Mr. D

My 2016 GT came with over the roof stripes, & they have what looks like bad water spots only on the vinyl stripes. There are no water spots on the paint! I'm trying to figure out how to get them off! Any ideas? I'm going to try rubbing them out with tooth paste. I tried doing that & it largely disappeared, but I hope the vinyl doesn't look different where I used toothpaste!

Any ideas? I'm having to rub the water spots of the new vinyl with toothpaste!

jwog666

the stripes need a coat of wax, this will largely prevent water spots. we had to replace a set due to water spotting, and the stripe guy said to make sure to wax them.

Mr. D

The water spots came on a brand new Mustang with "over the top stripes"! None on the paint, but just on the vinyl stripes. Nothing would take them off until I tried toothpaste as a fine polishing compound. It seems to be working. I don't know if the dealer put them on or the factory. Evidently vinyl is far more susceptible to water spots than paint.

JimC

Those stripes are factory installed, not a dealer option. It's possible that in transport the stripes were spotted by rain, or the dealer cleaned the car and left it drying in the sun before delivery with water drops on the stripes.

Mr. D

I think cars have plastic on them from the time they leave the factory to the time they are delivered. There were no water spots at all on the paint, & they don't look like regular water spots. I wonder if something wasn't dropped on the stripes a long the way. THANKS TO FORD I had to spend a few hours using toothpaste as a fine rubbing compound to reduce the marks without hurting the stripes! I finally got it to the point it's not noticeable except a little out line of the water mark under florescent lighting. It's irritating to "pay extra" to Ford to give me a problem to deal with, but I don't want to take the chance of getting the stripes replaced & have even worse damage done to the car by a Ford body shop! As recommended by a poster I put a layer of wax on the stripes, but not the paint as it is new. Oh well, I stopped restoring cars because I get a little obsessive about everything staying perfect... & it doesn't!

Csrt4to5.0gt

Speaking of ford dealership body shops! My 2016 GT had a small paint chip on the rear bumper right about where the trunk meets it. It wasn't anything major so I had them fix it for me before I actually took delivery. I get the car back and everything looks fine until I get home and look the car over some more. I noticed the Windows all seemed fogged up and I couldn't wipe whatever it was off. Turns out they didn't give two ****s about protecting my cars paint as they fixed the paint chip. My whole car, including the Windows, were covered in clear coat overspray. I took my car to my own body guy and had him work his magic. He said it was everywhere and had I waited till spring I would've been screwed. He said that clear coat is like glue and sticks to everything. They put the rear bumper back on misaligned. My rear rotors also came back from the body shop all grooved up, the tail lights had the same overspray on them and the car shudders when pulling out from a stop. They had to realign the bumper, the tail lights were replaced and new rear brakes and rotors were put on. Now I just dropped my car off at a different dealer to have a new clutch put in all under warranty. I'm having a lot of issues with my car but I'm not blaming ford quality at all. I think someone at this independent body shop had some fun with my car and f'ed it up. Except for the paint chip, the car didn't have any of these issues during my test drive.