First stone chip

[JSKershaw]

Washed my car by hand for the first time today and notice a small stone chip on my hood. The colour is white. Does that mean that it only chipped the paint and not the primer? Is the primer that Ford uses white?

 

Has anyone purchased Ruby Red touch up paint from the dealer? Does it work well considering there's a tint coating and clear coat?

 

Thankfully its a small chip. I will be fixing it as soon as I can go to the dealer and pick some touch up paint. Just curious what others have done.

[acdii]

Same with the Blue, looks like they used a light grey or white primer under these colors. There were about a dozen very tiny chips in the paint, probably from the salt.

[jeff_h]

Has anyone purchased Ruby Red touch up paint from the dealer? Does it work well considering there's a tint coating and clear coat?

 

I now have 3 of these chips...the hazards of driving through a long construction zone twice a day I guess... I ordered RR touch-up last week (dealer had probably 50 colors on the rack but not RR) and am picking it up today, will let you know how it works - surely it will be better than the light-colored chip.

[JSKershaw]

I'm glad that it only chipped the colour and didn't go past the primer (less chance of rusting). Ford did well on the paint job with these cars.

 

Jeff, please do update us when you get your touch-up paint. I'm curious as to how it works and looks afterwards.

[aaronj1159]

I too have a fairly decent sized chip on the hood up closer to the windshield. My dealer should have some Bordeaux touch up paint next week. I think I'll probably wait until I can get back to my parents' house to work on it... My father has touched up his BMW and my mother's Mini to the point where you can't even tell where they were chipped. He has a special tool to pull away anything rough or loose from the chip so the paint can be applied evenly, and he has some clear coat.

 

Like others have said, my primer appears to be a light grey color.

[brcd131]

The first day I drove mine FFH to work, on the trip home, took a big stone to the windshield and put a star burst in it. I had only had the car 4 days and a star burst already. (Had it fixed with epoxy and is barely noticeable but I know it's there.) I've noticed that these windshields are not very strong and are easily chipped.

[jeff_h]

The first day I drove mine FFH to work, on the trip home, took a big stone to the windshield and put a star burst in it. I had only had the car 4 days and a star burst already. (Had it fixed with epoxy and is barely noticeable but I know it's there.) I've noticed that these windshields are not very strong and are easily chipped.

 

I think the angle of the impact may be a factor, as with any windshield of course -- I mentioned the long construction zone above, about 3 weeks ago a dump truck pulled from the construction area onto the road in the lane next to me and when he got up to about 20 MPH a rock flew out from his tire and just like in the movies it was like slow motion as I saw it coming (though I didn't have time to say 'nooooooo' in the slow motion voice)... a rock just a bit smaller than a ping-pong ball hit the windshield on the passenger side and I thought surely that did it, dang windshield #1 taken out so soon... but nope, made a big impact noise and left a tiny mark where it hit but only one that you really have to look for in order to notice. So I got lucky this time around.

 

 

UPDATE on the touch-up paint -- got the ordered bottle from dealer, Ruby Red is code 'RR' and part number on the bottle is PMP-19500-7283A.

 

For those that have a different color, the site I have bookmarked for handy reference is http://paintref.com/cgi-bin/colorcodedisplay.cgi?year=2013&model=Fusion&rows=50

 

As for the result, it's like any other touch-up paint done by an amateur with a brush, it blends in now but not perfectly - but you have to be specifically looking for a defect in order to notice it. I also had a rock strike my plastic bumper and put a dab on there too (is black underneath), that is more noticeable that a touch-up has been done than on the hood right behind the Ford logo.

 

So if you are a real perfectionist I guess you can go to a body shop and pay plenty of money to get it blended in properly, but for the very high chances that I will get many many more of these in the coming years it worked fine for me.

Edited April 5, 2013 by jeff_h

[acdii]

The touchup paint is too thick out of the bottle to do it nicely, but if you have time and patience, and some thinner/reducer(depends if lacquer or enamel) and a small teeny tiny paint brush, you can fill it in, then apply clear and then wet sand with 1500-2000 grit, and then buff it out and never know it was there.

