? Thanks for the response.

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