Mobiusone stang

Hey guys

Every time I wash my car, I seem to find more and more problems lol. First question: the lower rocker panel seems to have come slightly undone, and I can see the white tabs that should locate it. It is the first picture below. I've tried to push it back into place, but nothing snaps or anything, and I am a little lost. Any tips?

Ok, next two pictures below... When I bought my car, It had a minor scrap on the lower rear quater panel. Nothing bad, but I wanted it fixed, and the Used Ford Dealer added it to the We owe you list when buying. They fixed it (not in the timeliest of manors but... ) and all was good. It has been over a month and a half now, and I just noticed the problem. The entire area repainted is orange peeled to HELL. I apologize for the picture quality, the first one is the repaired panel, and the second one is the passenger side. In normal conditions, it is not noticeable. But you can run your hand down from the gas filler cap to the lower quarter panel, and dang it is really bad. It puts the orange peel into orange peel haha. Now I am incredibly grateful that my used Ford Dealership did this for free. I am 100% certain they shipped it out to the cheapest repair shop, which is understandable. But my newedge was painted by Maaco (car guy nightmare) and there spot painting was a 1000 times better than this. I care so much about this car, and i dont see this orange peel paint as good work, and would never accept this work if I paid for it. Any advice on what I should do? I regret not seeing it sooner, but because of college and homework, I've been so swamped. I have also bugged them about so many problems with this car (things that should have been fixed before putting it on the market) that I am skeptical about going back. I am definitely not very confrontational. But in the end I know it was my fault for not checking when I first got it back. I have excuses, but in the end I just slipped up and messed up.

Thanks for any info/advice

cruisin5268d

You have a vehicle that is still under the bumper-bumper warranty. You should not tolerate unsatisfactory work - don't let those crooks get away with it.

If you can't get anywhere with them try contacting Deysha (FordService) on this forum to escalate things. Sometimes she can help move things along.

Mobiusone stang

I wouldnt stand for it at all! But it was free work done for me because of minor scraps by the previous owner. Thats why I'm at a loss as to what to do.

MADSCOTSMAN

Get ready for your mind to be blown. The small white clips that hold the rockers on are T - shaped with the top part of the "T" slid into the rocker (I believe from the front backwards) and the barb3d "leg" of the "T" pushing into mounting holes on the body of the car.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/100-Pcs-White-Plastic-Rivets-Fastener-Fender-Retainer-11-x-7mm-Fit-Hole-for-Car-/380999884087?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item58b55cdd37&vxp=mtr

The "barb" has most likely sheared off. Here is where the mind #$%^ comes in. This happened on the driver's side of my car and I brought it up when I was in for service. My service guy contacted Ford regarding the warranty coverage and Ford's process/solution is to replace the entire rocker because of a .0002 cent clip. So instead of sending out the cheap clip, they would rather pay the dealership $700ish bucks to repaint and replace the ENTIRE rocker. The body shop at my dealership is three steps below MAACO and I have had to bring every repair I've ever had done back at least 3-4 times so I wasn't going to let them repaint anything on my car. Service guy calls the body shop and asks him if we can look through his fasteners. I took the broken "T" top part over and found a replacement the same size in one of their many drawers and they gave it to me for free. Me and my service guy fished the broken barb3d "leg" of the "T" out of the body of the car and replaced it ourselves.


(didn't realize the word B A R B E D was offensive enough to get ****'d out in a post, had to use the 3 to make it show?!?!? WTF!?!?)

FordService

You should address both of these with your Ford Dealer, Mobiusone stang. Let me know what they say.

Thank you for the mention, cruisin5268d!

Deysha

Mobiusone stang

Thanks for the heads up madscotsman! I called and instead of service they gave me parts, so it looks like I'm doing the job myself! When you changed yours out, how did you go about doing so?

MADSCOTSMAN

I pried out on the rocker while my service guy fit his hands in to slide the clip on. if only ones is broke like mine was, having 2 people is the easiest way. If you remove the rocker you run the risk of breaking more tabs. He had to push the B A R B E D piece through the hole to get it to fall out as it was still in the hole blocking it off for the new piece.

Mobiusone stang

Alright sounds, well somewhat easy haha. How did you remove the leftover plastic clip on the body side (the other part that sheared off)? Getting the pointy side out sounds easy enough

MADSCOTSMAN

It either slides forward or backwards, I can't remember exactly. The slot in the rocker is sandwiched between the two layers of the top of "T", for some reason I want to say the fastener slides forward to come out, backwards to re-attach it to the rocker!?!