Seeking Advice regarding paint job on Blue

[Brother Mike]

I am the very fortunate owner of a 2003 MM in Pearl Blue in Dearborn, MI. Car has 74,000 miles and runs great. Sunday I had my detail guy give it a much needed restoration. He pointed out to me that I have areas on both the hood & roof when that paint has either spidered or is peeling. Today I took it to Demmer LM and was told that the paint problem was not covered under my extended waranty. :(

OK- I have filled out paperwork to meet with a Ford factory rep. If I get turned down ( and I think I will) should I just have the affected areas repainted or go the whole hog and do the complete car. I intend to drive this vehicle for at least another 4 years. Can anyone recommend a good paint shop in the Metro Det area for either option? How much should I spend for a quality repaint of the vehicle? Opinions and comments welcome

[RCSignals]

Some cars have experienced such problems with paint.
The trouble might be proving it's paint failure and not maintenance failure after 74,000 miles.

Maybe someone who has had Ford repaint the car can help.

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

My black marauder had the roof/hood/trunk repainted by Ford w/ 36 miles on it, according to my OASIS report. The repaint theyt did was not the greatest either -- they taped around emblems instead of removing them, and there are sanding scratches visible in the paint. LOL. So their repaint was worse than the factory paint (is that possible?) It's not "bad" looking to the untrained eye. You are SOL w/ Ford, there is no way they are going to cover paint after that many miles. It depends on how good the remaining paint is, whether or not to repaint the whole car. Also consider that if the horizontal surfaces have failed (they get more direct UV from the sunlight), the vertical panels may do the same further down the road. You'd think Ford knew how to make paint last more than 3 years by now.

[jgc61sr2002]

See what the Ford rep has to say.
A paint job can run as much as 8K.

[larryo340]

My black marauder had the roof/hood/trunk repainted by Ford w/ 36 miles on it, according to my OASIS report. The repaint theyt did was not the greatest either -- they taped around emblems instead of removing them, and there are sanding scratches visible in the paint. LOL. So their repaint was worse than the factory paint (is that possible?) It's not "bad" looking to the untrained eye. You are SOL w/ Ford, there is no way they are going to cover paint after that many miles. It depends on how good the remaining paint is, whether or not to repaint the whole car. Also consider that if the horizontal surfaces have failed (they get more direct UV from the sunlight), the vertical panels may do the same further down the road. You'd think Ford knew how to make paint last more than 3 years by now.
The paint on my '98 GM looks as good as when car was built. It seems the only bad paint jobs lately were on the Marauder. Go figure.:confused:

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

I was told that all of the early 03 Marauders were stored outside in Canada somewhere where acid rain due to industrial fallout ruined the paint on the horizontal surfaces. This is why people are seeing clear coat defects only on hood/trunk/roof. Dark colors also show defects a lot more than light colors do.

[Zack]

Im sure even the worst looking blue still looks good!

[magindat]

Your real issue is color matching. It will be next to impossible to duplicate the blue pearl color. Furthermore, normal fading will be even more difficult to match. If you have it painted, paint the whole car. You can paint up to the doorjambs and hood and trunk openings without issue if the painter knows how to tape well!

Good luck.

[RCSignals]

I was told that all of the early 03 Marauders were stored outside in Canada somewhere where acid rain due to industrial fallout ruined the paint on the horizontal surfaces. This is why people are seeing clear coat defects only on hood/trunk/roof. Dark colors also show defects a lot more than light colors do.


I don't think they sat out for long in Canada.
Many Marauders did sit in the back of Dealer lots for a long time though, in the sun, rain, etc, with all sorts of grime build up. All hard on paint.

Some Dealers tended not to emphasise the Marauder at all, pushing CVs and GMs instead.

[RCSignals]

For the 2003 production run which began in the Spring of 2002 after a plant refit, I understand they had a new paint facility at STAP.
You'd think that would have meant better paint, but it didn't for all cars. If you open the doors, particularly rear doors, on some and look at the door sills in the corners you'll see areas where there was no colour applied at all, or a very thin coat. I suppose the automated system wasn't set up properly for correct paint coverage.
I think some of the clear coat failures have been because of application or mis-application, not necessarily paint quality itself.

[SC Cheesehead]

Im sure even the worst looking blue still looks good!


X2!! on that!

[JMan]

Im sure even the worst looking blue still looks good!

That one would be mine! But it still looks awesome with the flaws (Bug damage in front, splotches in the top panels' clearcoat and basic insundry scratches). I see a re-paint on it later in the year.

J

http://www.mercurymarauder.net/showcase/showimage.php?i=6510&c=3&userid=2862

http://www.mercurymarauder.net/showcase/files/2/8/6/2/blueX-MAS010.jpg