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Oh, I'm so heart broken. I just picked my car up Monday and due to a heavy workload today is the first day I've been able to REALLY inspect my car.
I wash her up and get her all nice and clean again and start looking at the paint. On the trunk lid there are these diagonal lines that run from the front of the trunk lid to the back. They are almost parallel and make a V and meet in the middle. There are about 4-5 on each side of the trunk. Upon further inspection I find the roof, and hood have almost a matte finish to them. From 5-10 feet away the car looks beautiful, but get at the right angle/close enough and you can see it. It's almost like Ford left out a step in the paint process. The paint under the clearcoat just isn't shiney like a black clearcoat car should be. Like I said, it looks like a flat matte look to it.
So I take it back to Covert Ford and they bring the service manager out to see it. He says his dept. can't handle it so he puts me in touch with the paint/body shop they use to see what they can do about it. I take it over there and the manager there calls it "chemical fallout" or something like that from the plant. Basically while the car is on the assembly line all the dust, chemicals, pollutants, etc from the plant "settle" into the clearcoat. While he is inspecting my car he notices that the right front quarter panel has already been buffed out. It's a lot clearer than the rest of the car, but still not perfect. Also you can see all the swirl marks in it from the buffer. I called Covert back and they said they have not touched the car with a buffer, only washed and prepped it for delivery. They said it must have been done at Ford before it left.
The body shop said they would start by doing a 3 step process. I don't know much about this, so bear with me and I'll find out the specifics about it tomorrow. 1) Chemical bath. They use some sort of chemical compound that looks like clay and go over the whole car, then buff it out. This creates swirls on the car so 2) They polish the paint, and finally 3) Wax it 2-3 times to get the final finish like it's supposed to be from Ford. They said this should work, but they have seen one other case (black GT) where it was so bad they had to repaint the whole car. This brings me to my worst fear.
What are my options if they have to repaint my whole car? I'm not sure I want that done, because it feels like to me the car will be "tainted" in some way. It's almost like after a car has been wrecked and fixed, it's never the same. I would want Ford to give me a new car, but I know that's not realistic. Do I have any other options? Or am I just stuck with a new paint job if that's what it comes to?
I'm in the Austin area and can't get into the body shop until the 23rd if anyone wants to see the car before then or can help me in any way. Also for all you Austin folks, Covert Hutto has been super about this. They just told me to let them know when the work is being done and they will have a loner car waiting for me. They are bending over backwards (at least right now) trying to help me. But then again, they should.
Sorry so long. And yes, the smile has been wiped off my face. I still love my car though!
I wash her up and get her all nice and clean again and start looking at the paint. On the trunk lid there are these diagonal lines that run from the front of the trunk lid to the back. They are almost parallel and make a V and meet in the middle. There are about 4-5 on each side of the trunk. Upon further inspection I find the roof, and hood have almost a matte finish to them. From 5-10 feet away the car looks beautiful, but get at the right angle/close enough and you can see it. It's almost like Ford left out a step in the paint process. The paint under the clearcoat just isn't shiney like a black clearcoat car should be. Like I said, it looks like a flat matte look to it.
So I take it back to Covert Ford and they bring the service manager out to see it. He says his dept. can't handle it so he puts me in touch with the paint/body shop they use to see what they can do about it. I take it over there and the manager there calls it "chemical fallout" or something like that from the plant. Basically while the car is on the assembly line all the dust, chemicals, pollutants, etc from the plant "settle" into the clearcoat. While he is inspecting my car he notices that the right front quarter panel has already been buffed out. It's a lot clearer than the rest of the car, but still not perfect. Also you can see all the swirl marks in it from the buffer. I called Covert back and they said they have not touched the car with a buffer, only washed and prepped it for delivery. They said it must have been done at Ford before it left.
The body shop said they would start by doing a 3 step process. I don't know much about this, so bear with me and I'll find out the specifics about it tomorrow. 1) Chemical bath. They use some sort of chemical compound that looks like clay and go over the whole car, then buff it out. This creates swirls on the car so 2) They polish the paint, and finally 3) Wax it 2-3 times to get the final finish like it's supposed to be from Ford. They said this should work, but they have seen one other case (black GT) where it was so bad they had to repaint the whole car. This brings me to my worst fear.
What are my options if they have to repaint my whole car? I'm not sure I want that done, because it feels like to me the car will be "tainted" in some way. It's almost like after a car has been wrecked and fixed, it's never the same. I would want Ford to give me a new car, but I know that's not realistic. Do I have any other options? Or am I just stuck with a new paint job if that's what it comes to?
I'm in the Austin area and can't get into the body shop until the 23rd if anyone wants to see the car before then or can help me in any way. Also for all you Austin folks, Covert Hutto has been super about this. They just told me to let them know when the work is being done and they will have a loner car waiting for me. They are bending over backwards (at least right now) trying to help me. But then again, they should.
Sorry so long. And yes, the smile has been wiped off my face. I still love my car though!