odiaz

It definitely is thin. I ut a car cover on my car over the winter and when I took it off, the trnk lid had marks on it from where the cover rested on the trunk lid, right by the rear spoiler. The hood was fine. I thought it was strange. I've tried to polish them out and cover it with wax but it only hides the problem temporarily. I'll show it to the dealer when I go for my next oil change in July, but I don't know if they'll do anything.

rogerwolfejr

Yes, I've definitely noticed a paint problem with the Mustang. About 1 month ago to the day, I purchased a new 2006 Mustang GT black on black, 5 speed, premium package, upgraded wheels, etc.... I loved the car from the moment I set my eyes on it. However, the 2nd night the car was home in the garage - under the fluorescent lights - I noticed that the paint did not look quite right. The more I looked, the more upset I got. The paint on the hood, fenders, doors, roof, trunk lid and spoiler all had scratches in them. These were not just any scratches, but the kind that when you run your finger over them, you can literally feel each scratch. I called the sales manager and he agreed to let me bring the car in to have his detailers clean the car and wax it. Their effort was unsuccessful, so the sales manager agreed to get me another car.

The next car came in and was identical, except that it did not have the upgraded wheels, but what did I care. The 2nd one had the 17" bullitt style wheels, which I've always liked and I knew I could just get a credit for the difference in invoices. Anyways, I told the dealership to not touch the car when they received it on the truck, since I didn't trust their detail people to clean it. So when the car arrived from another dealership, it was absolutely disgusting from dirt and grim all over it. The other dealership had obviously never cleaned the car. However, it only had 78 miles on the odometer and I took it home and washed it with Meguiar's premium concours car wash solution, then did the Meguiar's 3 step wax process on the car. I only used foam applicators to apply the wax, terry cloths to remove the wax and microfibre to actually shine the car to a high gloss. After all of this, the paint on the 2nd car looked much better than the 1st, but I did notice a deep round scratch that actually pushed downards towards the headlights about 6 inches. A truly bizarre looking scratch, since I don't have the faintest idea how that could have happened within 78 miles. Most importanly, the passenger side door had a deep chip in the paint to the metal about the size of the end of a pinky finger. However, this car really ran good. I mean it ran so much better than the other one that I fell in love with it. Strange, but true. So I called the sales manger and told him if is his body shop could fix the chip in the door I may take the car.

About a week later the repair to the paint was allegedly done and according to the dealership the car was now perfect. I picked up the car and took it home to look it over for the weekend, before I would agree to accept it. The car was pretty dirty and so I cleaned it again. However, when I cleaned it, I noticed that the paint on the passenger side door was a little coarse and the same was true with the paint on the fenders and hood and even the roof of the car a little bit. So I did the cleaner wax again, which helped a little. Then I applied Meguiar's scrach X to the car, which helped a little. Then I applied a Meguiar's crystal wax to the car - yes, it is the kind that says right on the bottle that it is the best wax in Meguiar's history. After all of that I could take the terry cloth and microfiber towel over most of the car and each towel would slide off the car's finish with almost no effort. This is exactly how it's supposed to be, except that the passenger side of the hood, the same side the chip in the door was on, still had some coarseness to the paint. I read the Meguiar's scratch x bottle and it says right on there, if it doesn't take out scratches, imperfections, impurities or anything that has bonded to the paint, then stop and take the car to a professional. So I examined the paint on the passenger side of the hood real closely and you could actually see not only fine scratches leading all the way around the antenna base, but also little small brown dots on the paint, like some kind of primer or clear coat overspray. No matter what I used, I could not get rid of these brown dots and the coarseness on that area of the car's paint would not go away. Mind you, the car now had about 150 miles on the odometer. Christ, this is newer than new. I'VE NEVER HAD SUCH A NEW CAR AND I AM WASHING AND WAXING THIS CAR MORE IN THE FIRST WEEK OF OWNERSHIP THAN ANY CAR THAT I HAVE EVER OWNED! MOREOVER, I WAS WAXING THIS CAR LIKE IT ALREADY HAD 60,000 MILES ON IT AND IT WAS 5 YEARS OLD! Sorry, I get so fired up telling this story!!! As if that isn't enough, the deep scratch I mentioned on the driver's side of the hood had somehow gotten worse and now when you ran your hand over it, you could feel the deepness of the scratch for about 6-8 inches and it showed up a lot under the lights. On top of that, whoever handled the car when it had the chip repaired at the dealership, somehow scratched the gear ship ****. On top of that, the dealership took the other dealership's sticker off the back of the car and the paint was now scratched there too.

After all of that, I was done with this excercise in frustration. I called the sales manager and expressed my frustration with the process and told him that I did not think they could ever deliver to me a black on black Mustang GT that would be acceptable. He understood and let me back out of the deal. So almost 1 month later to the day, yesterday in fact, I was able to get a full refund check for the amount I put down on the car. Of course, there still has to be lien release with the credit union and a few other loose ends, but for now that's it. I have told the sales manager to keep me posted when the '07s come in, since maybe Ford will have worked out there issues with the black paint. Also, they are supposed to have a new color called Alloy, which is supposed to be a gun metal or hard steel look, so maybe that will be another option to consider. Why? Because aside from the paint, I love the car. I know there are other cars out there that may have more of this or that and may even be faster, but let's face it, the new GT Mustangs are the coolest car out there and deliver more bang for the buck than anything else on the road. But Ford has to fix the paint problem. There is just no excuse that a brand new car in black should have any issues with the paint. Ford has been selling black cars since the Model A. However, as I've indicated, both of the black mustangs I had just could not be delivered or cleaned without unsightly scratches showing up all over the place.

Tres Wright

Wow! I consider myself pretty picky and I am very happy with the paint on my black '05. It looked great from the moment I got the car and I have had no quality issues with it. It seems like pretty durable paint to me. There are a couple of tiny nicks on the front, but that's normal for the mileage and all the freeway driving I do.

Bob D.

I don't know if the paint on my car is different because it is a Saleen, but having spent lots of time detailing the car I have found the quality of the paint to be excellent, and I think I have a pretty critical eye because I used to show cars in concours. Remember, wax is the sacrificial barrier between your paint and rest of the world, so keep a good coat on at all times, it can make the difference between pebbles sliding off or taking a divot out of your paint. The Meguiar's stuff mentioned above is great, but all synthetic, I prefer several coats of natural carnauba wax like zymol carbon or destiny; it will leave a deep warm shine and great protection for the paint.

Also, I agree 100% that on a brand new car you shouldn't have to fuss with the paint, and it is hard to know the exact problem w/o seeing and touching the paint, but if anybody else has the kind of coarseness rogerwolfejr described, it might be improved or eliminated by claying the paint with a product like Clay Magic. Just get some experienced help if you've never used clay before.