Hi all,

I have a black 2015 GT with 20" wheels. It was purchased new in May 2015 and currently has 7300km. Only driven on sunny summer days etc, and only on paved city streets.

I noticed today around the bottom behind the front wheels and in front of the rear wheels there a lot of small stone chips..obviously from debris likely spitting off the tires.

What concerned me was how many tiny chips there are. Seemed almost pre-mature given how infrequently I drive it and the conditions it's driven in.

Has anyone experienced this? Could this be some kind of paint defect or not so great paint they used on the car?

Secondly, does anyone know how to best get rid of them?

Thanks

 

Big tires throw more stones. Just buy some guards.

 

Not much you can do about them. They really show up on dark colored cars. One precaution to take is heavily waxing the area. It protects as much as possible without the splash guards. I personally don't like the guards and even took them off my C4. I'd rather have tiny chips than look at those things. Everyone feels different so whatever you like.

 

There are two things you may want to address. First is repairing/mitigating the damage that has already occurred. Second is preventing in so far as possible future damage. Unlike you I live in a rural area so rock nicks and the like are inevitable, so one of the first things I bought for my car was a bottle of touch up paint. When I bought the car new in '14 the dealer was the only source for touch up paint. Now I can find it at auto parts stores and frankly I prefer the Dupli-Color paint sold in parts stores to the factory stuff. Chances are that for now the dealer will be your only choice. If the damage isn't too bad you can try touching up the chips. Use a toothpick instead of the brush for the smallest nicks. If you're skilled and brave enough you can finish it off with some 2,000 grit paper [ wet ] and then use polishing compound to bring back the shine. Doing this by hand requires more effort than a buffer, but it's safer unless you're a pro. The only other alternative I know of will be a professional and expensive repaint. As for preventing future damage, there are coatings that can prevent paint damage, but most aren't invisible and the most un-noticeable ones are expensive. The other alternative is splash guards of some type. I noticed nicks almost immediately on the plastic rocker covers behind the front wheels on my '14 GT so I went to O'Reilly and bought a pair of generic plastic/rubber splash guards for $5.00 I made a cardboard template so I could figure out the best way to cut them and make a good fit using the factory push pin locations. I had to get longer push pins from NAPA [ another $5.00 ] to allow for the extra thickness of the splash guards, but this way there wasn't any drilling of holes needed either. Unfortunately your 20 inch wheels are probably wider and may have a different offset from stock so they naturally stick out further and exacerbate the amount of road debris being thrown up. Good luck, I had a black car once and while it looked really sharp when clean, everything showed on it too.

 

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I, like most of you on this forum, am a car guy. I've owned a few muscle cars, harleys, boats etc etc. all of which I take very meticulous care.
And I realize when you use something there will be some type of wear and tear.
This situation, however, has really caught me off guard--it's a first. The car is completely stock including the wheels/rubber. In my opinion there is a definite design flaw with this set up. There is just no way there should be so many chips from road debis...especially after dropping $50k on a car and only haven driven it in perfect weather for a total of 7300kms.
I can't imagine how it would look if it were a daily driver or after 100,000kms...the paint would be gone!
I will be pursuing this with Ford.

 

Summary: Mud guards and paint protection film. I hope Ford is sensitive to your plight.

 

Thanks...me too.

It certainly strengthens my case (and anyone else's case) that Ford doesn't even make splash guards for them. Aftermarket yes...but not Ford.

 

I had this 3M product installed last night on my car, mainly for front end protection. The company I had install it would do the whole car or any area of concern.

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3...293812589&rt=d

I don't have a chipping issue at wheels, but my wheels don't stick out far. I noticed some GT models at the dealer had slightly wider tires in the rear than my GT/CS.