Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General Question about paint:

I've got a black E1 SVT and i'm starting to experience problems with the paint. On the lower portion of the passenger doors, around and below the ding guards, i have some clear coat that is starting to separate from the paint and chip off. I have heard stories about paint problems on certain MY black svt's, but i can't remember which ones. Was this a recall? Or is it up to the owners to have this fixed. BTW, the car now has 50000 miles and is out of factory warranty. If anyone has any info on this please let me know. I did a search, but came up empty handed.

Thanks
rimmie

before this thread disappears...beuhler?

very interesting question youve got there.. im about to buy a black 98 svt contour myself, something i should pay attention to?

I think, don't hold me to this, but I think the warranty on the finish extends past the 3/36k.

It can't hurt to roll up to the dealership and inquire about it. Let us know what you find out, and good luck!

Unless I have missed something, paint warranty ends at 3yrs/36k also. My black paint looks like ass too : missing clearcoat, spider webs, swirls, scratches that refuse to respond to scratch remover. I washed the car twice yesterday and it looks like crap. It is actually embarassing me at the moment.

The 12yr old Kadett in my sig has better looking paint.

I understand a properly done respray is $3k - $5k which I am not going to do right now.

Next stop for me is probably Zaino. I hear nothing but good news about it.

Paint warranty is 3yr/36k miles. When I bought my car I noticed the same problem in the paint. There was white cracks all throughout the paint and it looked like ass. The car was had 38k miles on it so it was out of warranty. As part of the deal (after negotiating the price, hehe) I got the dealer to strip all the bad spots (about 80% of the car) to bare metal and repaint. Turned out great! They even did the front and rear bumpers for me because they were slightly chipped up from rocks! They didn't pay out of pocket for it, I noticed on my Oasis report they put down that the car had 35,xxx miles on so it would be covered by the factory warranty. Hey, whatever works! You can try talking to the dealer where you purchased your car and see if they can help you out. This is such a widespread problem there should have been some sort of recall on it. I don't know of ANY black contours/mystiques that have good paint. And before anyone chimes in to tell me otherwise, go outside and look CLOSELY at your paint. It's mostly noticeable after you wash the car.

So this was infact not a recall on the black cars is what i'm hearing. Well i guess i know what my extra money is going to this summer. I just find it a little funny that the clearcoat is peeling on a three and a half year old car. I owned a black '96 Ranger for 5 years and had absolutely no problems with the clear coat. I just hope the contour doesn't get progressively worse before i can sell it and buy my Lancer EVO next year . Thanks for all the help guys.

Cheers
Rimmie

Oh yeah, rachel, just pay close attention to the area right above the sideskirts and below the door ding guards. Those are the areas that are probably gonna give you trouble first. If it's peeling than maybe they'll knock of a little so you can have this fixed. I got my SVT on such a good deal that i can't complain. I just need it to get me through college until the EVO arrives.

no recall on the paint (yet) but my black SVT was also cracking on the hood, roof and trunk. Ford repainted it under factory warranty; defective paint was cited. It doesn't seem to be as durable as factory paint though; the rock chips on my hood are all the way to bare metal, and some of them are starting to rust.

If you're out of warranty there's not much you can do with Ford.

Somewhere in an earlier post this problem was attributed to bad paint job (paint too thick) which was then covered with clearcoat causing the clearcoat to crack after a few years, usually after the warranty had expired. Areas of the problem were mostly horizontal surfaces like roof, trunk and hood and maybe top of front bumper. Mine has cracking on all those areas except the hood. I had the dealer do an estimate for Ford and it came out to about $3500 but Ford wouldn't pay so I'll live with it until I get the money to have it repainted sometime in the future.

Karl