dhiestan

I have a white 2015 F150 XLT FX4 and I’ve noticed far more rock chips on the front end as compared to my 2007 F150 with far more miles on it. The only thing I can surmise is the paint on the aluminum compared to the steel body is not as durable and is prone to more rock chip damage. Has anyone experienced this?

tcp2

your 2007 had an aluminum hood as well. F150 has had it since 1997, maybe even before that.

E. Manuel

Some people attribute the easily chipped paint due to the water based paint they are using now.

SCrewYou

i only have 1 rock chip on the little trim piece between the headlight and the grille, almost 35000 miles.

hunter99

Now having a few newer vehicles with this paint, as well as relatives, I can attest that this is most likely the case. I have found if you look at it sideways, or fling a small handful of sand at the bumper, you will add a million tiny pits or chips to it.

My local bodyshop told me the best thing to do, is have them fix the tiny nicks, if you only have a few, and add a better quality clear coat over the factory paint. When done you wouldn't be able to tell. He recommended the bumper, the headlight trim, and the grill. I'm going to have my grill custom painted in the not to distant future and I may take them up on it.

21RRF150

iTrader: (1)

And they would be wrong. Waterbased today, water based back to 05 industry wide. Some domestic oems have used water since the early 80s on some models.


Only the color is water based, the clear coat is still urethane

hunter99

If that's the case, and not saying you are wrong as I am not an expert with paint, the clear coat is really, really thin. I have just noticed that cars I have bought over the last 10 years tend to gets chips far easier than older vehicles I used to purchase. I've run clearer and it works but at the same time it starts to look bad after a year or so. You can get a shop to install it really well but it only holds up for so long.

Coercion Shaman

Don't argue with mbullock over paint. It is what he does for a living.

What I do think is that they just put this stuff on a lot thinner than they used to. Some vehicles end up with even less on the line. The bed on my truck is so thin that anything scratches it. I leaned a tail light against it by sitting it on the bumper while changing one out and that minor rub scratched clear through to the metal. Brushed lightly against the truck while loading the bed and the rivet from my jeans scratched completely through to the paint. Local body shop said it was some of the thinnest paint they had ever seen. Going to try to get Ford to cover a bed repaint (even though I'm worried over it matching), but doubt it will happen.

J15

You’re not alone. The paint on my 10 year old explorer looked better at 100,000 miles than the paint on my 2015 F150 at 10,000 miles. I’m not sure if it’s the aluminum or the paint, but it simply doesn’t stick as well. For those itching to say it’s been an aluminum hood for years, I had paint problems on the doors, bed, quarter panels, and the roof. That’s on top of a badly chipped hood.

Napalm

Bear in mind there are just too many variables for a solid comparision.

I mean do you drive behind more semi's than you used to - probably

more dump trucks?

more morons that can't bother with guards

is there more debris and crap on the roads.

All of that is a potential yes - so then potentially you just drove through more crap in a year in your new truck than you ever did your old one.

That said - like Mbullock said. water based paint systems aren't new. And just becasue the solvent media is different the paint chemistry is still acrylic and amide based. Only thing water borne paint does is remove the gallons of naptha, tolulene, and other aromatic hydrocarbons used as the carrying solvent.

Modern paint systems and clear coats are just as hard as they were before. However - on the AL there is another minor issue. From the primer up - the paint system on the AL is the same as on the steel. The primer is only slightly different for it to bond hard to the AL and I'll say this typically primer on AL is bonded harder than that on steel.

Or such is the case on aircraft - when you consider the paint on a 777 tollerates 500+ mph air/water abrasion.

It is equally possible however that there are some bad batches of paint, or clear coat. If still under the body warranty I would have the dealer fix it now while it's free.

my 2016 explorer and 2017 f150 so far, knock on wood, have no chips.

OH and put some sort of polish on your paint. LIke Meguiars Tech wax 2 or some other polymer polish system. I'm not a fan of things like opti-coat because it's hard to remove later. But I do use Optimum products polish and finish on my cars.