Soft Paint or Coincidence?

[allcarfan]

I have lived in this area for 3 years now. I have a lightning, and had a camry. Those vehicles were mine and my wife's daily driver. On a rare occasion, we would find very small rock chips. Maybe 2-3 over the course of three years. I cleaned the vehicles every week, so I was very familiar with the paint.

Since we got our 06 GT about 3 weeks ago....there are rock chips...some almost a hlaf inch long in the front, the hood, and the side...all the way down to the metal. We havent driven anywhere new, we have driven the same routes. It seems as if this paint is REALLY soft and has no 'armor' against any kind of road debris. I have the 'paint protectant' from Ford on there (giving it away free as a special when I bought the car). Just wondering if anyone else has noticed more chips and scratches than normal in their new GT.

 

[anthony05gt]

I bought mine in late '04 ( black ). It took several months for the paint to really harden up. You could rub your thumb across it and leave marks. I have not experienced any problems with chipping though. I think Ford uses PPG material.

 

[nbk13nw]

I have been complaining about the soft paint after only 1K miles on the car. The front glass as well. Thousands of oni sized chips in the windshield that I started noticing after only a few thousand miles, you should see it now after 36K miles. Same with the paint on the front end. Seems as though large bugs are chipping the paint. I drove my last car 42K miles on the same route and no windshield chips and only a two front end chips.

 

[allcarfan]

Too bad that 'paint treatment' that ford put on my car doesnt cover rock chips like this one!

 

[rich8566]

I have noticed a higher than expected number of paint chips on my 05 which only has 12K miles. I am not happy with the paint.

 

[Unbrdld07]

Got my 05 back in Nov.04, and had put 3M paint protection on the vunerable areas...hood, front fascia, rocker panels, etc and it has served me well where applied, however it did not cover ENOUGH area and I had a chip just above the line on the hood and there are some on the side front quarter panel of course just outside the 3M area. I have touch up paint but unless a professional does it and you look closely you can tell it's been touched up. Don't know why Ford didn't do a better job or use better paint.