I had the very same problem with those ugly bubbling blisters on my 09 Mustang hood. I also went to my Ford Dealer and got the same run around a couple of years ago. I solved my own problem. I have a friend that owns a body shop and I needed some other parts painted. So I bit the Ford bullet and paid for the hood to be repaired out of my own pocket. (Ford loves to hear that.) I couldn’t be bothered dealing with Ford and the B.S. that comes with it. I now know that my hood is fixed properly. My friend cleaned it up correctly and put a sealer on it. It’s been over a year since it has been done and it still looks like the day it was painted. I know this is not how some of you would want to deal with it, but it is better than having the hood rot away while fighting Ford’s B.S. over it. Just a side note for Ford, My daily driver is a 2011 GMC Sierra Z71 4X4. Don’t get me wrong, I do love my Mustang but……Just my two cents. (Now how much is that worth, in terms of 2014 cash value?)

 

I type slow... pasting some posts I threw on the management thread over at blueoval...

I'm a Ford guy, but am going to continue holding their feet to the fire on this issue.

Last year I took pics at cleveland auto show, 5 of 6 mustang hoods had paint/sealing issues at front/side hems... had someone forward them to AAI, maybe it helped- the front lips on all the mustangs looked good this year- but several still had the paint blistering on the side hems, the black one has blistered halfway around the edge- barely visible when hoods closed, but creeping to the top... pics/vin in case someone at ford wants to track it down and diagnose what the heck is going wrong at AAI... I personally still dont buy the iron contamination/mastic boilout/e-coat boil out excuses ive read...still think its lack of deburring/painting a razorblade edged panel expecting paint not to fail when it moves due to expansion... I would suggest if they decide to look at it, dont return to AA/i, have a paintshop/engineering group affiliated with unaffected models dissect it and see whats really going on here. there were still a couple that had what feels like dirt in the paint, showing at a minimum, the prep cleanliness should be looked at- possibly this is just crap that didnt get cleaned before paint- in any event, ford MUST do a better job. this years displays in my opinion still showed the lowly hyundais as perfect, toyota a close second. all the others very good... ford I'd say is good except when it comes to hoods- more on other models to follow

sorry pics are so bad- flash with all the bright lights/contrast makes them look filthy or blurry- some spots you can barely see, others look like they were off roaded...no, the folks detailing the cars at the show werent that sloppy, the least little smuges with a flash 2" away look like it was just driven off a salty road or somthing- the cars were clean as youd see at any car show





the blue mustang wasnt horrible, but the blistering is still starting there:

vins on here-

if you cant read it, fullsize pics are here- http://www.flickr.com/photos/83232178@N06/sets/


the mustangs have hem issues, but SOMEHOW, somebody is missing what appears to be handling issues at assembly. two of three taurus had paint chips in exact same spots, one on both sides. the one side of the red one, almost certainly was a fixture pressing into wet paint, as you could see ripples in the surface above the chipped away areas.



heres the black one, looked like more of a deep scuff on dry paint- same spot as the red one above, but you could see what appears to have been clearcoat adhesion points at tip of fender and underside of hood:




Ford needs to crack down on these defects- sorry, but this is totally unacceptable when lowly hyundai can have every car on display perfect, yet only 1/5 of the Fords are even just OK when it comes to panel edge prep/seal/paint.


on to the fusion/fiesta or whatever these were... again, either adhesion issues with wet paint against prop fixtures, or mishandling... chipped paint at underside corners. the little orange one actually looked very good, except there were bubbles in the sealant, where there was no paint, and it *looked* like either bare metal or just ecoat in there- definitely not orange, but a dull gray- yes its a tiny spot, but its all saltwater needs to start munching on your car.




the orange festiva- sorry couldnt make out the vin pic


i took dozens more pics, but they are so blurry, of little use... the above should illustrate a obvious ball dropping in numerous plants- PLEASE someone rattle some cages about this. there is simply no reason an American manufacturer should be lagging so far behind imports, it makes me sick, hope anyone reading this will feel the same. pester your dealers/write ford/insist on quality.

I really hoped to check out the aluminum f150 hems- this scares me as with what ive seen, if the sloppy work continues, the iconic f150 could wind up hurting ford bigtime if the aluminum bodywork starts having mustang hood blistering issues all over it... sadly the f150 on display was a mockup, the door lowers were visible when open, but no seams...obviously filled/painted for display only

 

My $.02,
My ford dealers body shop give me a quote of $1700 Canadian to fix this and he said it will come back ! He also said ford would give me NO help with it !

 

for less you can get a quality fiberglass hood and have it painted. 'glass hoods are heavy, but at least they dont disintegrate. I absolutely love the 05-09 Mustangs, but very disappointed at Ford's 'good enough to get most out of warranty' mentality... every one of these cars, no matter how well they are cared for will eventually develop this issue if exposed to water.

if the '15 aluminum bodied F150 is slapped together like the last ten years of Mustang aluminum panels, it will be devastating to Ford.

Blows my mind to think they would make any all-aluminum body knowing their lousy track record- let alone their highest volume truck.

