65Raven65

Looked under the car yesterday and noticed the rear end housing and some of the brackets and welds are unpainted carbon steel. I dont drive my car in the rain, but I've noticed they are already starting to rust. Are all S197s like that? Seems kind of dumb not to shoot some paint on those parts at the plant.

Any thoughts?

65Raven65

I found this picture.

Lv XLR8N

to save a few bucks.

When I removed my exhaust to install my Roush, I papered off what I didn't want to have overspray on, and sprayed it myself. Just because I can't see it when the car is on the ground doesn't mean I dont know it has rust. lol

pascal

^^ Yep, money saving.

Same reason the 79/93 Mustangs were only 4 lug nut wheels...

65Raven65

Pascal, are the '05-'09s the same?

crescent_wrench

That's a joke.....and how much did they save on my car by not painting those areas? Rust looks great BTW!

7up

This reminds me of an airline company (American Airlines?) that, during one year in the late 1980s, removed a single olive from all their salads. Consequently, they saved about $40K that year.

Remove 1 olive = $40,000

So, to answer how much money they saved, is lots -- because I'm sure the Mustang wasn't the only vehicle in the Ford line which was short changed in terms of rust protection underspray.

It's the little things that add up to huge savings, especially in a down economy. And "Joe & Jane Consumer" wouldn't readily be aware of such a shortcoming -- which makes this type of Q.A. (or lack thereof) easy to bypass.

pascal

Yes sir.

Lv XLR8N

I think another forum brought this up, can't remember which, but they pointed out that they paint the f-150's rear diffs. Someone posted pictures too. lol

WeinerDog

Prolly because you can actually see them w/o a jack.

When I was having my decklid painted there was a Roush Stage 3 at the shop having the axle painted.