Paint my hood, or no?

[mrjones]

I've got an 03, built in 06/02, with some spots on the hood. Most of the spots are the little white ones. The car sat for about 18mos before I bought it. My local dealer has agreed to paint the hood, but I'm wondering if I should let them do it. I've always worried about having one body panel painted and not the others. I'm also concerned with the front bumper cover. Bugs on it left ANY time cause spots that are not coming off. It looks as bad as my 120K mile Expedition.

Any tips, suggestions, or opinions?

[FordNut]

I had mine repainted after a couple of those big orange barrels jumped out in front of me. The re-painted hood looks fine. The barrels are dead.

[SouLRioT]

I had my hood repainted as well, no problems with it.

[Directedby]

i had hood repainted and it looks great. make sure they use a good body shop - it really comes down to that.

[RF Overlord]

I can't help you as far as having the hood repainted, but for the bugs on the bumper, the Bunny Lady does a lot of highway driving, so the Blackbird gets "bugged" a lot...I've found a good coat of wax keeps them from sticking as badly and from ruining the paint...I use Mothers CALIFORNIA GOLD® ORIGINAL FORMULA CARNAUBA CLEANER WAX...

[merc406]

Paint it... :up:

[Bigdogjim]

I've got an 03, built in 06/02, with some spots on the hood. Most of the spots are the little white ones. The car sat for about 18mos before I bought it. My local dealer has agreed to paint the hood, but I'm wondering if I should let them do it. I've always worried about having one body panel painted and not the others. I'm also concerned with the front bumper cover. Bugs on it left ANY time cause spots that are not coming off. It looks as bad as my 120K mile Expedition.

Any tips, suggestions, or opinions?

Little white spots? My car was full of them but, on the C pillar and sides. Paint on the hood, roof,& trunk was just very poor, thin, and no clearcoat to speak of. Get a sunny day and park the car with one side showing into the sun and sit on the ground a look very carefully at the side. I hope the white spots are not all over:mad: If they are on the side the whole car will need repainting. Mine took 5 weeks and cost $8,200. (under warrenty):)

Please look very closely at the sides please. If no spots take them up on the offer to repaint the hood:)

My Marauder was bulit on 8/13/02. I think it was the Aug. builds that had the most problems.

[mrjones]

Please look very closely at the sides please. If no spots take them up on the offer to repaint the hood:)

I haven't noticed any on the sides, or even on the roof or trunk, but I'm gonna check it closely before I take it in.

I think I'm gonna go ahead and let them paint it.

[Patrick]

I haven't noticed any on the sides, or even on the roof or trunk, but I'm gonna check it closely before I take it in.

I think I'm gonna go ahead and let them paint it.

I agree!!!

[JonW]

Does the dealership have it's own body shop, or do they out-source their body work? If they out-source it, ask if you have a choice as to where it goes. If not, check out the body shop they are going to send it to and see if they have a reputation for doing quality work.

[mrjones]

Does the dealership have it's own body shop,.

They have their own shop, and the manager of the body shop is an aquaintance through business. He seems to enjoy doing things right. The dealership just bought a new F750CC as a wrecker. The manager rigged the truck himself, including putting custom paint on the truck cab. It looks pretty good, and he's taken it to some shows, including a custom car show at our local drag track this weekend. Seeing someone take that amount of pride in their work gives me a little more confidence in getting the paint work done, it's just that I've seen so many bad paint jobs, or at least ones that don't match.

[67435animal]

I had mine repainted after a couple of those big orange barrels jumped out in front of me. The re-painted hood looks fine. The barrels are dead.

Agreed. Same here. But, go meet the painter and make sure he understands what you expect.

Bob

[Svashtar]

Agreed. Same here. But, go meet the painter and make sure he is clear what you expect.

Bob
Mine had the same problem on hood, roof and rear deck, and I actually posted a thread on it here last week and got some good advice. Found out 2 days later that the Service manager really did say to repaint the whole car. She told me the paint was thin, orange peeled, poorly applied, with a lousy clearcoat. She knew it wasn't right and said so upfront.

Turned out it was the _body shop manager_ who is affiliated with the dealer who said to try and sand and refinish first. Service manager thinks it is a mistake (and most of you agree with her), but the Body shop manager doesn't want to take the hit on the whole cost so wants to try this first. They gave me a loaner car, so fine with me. But I told the shop manager that if I saw any white specs I would want the repaint and the Service manager agreed with me.

I'm all for less expensive as long as it looks as good, but we'll see. If it's just a clearcoat problem then that makes sense, but the paint is clearly thin and poorly applied, and I don't see how doing anything with the clearcoat top finish will change that.

Good luck. You know, to help many of us out in the future, we should set up a poll of how many MM owners have had paint problems. It would also be interesting to see how many of those were from '03, and which months.

Mine was manufactured 10/23/02, but sat on the lot for 21 months before I bought it (marked as a Grand Marquis if you can believe that!) And this was in Marina CA about 1 mile from the ocean.

Thanks,

Norm