I am worried maybe the higher ups at ford are getting smoke blown up their rears by mid-managers saying its not a problem... umm, look at the car show pics guys- ten years into it they STILL cannot make a decent aluminum hood. sorry but seeing this crap AGAIN on brand new Ford products at the frickin international auto show ought to have heads rolling somewhere.

BlueOvalForums 'management' thread used to get results, seems its just crickets chirping anymore... the Customer Service Reps on a lot of social media have been great for some after sales support, but the guys at the factory just dont seem to have a ear to the ground anymore on quality issues at all...I tried to find anyone from a ford plant/manager to talk to at the last two years auto show, seems like all thats there is dealers and a few local plant guys... Ford REALLY needs to tell their higher-ups to get out of their offices and start looking real close at the products being pushed out the doors- and not by BS scheduled plant visits, but unannounced drop ins at shipping yards/dealers/etc to see some real world samples... at least go look at the auto shows


anyways, back to options: heres what I chose, the 'Fang Performance' (out of business?) hood still sold by Aeroform... cost was only like 800 as I didnt get all the shaker hardware- instead I got their mach1 blockoff plate, molded some 'glass standoffs to it, machined the scoop for height needed, made a couple steel plates and a 3/8 neoprene gasket to seal it to the hood- it dont shake, but is functional- and has room underneath for a blower

 

The guys in the 2015 forums are lost in a dream world if they think it can`t happen to them !



https://themustangsource.com/f806/aluminum-hood-529545/

 

You are now spamming threads with the same subject.
On a car that isn't even in production yet.


Those threads are now getting closed.

 

I dissagree with the spamming , just wait I'll bet my left nut even the 2015 will have some ugly issue & there are many threads here that are on say repeated topics , so how is this spam ? Are you against people that payed good money for a car only to get stiffed ?

 

Ford paying hush money now ?

 

For the interm I got a couple areo dynamic zink bars for the ugly hood

 

I had often seen many 05 style cars with that problem. I always assumed it was due to lack of care and the elements. Hmmm?

 

Lack of care no way for the hours I've spent keeping it clean no maybe for some , but this is an inherint problem for many

 

Patrick, it is nothing with care or elements, it is Ford's inability to paint aluminum worth a crap.

Admittedly, aluminum is not easy. Iron contaminants will make corrosion. Paints and primers do not want to stick to the surface without etching or adhesion promoter.

Again, the hilarity will begin onces the new F150 fully aluminum body is out...and the class action suits happen when all the body panel paint starts coming off. I can't wait. Ford, I hate to say this, will reap the sowing of their bad painting techniques. Perhaps those F150 owners will also get them to fix any aluminum paint problems.

Oh, and by the way... if it were the elements or care... then the steel panels would be showing the bubbling. They do not. Ergo: aluminum painting skillz are lacking from Ford.

 

That's what it looks like to me. And that is coming from a life long Ford man that has only owned Fords for decades, and that owns a lot of Ford stock.

 

You're all correct. Logically, why would the underside be deteriorating if it was the elements? Makes perfect sense that the paint was not applied correctly.

It's quite sad considering the cost of these vehicles. I pray my CS does not fall victim to lack of QC.

 

I hope the one I've got now doesn't either. I just realized after reading your post that I've bought over $130K worth of S-197 Mustangs, I've not yet had the paint problems, but I haven't really looked because I've swapped and bought others. I need to look at my current one to see what is happening under there.

If it is ****ed up, I'm going to be super pissed. And I mean PISSED considering that I own a lot of Ford stock.

 

my apologies...I'm not a bodyman, or a painter, or a lot of other things...I just screw around rebuilding/rewiring/programming old machine tools, mostly with FANUC controls, lots of old GMF robots- this car stuff is just a hobby... I work in a world of ones and zeroes 90% of the day, so this car stuff is just a hobby. And I like Mustangs.

I do have three S197s here, all of them had hood blistering issues to some extent- the 06 was by far the worst, by 3 yrs old it was real ugly. Ive painted cars and done quite a bit of bodywork, but its just a hobby I know little about- but I'm not afraid to try to learn anything... but honestly, I'd rather be wiring or programming.

just because the problem started in 05 models, and pics of todays auto show cars shows its still present 9 model years later , and has been seen in at least 4 mustang hood designs, and the 2015 will be assembled at the same facility by the same folks, and using the same material, etc- it was really wrong for me to assume these problems could possibly migrate into the coming model that hasn't even been produced yet... the reasonable thing will be to wait and see if the next one fails before passing judgement, kinda like congress, "gotta pass it to see whats in it"

the way of the world these days

 

in the grand scheme of things, it is a minor problem- don't let it upset you... I would rather suggest a few pictures to higher ups at Ford- they ARE car guys, and my guess is they are getting smoke blown up their rearends by mid managers saying ' I got this'/ 'no problem'... happens all the time.

worst thing in my opinion though is not holding fords feet to the fire on this- its a easily remedied situation- obvious to me as Ive seen 20 yr old aluminum cars in great shape.

 

Thank You

 

😱what ? Well hey they didn't tell you you had to die first , that is UNACCEPTABLE customer service .

 

Oh heres a good one a friend was driving behind a Ford Areo Star and his whole roof peeled off in one sheet and landed on his car , ford told the owner also too bad ??? Seriously