Napoleon85

I was cleaning the car up for a show yesterday and I noticed some NASTY dings on my front bumper and driver side front fender. I have no idea how I got these but they're nasty...

In this pic you can see the ding on the bumper, it's on the crease near the headlamp. You can also see the worst of the two in the upper right hand corner of the picture.


This pic is a closeup of the worst ding...


They are a bit hard to see resized, but you can view the full images at my picassa album at http://picasaweb.google.com/anthonyp2003/MustangDamage . I guess this is a hazard of actually driving the car ... but I'm still bummed to have this kind of damage with only 3500 miles on it

TPony

Can hardly tell. What I have done with my black stang is get some touch up paint, then once paint is completely dry, wet sand (3000 grit) , polish and wax to make it less noticeable.

Napoleon85

It's very noticeable in person ... did you check out the full resolution pics on picassa?

Is Grabber Blue touchup paint available? What did you use to polish it? This ding is pretty deep... I can see primer, would this still be a good approach? I'm tempted to take it to the dealership and claim that it just flaked off, which I'm not sure didn't happen. It's in a very odd place and very oddly shaped mark for it to be a rock. If a rock hit me there while driving down the road then I would expect to see a mark that extended lengthwise instead of an almost perfect circle perpendicular to the front of the car...

stangit9090

Not the dealerships fault you actually drive the car.

Just touch it up and deal with it. I cringe every time I see a nick on my bumper/hood, but that's why I keep a touch up pen in my glovebox.

2005Redfire6

You think those are dings? You'd have a heart attack if you saw my passenger side rear panel it looks like it went through hail. I'm in contact with a PDR guy as we speak...

Napoleon85

No, it's not their fault that I actually drive the car, but my point was that I feel the paint should be a bit more durable. I've driven cars that cost a third as much as this stang and never had dings like this within 3,500 miles. Also, part of my logic here is that if this were a rock that left these dings then it would have hit the bumper first. This ding is very small and is something I can live with, and would be fine if there were another ding this size or smaller. What bothers me is there is a very small ding followed by the paint flaking off all the way down to the primer. For a rock to hit the car hard enough to do that kind of damage you would think that I would have heard the impact but at no point do I ever recall the front end getting peppered by debris. The car sits in a garage when not being driven and I am extremely careful when driving to avoid being behind trucks or closely following people to prevent this from happening.

Maybe I'm just freaking out but if the paint is taking this kind of damage already then what is it going to look like in a few years?

In regards to the touch up paint/pens, can you guys that have had these work give me some recommendations as to what works, what doesn't, where to get it and what procedures to follow?

WildWes11

Dang that looks pretty bad might just have to sell the car and get another one :/ .... not ... truthfully it's not really that bad just need to get a paint and follow this : http://www.ehow.com/how_2083264_touch-up-car-paint.html

Napoleon85

You're right! I'll have to trade it in on a 5.0 I guess...

I still really don't know what touch up paint works and what doesn't though. I have seen some ****ty touch up jobs in my day and would rather have a ding than that. Should I go to the dealer or is Grabber Blue widely available at parts stores?

05 Mustang

touch up paint can be purchased at the dealer

WildWes11

Depending on how thorough and precise you are when you doing it or just don't do it at all, just leave it, or pay a body shop a some $$ and they will fix it, and if you trade it in considering how badly damaged the paint it would lower the trade in value by a lot.