[JSKershaw]

When I had my Mazda3 the touch-up paint came in a two sided marker like applicator. Paint on one end and clear coat on the other. I was hoping for this type of applicator vs the brush type. My experience with the brush is not to use the brush. I find that the brush leaves too much of a blob of paint. The trick (from previous cars) is to use a tooth pic and apply the paint in stages. Almost flawless, but you do need to be patient. I guess I will be doing this again with my Fusion!

Edited April 5, 2013 by JSKershaw

[djminfll]

I know I spend a lot on it, but I got the paint protection applied to my car at the dealer before I picked it up. This covers the repairs of chips like these, which is why I paid for it. Hopefully, I'll never have to use it, but I know it would drive me crazy to have a stone chip staring at me every day!

[wacevedo]

What is the estimate cost for the Paint Protection?

[JSKershaw]

I had ordered touch up paint for my Ruby Red Fusion about 2 months ago and the dealership finally got them in. When I picked my car up today from repairing the clicking noise I picked it up. I remember someone on these forums mentioning that the touch up paint they bought was just a brush type. The one I received has both a brush and a pen. The cost was $10. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks pretty good. I will try and remember to take a pic of the tube, so you can compare it to the one you might get from your dealership.

[acdii]

The one I got also had the pen. In fact the ones I got for my first flex have the pens too. They are sitting un opened on my shelf, but I no longer have anything in those colors.

[JSKershaw]

The one I got also had the pen. In fact the ones I got for my first flex have the pens too. They are sitting un opened on my shelf, but I no longer have anything in those colors.

Maybe you can sell them on eBay and get a little cash for them!

[acdii]

Maybe you can sell them on eBay and get a little cash for them!

I would if I could ever log into Ebay with my account. I dont know what happened with it, went to login one day and it started asking for a PIN from a device I never heard of. The fun part is that in order to open a support case, I have to log in. I have quite a few items I could sell, like the rear spoiler for a 10-12 Fusion, and wiring harness for a Flex.

[murphy]

Call them on the phone.

It sounds like your account is configured to use an RSA key.

 

Call us
You'd like to talk about Account - Forgot user ID or password
Here's our phone number: 866-540-3229
Representatives are available 5:00am-10:00pm Pacific Time 7 days a week
If you're deaf, hard of hearing, or speech-impaired, contact us through an IP-Relay service.

[hybridbear]

I know I spend a lot on it, but I got the paint protection applied to my car at the dealer before I picked it up. This covers the repairs of chips like these, which is why I paid for it. Hopefully, I'll never have to use it, but I know it would drive me crazy to have a stone chip staring at me every day!

It drives me crazy how many we have on the front of our car already :(

 

We've been debating the idea of getting a professional repair. I tried using the touch up pen from Ford but we think that actually made it look worse.

 

Does anyone have any experience with how much it costs to get a professional repair and what they can do? I imagine that having the whole front end repainted is one option, but that's likely expensive.

[acdii]

It drives me crazy how many we have on the front of our car already :(

 

We've been debating the idea of getting a professional repair. I tried using the touch up pen from Ford but we think that actually made it look worse.

 

Does anyone have any experience with how much it costs to get a professional repair and what they can do? I imagine that having the whole front end repainted is one option, but that's likely expensive.

Not only that, but the paint is hard to match perfectly. Believe me, I know, I see it every time I look at my Flex. The Factory paint uses larger metallic particles and fewer of them for a deeper black. The repaired section has finer metallic so it has a silver hue to it now. From a few feet away, you cant really tell, but stand over two sections where one side is original and it stands out.

[tr7driver]

The one I got also had the pen. In fact the ones I got for my first flex have the pens too. They are sitting un opened on my shelf, but I no longer have anything in those colors.

What colors do you want to get rid of?

[acdii]

I have Cinnamon and the white used for the roofs.