Well, I knew what I was getting into when I told my mother that I wanted the Mustang for my first car. It had 163,800 miles on it. Its now at 164,100. Mechanically, the car could use some TLC, and I made it my sworn duty to baby this car back to mechanical perfection.
What I didn't count on, was the fact that suddenly I noticed all the little imperfections in the paint. All 34 rock chips on the front end, all 11 of the scrapes dents and dings from ricers ripping into parking spots, scraping my bumper and such, as well as soccer-moms letting their kids push the carts in parking lots... right into my car. Repeatedly. (One of many reasons I'm not fond of children)
I was giving waxing a shot for the first time, and I can already see that I didn't do it right.. damn swirls and such. Bah, I'll have to refine my technique to avoid that next time.
That, and buy new carnauba wax. Someone stole it out of my garage the other night so I had to use some liquid wax that wasn't really working as well as I'd like (tying into the whole being inexperienced and such)
Who the hell steals wax compound and wheel polish? Especially when theres two brand new harleys in the garage and an obscene amount of expensive riding gear in the garage.
Anyways.
Its black, and I noticed bubbles on the hood and in a few other spots. Its also rife with rock chips and what appears to be some peeling around said rockchips, and, much to my chagrine rusting between a few moldings as a result of what I can only assume was peeling paint. (the metal molding along the top of the doors that runs from the hood to the trunk).
Now I'm almost positive that I read somewhere about this being something that Ford is aware of and will fix (something about bad paint during these model years) and since its only going to get worse, I figure I should exhaust all chances of having it fixed for free before I decide to do it on my own bill.
Is there any truth to this crackpot theory I've got going?
Well, John... I am sure you'll get many others here to help you with this... First of all, congratulations on your Mustang... In my opinion, the best place to ask that question (being you think you've heard they would fix it) would be at a dealer - but I am not seeing that they're going to take care of a paint job and body work on a 10+ year old car with 160k+ miles on it.... Bewilder me! Go ask at a local dealership, I'd be interested to know what they say....
__________________
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress,
can be judged by the way its animals are treated. ~ Gandhi
I agree. I'd be very impressed if Ford would pick up the tab and cure what ails you. For me, take it to your local bodyshop and have them quote a paint job. These guys are artisans and will be able to match your existing colour and respray what's chipped. Or perhaps have a full respray with a different colour! Hey, here's your chance to make a change...
And search around this area for waxing info - plenty of tips and tricks available. A good paint cleaning/waxing is truly a wonder to behold when done right.
Yeah, I pretty much figured they'd be like "Oh, bubbling paint, sure we can do that" until I mentioned the mileage and year, and they'd find an excuse to disappear stating "I'll be right back, another client needs me"
I'll swing by a dealership today and look into it, worst case scenario they say no. I was already kind of wanting to get the car repainted, because I love my black Mustang, and will definitely keep it that way!
What I want to know then is are there any "chains" that you could recommend for such a job? I'm not too familiar with the area and tend to stick to major chains as a result. (I know, not the best method, but between my being fairly new in the area and having social anxiety (I'm Autistic) I try to not call around and such. Screwing myself, definitely, but I can't help it.
How do fresh paint jobs usually look, say, getting a full-body repaint (minus the door jams and such, they look brand spanking new already and they'd just get scratched up again. Seems a waste of time, paint and money to me.)? I've heard mixed reviews of 3rd party paint jobs, like fast wear, oxidization and issues later on down the road with integrity of the paint itself (flaking, peeling and such).
How can I expect them to deal with these rust spots? Will they, or will I have to figure out how to rust-remove myself?
Sorry for the loaded question, but I have a tendency to say more when less would work just as well; the autism talkin' again.
Thanks, I'll let ya know what I find out in regards to the dealership thing.
Well, no dice. Seems the body shop at the local dealership is open Mon-Fri only, and since today was a Saturday, I was outta luck. I'll have to wait until Monday to try again.
On another related note, I did discover that my tie-rod replacement (which is badly needed, left side creaks when I hit bumps and turn the wheel, heard about catastrophic tierod failures and I'm not big on watching my front left wheel go shooting off past me on a turn or get sucked under the car.) would only run me 250 at the dealership (after all is said and done, including alignment) which is far less than I expected. I've heard its usually better to have a dealership work on your car when possible for the sake of documentation, workmanship and correct part usage, but is inherently more expensive.)
Anyways, I'll check on it this coming Monday and let ya'll know what happens.
1997 Mustang V6 Peeling/bubbling paint 
