Dealing with rock chips

[AlloyPony]

So, since I started driving in 1995 I've lost track of how many vehicles I have owned. It's sort of a sickness. Lol. Mustangs, Camaros, a Challenger...Jeeps, pickups, etc. Maybe 25 vehicles or so altogether.

I have NEVER seen a car that has paint chips like this Mach 1. When I bought the car, it was a 1-owner and he cared for it really well, but, he did daily drive it for a while and the bumper, fenders, and hood looked like they had been driven through heavy shotgun fire. It was the craziest thing I've ever seen.

So, I spent a good amount of money last year and had the bumper, hood, and fenders painted. The car looked amazing. I put about 5,000 miles on it and the darn thing is chipping all over again. Bumper, hood, etc. has little white specs from chips showing all over the paint.

I had a '94 GT and a '01 GT, so same basic body style, and neither of them chipped like this. I'm wondering if the Azure Blue paint specifically is the problem? Is there something about that formula that just doesn't hold up well?

So I called around and got some quote for the clear protective film for the front. Prices were from $450 to $900. No thanks....I had the entire front painted for $900.

So... does anybody here have any suggestions? How can I keep the paint on this car from getting destroyed again?? (Not driving it isn't an option for me

[ab_mach1]

Yeah, they are just too **** proud of that clear protective film stuff. Even just doing the front bumper is too expensive lol.

I use Dr. ColorChip for mine. The paint I've gotten has always matched and it's pretty easy to put on, especially for those of us that don't have a steady hand. If your patient, you can use it to fill up deep chips too. I've order kits twice over the 7 years I've owned my Mach. I've always been satisfied with the results.

https://www.drcolorchip.com/

[311-420]

As paint ages it "dries out" and will chip easier. Doesn't matter how much of a garage queen the car is or has been. Stay far back from other cars on the highway and steer clear of gravel roads and that's about all you can do, besides pay $900 for a piece of plastic film I guess. If you had the front end repainted recently and it's already chipping, I would be inclined to think the job wasn't done to very high standards. But I'm no paint/body guy. Azure may just be a color that makes chips more visible.

[AlloyPony]

I've also considered a Colgan bra for the front that I could use during my weekly commute and then take it off for the weekend car shows. That would certainly do the trick, it would just be a pain to take the bra off and put it on again all the time.

Sigh..

I noticed that 3M had a clear spray film called "Paint Defender" that did exactly what I want, but it appears that they took it off the market a couple of years ago. I wonder why they pulled it?

[Big Ron]

If I remember correctly there was a 3 month problem with there being bad primer put on the hoods of our cars when built. Mine fell in the time period. I too had excessive amount of rock chips. When I had the front of mine repainted I told them of the primer problem and it was a lot more than the stated $900.00. Since then I have just driven slower. When I travel on the interstate now I stay right around 60 mph. This gives the rocks and bugs time to get out of the way. LOL So far so good. It has been about a year since repaint. No chips.

I wouldn't put the clear protective film on my car even if it was free.





Big Ron

[falcongtho3]

Pretty much a given on the '03s with original paint. There is a TSB out on the proper procedure to repaint the front end. Ford admitted there was a problem, just would help fix it.

[HAEG]

Originally Posted by falcongtho3

Pretty much a given on the '03s with original paint. There is a TSB out on the proper procedure to repaint the front end. Ford admitted there was a problem, just would help fix it.

Those Bass Turds

[DSG2003Mach1]

i had the 3m film put on my bumper and it lasted around 10 years. The front bumper is still in perfect shape some ~50k miles later. Id rather do that than pay $900 for paint every couple years

[AlloyPony]

So, I ended up taking the car to the lowest bidder. He covered the front bumper and edge of the hood with SolarGard Clearshield Pro film and charged me $450. It is nearly invisible...except that the Mach 1 has the hood decal that GTs don't and there was nothing he could do except cover up the lower half of the decal with the film. It would have been too difficult to cut the film to fit around the decal and make the edges all look nice. So, the end result is that 1/2 of my decal is matte and the other half appears glossy now.

But, like he said, I'd rather have a glossy looking decal than one beat all to heck by rock chips.

I wish I had done this the week after I had the front end painted. Sigh... live and learn.

[rich1]

My paint on the bumper was bad too. I took it to a real good paint shop here . They said the paint was not done correct from the factory . They did a perfect match that does not chip or crack for $500.

[bris09]

I just got mine back from having the front bumper painted (4th time since 04). This time though he said there was a poor repair done to the bumper and what ever they used was gooey. Said it was preventing the paint from properly sticking. He took it down to bare plastic and started over. I was quite intrigued about this "repair" as I have owned the car since it had 562 miles and the only thing ever done was chip repairs. He said he was intrigued as well since the cover was flawless under the goo. Painter said he added a flex agent that slows the drying of the paint to keep it flexible longer. Hopefully the paint sticks better this time.