flashfearless

I have a delimma. I have noticed about a 3 mm in diameter fish eye defect in my paint job on my left front fender. Probably caused by something getting into the paint at the plant. Pretty much my only option to fix it is to have the whole fender repainted. I am imagining that if I do that, what I will get in return will have a whole lot of orange peel in it. The car has less than 200 miles on it.

What would you do?

black sunshine

Put away your magnifying glass and enjoy the car.

WarBird69

Ditto. While I'm super careful with my new car, and I'll be going over her with a fine tooth comb while I wash/Zaino her... I'm not going to flip out over a small imperfection. Heck, little imperfections give your car character!

So to echo the previous poster... put away the magnifying glass and drive your car! Afterall...isn't that what she is for?

flashfearless

Well, this is the direction that I was leaning. But I was wondering if others thought the same...

Tony Alonso

What you get in return might actually have LESS orange peel.

Unless you intend to mainly garage your car, the size of that blemish is not worth the repaint, in my opinion.
Besides, it's the first rock chip that hurts more

mrkabc

The repaint you get will be of lesser quality than your original factory paint - I'd deal with the fish eye. Enjoy the car!

pitpup

From a guy who had his Tbird painted Electric Green Metallic, the factory job will hold up much better in the long run. I have chips all over the car. It took a few years (six) but they're starting to show up like crazy.

As for the Stang, I have scratch on the back of the passenger side mirror that I touched up with a Sharpie Marker. You'd never know it was there if I didn't tell you. Also, I agree with Tony regarding the rock chip. Yikes. It will sting 10 times more than the fish eye.

Sure, you know it's there, but you're the only one. FYI: I've got a pit or two in the 64W's. Very small, very few, but they're there. Nobody will ever see them if I didn't point them out.

ENJOY THE CAR... besides, the way Karma is going this year, you'd probably get the fender painted and the next day have a trash truck back into it. Go spill a soda on your new seats. That will take your mind off the fender for a few weeks. (J/K)

Stan

steevr

Flash,

Don't mess with it. Here's my comment I left in another post about what's going on with my rear bumper....

"At 600 miles, I really love my '07 too. I had a couple of 80 mph runs on the highway and a couple of half throttle accelerations up to 3,500 rpms. After the first oil change at 1,000 miles, I plan to reanact the father/son commercial (only with me, the Dad driving and no one else in the car). Two dissappointments with fit and finish. The first is the film on the fog reflectors from day one. The other I noticed at the end of the first day I had the car. I have two small dents in the rear bumper one the edge of the bumper where the bumper turns from vertical to horizontal. Looks as if something fell on the bumper at the factory BEFORE the bumper was painted. The paint is perfectly painted over the dents in the plastic. I asked the dealer if there was any way to get another bumper already painted Redfire from the factory. He said ford would be happy to replace it but the bumper comes unfinished and would have to be painted. I like the idea of my factory bumper paint matching perfectly, so I'm not going to mess with it. Because it's on the curved part of the bumper, it's hard to notice. That's why I didn't see it until the end of the 1st day and believe me, I went over the car pretty well at delivery.

I'm lovin it."

Bob99b5

Flash, I would never repaint it for a defect that small. My car came in with a 1/8 inch scratch in the fender. My brother has a body shop and recommended that I just let him touch it up, sand it, and buff it out. Your dealer or body shop may be able to improve the appearance with a very fine sanding - say 1500 grit - and a bit of buffing.

For Steve, I'm trying to get a factory front bumper for my car too because the dealer sc*ewed it up while trying to fix a suspension squeek. Everything they would order comes in bare and needs repainting. Getting a pre-painted bumper requires your dealer work directly with the plant and I understand it's very difficult to get done.

Cavero

I had a similar defect on my '06 on the driver's side door, got the dealer to look at it and started the arrangements to have it fixed. Apparently, some dirt got under the paint at the factory. Well I had some vacationing to do, so I put off having the actual work done, and by the time I got back, I didn't care anymore. It was pretty small and unless it's something major, it's really not worth breaking the factory baked-on finish. The factory paint is the toughest, longest lasting paint the car will realistically see, and you really don't want to mess with it if you can help it.

GTJOHN

Can you show us a picture of the defect?
Where on the fender is the defect?
It all depends on where the fish eye is located and the severity of the fish eye.

JustFord0099

i had a few of those on my black 06 and it drove me insane, but then again i was the only one that noticed every little imperfection on the car. i eventuly got over it and just drove the car the way it was.

Tres Wright

Sounds like a lot of us are living with factory paint defects. I just picked up my '07 on Saturday and upon doing a close inspection with the salesman discovered the below paint flaw. It appears something got blown into the paint at the factory, possibly a dried piece of paint or something. It's about an inch long and raised from the surface about 1/8". I took it in yesterday and talked to the body guy. There were two options: sand down the imperfection without harming the surrounding paint, touch it up and buff the area -or- sand down, prime & repaint the spot which would require clear-coating the entire quarter panel!! I told him to try option 1 and we'll see how it looks. I think I can probably live with it if it's the kind of thing that only I will notice.

flashfearless

Oh, I would not live with that! Wholly crap. I feel much better now...Bummer of a birthmark Tres..

Tres Wright

LOL! Well like I said, I told them to try the low impact option first. If they're not able to fix it to my satisfaction, then it'll be on to option B! It's a drag to have to go through this on a brand new car!

GTJOHN

You guys just spent a lot of money on your Stangs, I wouldn't be happy. Make them fix it!
If you have a good body man work on your car, it shouldn't be a problem.