Paint Problems

[Gulfvet]

The Paint! We have driven 1200 miles. Their are 6 chips in the front bumper and the hood. The vehicle is white so the chips show more because the primer is dark. There has been no unusual driving. We have owned many new vehicles, many new Fords, none have chipped paint from common road use.
Sure, we have considered Xpel clear protection. However, this is a Ford Manufacturer defect.
We have contacted the dealer and will soon see how Ford will remedy this.
Please... Check your MachE! What did Ford use to paint these... a magic marker?

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[macchiaz-o]

The Paint! We have driven 1200 miles. Their are 6 chips in the front bumper and the hood. The vehicle is white so the chips show more because the primer is dark. There has been no unusual driving. We have owned many new vehicles, many new Fords, none have chipped paint from common road use.
Sure, we have considered Xpel clear protection. However, this is a Ford Manufacturer defect.
We have contacted the dealer and will soon see how Ford will remedy this.
Please... Check your MachE! What did Ford use to paint these... a magic marker?

I have several tiny paint chips in the hood. Most likely from rocks that fly up from trucks and other vehicles ahead of me.

It's unbelievable that you never experienced this on past vehicles from common road use, or especially from highway use.

Good luck with your claim.

 

[bruceski88]

The Paint! We have driven 1200 miles. Their are 6 chips in the front bumper and the hood. The vehicle is white so the chips show more because the primer is dark. There has been no unusual driving. We have owned many new vehicles, many new Fords, none have chipped paint from common road use.
Sure, we have considered Xpel clear protection. However, this is a Ford Manufacturer defect.
We have contacted the dealer and will soon see how Ford will remedy this.
Please... Check your MachE! What did Ford use to paint these... a magic marker?

4 of us with new MMEs met up last Sat. All 3 mentioned they had 1 or 2 chips. I got mine clear coated immediately and no chips of course. they were all interested in getting it done. They detail shop that I took it to said the car looked really well put together.

 

[ChasingCoral]

As the XPEL and other paint protection threads have discussed, most of the front and rear of the Mach E parts are plastic. These are easy to chip. This is why I plan a full front and rear PPF and ceramic for the full car.

I saw these same problems with the plastic front and rear of our Leaf.

See: https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/paint-protection-film-ppf-such-as-xpel-for-mach-e.669/

 

[TheVirtualTim]

Every car I have owned *eventually* gets some chips in the front. Mine is ceramic coated ... which makes it easier to clean, slightly hardens the surface, but I would not consider that to be protection against stone chips. I think you'd need to put PPF on the front-facing parts.

 

[Ciero]

I put in a new type of light in the garage last night and to my horror I saw a tiny chip and a swirl mark.. I'm probably going to have to remove all garage lights now.

 

[SnBGC]

I have several tiny paint chips in the hood. Most likely from rocks that fly up from trucks and other vehicles ahead of me.

It's unbelievable that you never experienced this on past vehicles from common road use, or especially from highway use.

Good luck with your claim.

Same here.
Stone and rock ships are a way of life here. I can actually hear the rocks bouncing off my car/glass while driving on the freeways. Usually happens when a lifted 4x4 flies by at 80-85 mph.

 

[pt19713]

Did Ford reverse engineer and copy Tesla's soft paint, too?

After the first few, it's not as painful. But, it's not too soon to have the paint chips filled and PPF installed.

 

[Ponypower50]

You must get Expel and say no more chips. Had it installed on my last three cars with great results. My 2014 cmax with 72000 miles on it has no chips at all. This is not a flaw by the factory its those trucks and cars throwing up stones. I also never follow behind a truck.

 

[duneii]

The Paint! We have driven 1200 miles. Their are 6 chips in the front bumper and the hood.

We have owned many new vehicles, many new Fords, none have chipped paint from common road use.

I'm generalizing here but I have found that newer cars are easily chipped or get swirl marks from a car wash than older pre-2010 cars.

Would be good to know if MME is similar to other newly designed cars (Telsa, Bronco Sport, etc. ) or if it's extra "soft" paint on the MME. From my experience, white does show chips more than darker colors.

Sucks that it happened so quickly for you. On my plug Pacifica, I got a rock chip both on the hood and windshield from a truck 2 months into owning. Annoys me still as I see it but I did do touch-up to avoid rust and on the windshield, filled in the tiny chip.

 

[Mirak]

I drove my grabber blue about a month and 2,000 miles before I got my PPF put on the front. I sure wish I had done it sooner. By the time I put on the PPF, I already had one noticeable chip on the front bumper plus a couple other smaller nicks I did not notice at the time.

The body shop patched up the bigger chip pretty well. It is barely noticeable now unless you know right where to look, but the imperfection still results in a small air bubble where the PPF hasn’t perfectly adhered. Same thing for the other smaller chips which I didn’t even notice until inspecting the PPF.

The OP is correct, the MME seems to be far less forgiving of chips. My 12yo Ford Fusion with a white tri-coat paint job has been far more forgiving - I never even put PPF on that! The chips to the MME leave a black mark - is that because of a darker primer, or the composition of the plastic underneath?

Either way, I don’t think this qualifies as a manufacturer’s defect, but I’d say adding PPF to the MME is essential if you don’t want your bumper looking like a total mess after a few years.

By the way, most people say XPEL when talking about PPF, but there are several other brands that are all basically the same material. I went with a Llumar shop that was about 15% cheaper than the XPEL shop in town.

 

[Ponypower50]

Just my opinion, a 60K car should not go thru a $5. car wash. You get what you ask for.

 

[jjwolf]

keep in mind we're all driving our cars pretty soon after coming off the line - i imagine "most" cars have been sitting around for a while longer baking in the sun on a lot before we bought them and the paint was a bit harder. that said, i've been detailing (polishing) my paint over the last few days prepping for a ceramic coating and i've noticed a lot of scuff marks and other minor scratches that i would not have expected after a few weeks of gentle use and only careful hand-washing. it could be that the clear coat is especially soft or taking a lot longer to cure than one would expect.

 

[benk016]

I have 3 chips on the front of my car I've found already. My XPEL appointment isn't until 4/26 so one more week. They were really booked up with spring time.

 

[Major]

Yes, I have certainly noticed it. I have two. Neither was from a rock. One came when my plastic garbage can hit the car. The other one occurred when for some unknown reason the lift gate opened during the night and hit the bracket holding the garage door to the opener. The paint on this car is definitely softer than on my Toyotas. I don't think the plastic can would have damaged the Toyota, but the hatch hitting on the bracket most likely would have.

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