Why no painted rocker panels on 2011s?

Heres a couple pics so you can see...

Black is Cheaper

Do you recall what Henry Ford said (in 1909) about color for the Model T ?

101 years later and things have not changed much at Ford. LOL. :winks


Everything is a tradeoff. Maybe that pays for the insulation that's now on the firewall ?

BigTuna said:

I never really noticed until everyone started posting their 2011 pics. I know on the 05-09s they would color match them if you had the GT. But, on the newer ones it seems like they are all black! Even the GT500 I saw at the dealership had black ones. Just my observation, but it would seem like they would look better with color keyed rocker panels..

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Where have you been for almost 2 years?

They have been all black since the 2010 came out and many of the Shelbys have been black down there for YEARS!

Here is a picture of a 2005 shelby (one of my favorites)...lol Welcome back from your coma!

:bigthumbsup

The great news about the black ones is if you do a lot of hard higway driving where you encounter bugs dirt and tar you get a ruined paint job but with the black ones you fix it in 10 seconds with a bottle of armour all and a damp paper towel.

Some pics of the black plastic painted(not my car). I think it looks great!


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I'll take the black on my '11. I think it looks good in contrast to the race red. Also the matched rocker panels on my well cared for '06 GT had the crap beat out of them in only 32k miles. The amount of rock chips on them and the rear bumper was just insane. I can only imagine what it would have looked like at 100k miles. I would have been time for paint.

dan02gt said:

I'll take the black on my '11. I think it looks good in contrast to the race red. Also the matched rocker panels on my well cared for '06 GT had the crap beat out of them in only 32k miles. The amount of rock chips on them and the rear bumper was just insane. I can only imagine what it would have looked like at 100k miles. I would have been time for paint.

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Agreed. It wouldn't take a week and the panels would look like crap. I guess it could boil down to opinions and/or preferences, but I like the black offset better.

I like the black plastic as well. It's not like the rest of the car "doesn't match." The front chin spoiler, rockers, and rear panel are all the same black plastic. I'm also used to climbing into trucks, this is the first car I've ever owned. I knock my boots on the rocker almost everytime I get in. I'm glad they're not painted.

You can get color matched mirrors, it's part of the Pony Package. My mirrors are Kona Blue.

dan02gt said:

I'll take the black on my '11. I think it looks good in contrast to the race red. Also the matched rocker panels on my well cared for '06 GT had the crap beat out of them in only 32k miles. The amount of rock chips on them and the rear bumper was just insane. I can only imagine what it would have looked like at 100k miles. I would have been time for paint.

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YerBuddysPony said:

Agreed. It wouldn't take a week and the panels would look like crap. I guess it could boil down to opinions and/or preferences, but I like the black offset better.

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I'm with these guys,
As a former owner of a 150+K mile F-body I can tell you I don't mis trying to make painted rockers look good. They take a hell of a beating.