Just wonderin' how you fellow F-150 owners would rate the quality of your truck's paint job. I'm talking about when you first bought it, and then how it's kept up over time and climatic changes. Is it smooth, glossy, deep and wet looking, or textured, rough, orange-peely, hazed, cracked, and dull, etc. There are lots of threads discussing which products to use to repair and protect the paint finish, but I wad hoping to get a better idea on how you would rate your truck's paint job and finish overall, and whether you think it's held up well over time. Knowing your truck's color and age would help as some show their age more easily than others.

 

I have a (see signature) that I took delivery of 23 mos. ago.

Since then it has been parked outside here in S. Fla. with lots of sun, heat, humidity and rain.

I "clayed" and waxed it immediately and have waxed it about every 4 mos. since using a random-orbital buffer for application only.

The paint is in excellent shape. And I'm confident it will remain so as long as I "care to care" for it.

As far as the quality of application... OK except for two or three "drip bumps" along the bottom of the tailgate and one on the buttom of the drivers door. I am (finally) planning to wet-sand them down prior to the next waxing.

Botton line: I am happy with my paints quality and condition.

XLT_D

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I got a 00 Deep Wedgewood Blue F-150 XLT EC.

When I rook delivery the paint was decent. Had orange peel though. I'll probably end up colorsanding my whole truck to try to get the orange peel off. Now, the paint actually sucks. I can see a lot of problems and my truck is only two years old! Spider webbings in the clear coat. Clearcoat chips off the base coat easily! Paint is TOO THIN! Paint was foggy but after hitting it with a rotary buffer that went away. It had to have been contaminates on the surface of the clearcoat.

Paint is decent but could be a lot better. We should get the people that paint Porches to paint our trucks. Talk about no orange peel!

 

No problems. Yeah, I have orange peel (-2 points)...that's it. Along with XceLenT Driver, I too clayed, polished and waxed with in the first week I had it. I clay her at least once a year. Truck will be 3 years old in April. Take a look in my gallery.

 

Better than average; not the best.
Debris under paint in bed.
Clearcoat drips at lower corners of tailgate and doors.

 

Mine looks great to me, and I used to paint cars for a living I just got through with a full foam pad buffing a month or so ago, and it looks smooth as glass. There are a couple of rough surfaces around the top of the cab behind the ext. cab windows, though. Overall a real nice application job, and it's holding up nicely. It gets washed and waxed on a regular basis, along with a clay bar job twice a year.,,,,,98

 

OK, someone needs to bring me up to speed on this "clay" thing.

I need to start working harder to preserve the paint on my current truck. I think I'll be keeping this one for a while after buying a new one every two years for the last eight years. As I posted in another thread, my 2001 black supercab actually has an area that is so thin I can see through to the primer. What gives? My '97 had a very large area - half of the roof - where I could clearly see through! On a positive note, I don't see any signs of peel on the '01. I love the look of the black paint, but it shows every imperfection and seems to scratch easily.

The other day while out fishing, my truck was targeted for termination by seagulls at the boat ramp. Talk about tough stuff to remove! Ended up scratching the paint the next day while trying to remove it. After a half hour with a little rubbing compound and a bunch of wax it still isn't too good. What the hell are those birds eating anyway!

Clem

 

A clay bar is a system that uses a wad of clay and a lubricant to remove contaminants from your paint. You can buy them at most auto parts stores, now. You spray the lubricant onto the paint, and skim the clay over the surface lightly. It's very effective for removing tree junk, and all other sorts of things that won't come off by washing alone. It leaves the surface very slick. Some guys with black trucks don't like them because they "can" drag dirt across the finish, but they work. You do have to make sure the finish is washed thoroughly to remove large dirt particles, though.,,,,98

 

You might want to get a pressure washer. I use one to wash vehicles. I throttle it down so the pressure is as low as it can go. I can then blow off baked on mud, tar, bird droppings, etc. Most of the stuff is off before I even touch my truck with a wash mitt. You may also want to put more soap in than normal if your truck is extra dirty.

For a clay bar I recommend Mothers Clay bar. Most of the other clay bars that I have tried are a very soft clay. They leave streaks behind and you really have to work the area over to get the contaminets off. I suggest you clay atleast once a year. I tend to do it 2 to 3 times a year though.

You should also invest in a good buffer. Works wonders! You'll be able to buff scratches down. Even if you can't get them out you will be able to make them less noticeable. Plus after claying and buffing your paint will be as smooth as glass.

If the paint is soo thin that you can see through it, then I would take it back to ford and make them repaint it. That will probably lead to problems later and on reduce your trucks value.

 

My truck is a Y2k Black 4x4

The application is poor: I have orange peel on the hood and tailgate ,along with some runs and drips on both doors.The right side of the bed (outside) in front of the taillight has something in the paint that is about 3mm in diameter...........

The durabilty of my paint is also not so good.........I have tons of rock chips (on the hood and along both sides).It seems like the paint is really soft, if I look at it wrong I have a new scratch........Why does Ford use a White Primer on their black vehicles???????

With that being said.........I love the way a clean black truck looks(I spent 3hrs on her yesterday)......however I don't see a new black truck in my driveway when My lease is up.......
I have yet to claybar this truck (actually I never clay barred any vehicle) but as soon as the weather straightens out (warms up) I am gonna give it a shot.
I typically give it a wax job once a month in the summer and try to get one more in in the fall before the rainy season hits and the first day it breaks 70 degrees in the spring(provided I don't have to work that day) it gets a waxing.Every washing is followed by a Meguiaars polishing (I have very hard water= water spots)

Black is a high maintanence color

 

My '97 had flawless paint.

My '99 had a couple of drips and rail dust damage (repainted under warranty)

My '01 has clearcoat drips under the lip of the hood, otherwise, the paint is good. Not as good as the '97, but still, it's good.

 

This is my first Ford vehicle ('00 SC, SB, XL, 4.2L, 5sp, Torreador Red exterior), and everything except the paint (and ocassional tricky shifting (synchros) issues), has been very good. The truck has ~16,000 miles on it, and has been painted 4 times: once for foggy/hazing paint on the roof and some caulking protruding from the bottom of passenger door, and 3 times for MAJOR chipping all over the truck (hundreds of chips from the hood to the quarter panels, and on the roof, around the windows, and on the tailgate). It must be the thinnest and/or the softest paint I've ever seen on a vehicle. The FMC factory rep has looked at the truck twice, and has done thickness testing and has taken digital pics to submit to the factory for review. The dealer/FMC have agreed to buy back my truck and sell me a '02 version of mine. It'll cost me ~$3K out of pocket (plus the balance I currently still have on the truck loan).

 

Overall quality, I would rate it average at best. The standard orange peel and very easily acid rained. But, comparing to other brands, I'd say Ford is about the same.

 

Be very careful, most of the time those little "drips" are not the clear or the base, but the "e-coat" that dripped down and then the surface primer, base coat and clear was applied.

Usually when someone decides to go "gag-gag" and wet sand these sort of defects, they end up very unhappy as the e-coat starts showing through.

Ketch

 

I have an 01 arazonia beige Supercrew , I went for a low maintainance color this time ... no orange peel , no spiderweb cracks , 1 or 2 drips in out of the way places unnoticeable , and 3or 4 places with grit in the clear coat/paint these too ar not noticeable .. I'll give it a 9 out of 10 ... now if I can just get the tar off behind the rear wheels , lots of road work going on around here right now.