I've got a 98 F-150 with 80,000 miles... I've noticed for sometime what looked like countless small straight scratches in all different directions on both my hood, aswell as the top of both front fenders and the top of the cab (basically all the flat surfaces on the truck.) A friend of mine who is the service manager of a Mazda dealership looked at it said it was clearly cracks from where they sprayed the paint on too thick, and over time has cracked. Said he's had the same problem before on paint jobs at there dealership that they have had to repaint. With it being an 98 with 80,000 miles, do I have any chance at all of getting Ford to do anything at all about it, or am I pretty much fighting an uphill battle that's not going to go anywhere? The 'cracks' are all about a half inch long, and are literally present almost every single cubic 2-inch area on the hood and the top of the fender and cab. (There's probably well over 100 different 'cracks' on all of the flat surfaces on the truck, there just all over the place.) I've always polished and waxed the paint atleast a couple times a year since it was new. It may not be the case, but useing a clay bar here recently almost seemed to make it worse or bring out the cracks a little more. (It may be the flaws are just more noticeable now with the rest of it looking better.) Anyone else had this problem to this degree?

 

im pretty sure ford will not fix your paint. but goodluck...

 

has your truck ever had any repair/repaint work done to it? Sounds like a poorly applied repaint.

 

No, it's definately the original paint job. I've had it since it was new. I've polished and waxed it probably 8 to 10 times since it was new 5 years ago, so it's not really been neglected or anything at all.. Not to mention it's been washed weekly for the most part and kept in the garage!

 

My wife had a 1989 Sable that developed the dreaded clear coat peeling problem you may have noticed on similiar vintage Ford products. Although Ford would not repaint the car, they did give me a coupon for $1000 towards the purchase of a new Ford product. In other words, they gave me $1000 to get rid of the problem. Although, I really didn't want to get rid of the Sable, we waited 6 months until the coupon was about to expire and went car shopping. We negotiated a great deal on a new 1997 Taurus and when it was time to cough up the money, I handed them the $1000 coupon along with the remaining down payment. When they asked what it was, I told them it was as good as cash. They accepted the coupon and my wife drove home her new car.

 

I detailed my truck yesterday and noticed these cracks on the top of the cab and one on the hood. They look almost as if a razor cut them but they're cracks. Mainly in the ridges that are cut out on either side of the top. I have almost 35K miles on this '99, think I should go to the dealer with this? I bought the truck new as a demo 2 years ago, so it's still under warranty...for another 1,200 miles....

 

Absolutely.... If your under warranty, you should without any question get the affected areas repainted from the dealer... It's only going to get worse, and the defect is pretty obvious. Not much room for the dealer to say "they all do that."

 

Hey i've got the same paint condition 99% on the hood.
It looks like dull streaks goin from front to back length wise all like razor cuts going every wich way!
1997 f150 37k miles.
i got the truck used 3-1/2 years ago.From a ford dealership.So i don't know if it had been re-painted
I'm gonna get ahold of ford and see if there is a sad history of this cracking problem (i doubt if they would even admit to it)
but maybe if enough people bitch???

 

Yea, it's probably just a matter of who you get ahold of and what kind of mood there in that day! I've got a step mom that is just one of those people that tends to get her way with management if you know what I mean... (You know the type, the lady that's standing at the front complaining when you walk in, and is still there going at it an hour an half later when your leaving!) She got Ford to repaint her car a few years ago after it was about 4 years old with around 80,000 miles due to a problem with the clear coat peeling off. Ford better watch out, or i'm gonna give her the customer service number By the time she's done with them they'll be beggin to just let them paint the whole truck! lol

But anyways, sound like the problem is pretty common... The friend of mine that is a service manager of a Mazda dealership that told me about the problem said the bottom line is it's a defective paint job. He said the truth of the matter is it shouldn't make any difference it the car is 2 years old or 7 years old, it was just as defective from day one and will only get worse... At there dealership, if it was a Mazda they'd take care of it at no expense to the customer... For some reason I doubt Ford will be as willing to help!

 

GO TO FORD! GET IT FIXED! IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE!

I have just finished getting my truck totally repainted due to this problem. Ford paid for 3/4 of the paint job. Of couse the paint does not look as good as it did when it was new (repaints never do) but it is better than having all of those little cracks all over the place!

Here are the pics:
http://www.pbase.com/jeffl/painting_the_truck

They stripped my truck right down to the metal! The whole truck! Ford is aware of this problem, the body shop manager told me that he had several other black trucks come in with this problem. I have also seen it on white F150's as well, so it is not limited to black. He told me it is due to the paint being applied too thick. There was an explorer coming in the day after I picked mine up for a repaint due to cracking, so it is not only the F150's. I had to go to 5 different Ford dealers before I could get what I wanted.