Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting My Paint :(

So its finally getting nice here in Syracuse, and so I spent Sunday cleaning up the Contour. So when I'm all done washing it and drying it, I look at it, and say to myself, "Man you did a crappy job". After looking at it closer I realize my wash job was just fine its the paint that's screwed up. It lloks like the paint is cracking, and the clear caot is coming off in places. There's even a couple places that have no paint on the hood. Man am I pissed. I've seen a couple of posts regarding bad paint, but was wondering what you guys have done about it, did anybody get the dealer to repaint it?

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tabish@bigfoot.com
Black 98.5 Contour SE Sport.

i have the same problem!im outta warranty so im stuck.
does anybody remember mercman?what happened to him i remember he was fighting ford on the paint issue!

I've got this grimmy feel to my paint that pisses me off. Today when I was at the dealer I had someone look at it. He said it wouldn't be under warranty. That it could be fumes from a factory or maybe tree sap. I don't see how either of these could cover the entire car. Plus I don't work at a factory or park near one. Don't park under many trees either.

One more thing, a month or so after I got my car I was rear ended. Had to replace the bumper and of course have it painted. As far as I can tell there isn't that grimmy feel on the bumper. I think I'm going to go back to the dealer again.

I bought my 98.5 in March of this year. It had a similar paint problem on the dealer's lot. There were "crows feet" all over the horizontal surfaces of the car. Little white speckles where the clearcoat had failed I assume. Needless to say it was out of warranty (38k) but I did convince the dealer to repaint most of the car as part of the deal. I ended up paying 12,800 and got a fine car. I've seen many with the same problem and there is no fix to my knowledge. You gotta repaint it but you HAVE TO take it all the way down to bare metal, otherwise the same thing will happen again. GM's had the same problem in the mid 80s with all of their dark colored paints (especially black). They were nice enough to recall it, unlike Ford. Good luck and let me know how things work out.

There's a small section just under my driver's mirror that is peeling. I'm out of warranty, so I will just have a guy at work that fixes scratches on the new and used cars look at it.

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'98.5 Mystique GS ATX/re-contented door lights/K&N Filter/Energy Suspension Sway Bar Bushings/Mintex Street Pads/high-beam bulbs in low-beams/Pioneer DEH-P3100 receiver/Pioneer TS-A6855's in all doors/removed ding gaurds

The only redeeming quality my previous dealer has is the body shop manager is a great guy. I showed him the bad paint on my hood before the warranty ran out and he said to bring it back right before it's up to see if any more goes bad. He repainted the hood right, took it down to the metal. He said that black and midnight red had the most problems in 95. Problem is the primer, not bird slag or tree sap.

Yep, got the same problem with my black '96 SE. It has gotten much worse in the hot Arizona sun where my car has lived for the past 2 years. Now I've got hundreds of cracks in the paint all over the hood, the roof has paint that is coming completely off in blisters the size of quarters down to the bare metal (which is now rusting), and the trunk lid looks only a little better than the hood.

As someone else mentioned, it is defective primer that is causing the problems, and the darker colors are affected the most.

As far as I know, no class action lawsuit has been filed against Ford, and Ford refuses to repaint any cars that are out of warranty.

Since I plan to keep my car for at least another few years, and my car really does look like crap now (horizontal surfaces at least), I plan to have the entire car repainted this summer when I move back to NY. Just going to bite the bullet and pay for it myself, since I don't feel like waiting 5 years to win a class action lawsuit. By that time, there won't be any paint left on my car at this rate.



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'96 Contour SE, black / opal grey, MTX, every option, KKM intake, resonator removed, Flowmaster Series 40 DeltaFlow, BFG Comp T/A VR4's, approx. 90k miles. Driven cross-country 3 times.

'70 Corvette Stingray Coupe, Cortez Silver, 454 bored to 462, Muncie M21, too many mods to list, lots of fun.

I've got some good news regarding my paint issue. I went back to the dealer today and talked with the salesman that sold me the car. He is a friend of my dad since college. I tell him what is going on and he gets on the phone with the guy I talked with yesterday.

He told me to come in Tuesday morning and they are going to try and buff it. The sales department is going to pay for this. If it doesn't work they will file a complaint to Ford. Then a Ford engineer is suppose to come in and take a look at the paint.

I think every car dealer should have someone like the salesman I talked with. He is a great guy, always friendly to me. Now I just hope they get everything taken care of.

Could it be overspray from when they repaired your car?

I don't know, I really hope that isn't the cause. If I were the one painting it, I would have done it away from the car. Then after it had been painted and clearcoated I would have put it on the car. Maybe I'm just different though.

All the rest of the car has the same feeling. Not sure how this guy that painted it could have got it over the entire car. Then again, he didn't put the bumper back on right so who knows??