chris

Hi Guys,

My three week old Ford Falcon SR (BA) is in at the moment for a $1800 respray to fix all the paint faults..

But something I noticed just before dropping it off to the dealer was that there is a hole in the rear bumper.. Kinda hard to expain but i'll try..
On the SR rear bumper there is a slot/cavity running lengthways right accross the bumper.. in this cavity it has a black (probably plastic) strip that fits inside at the back of the cavity - so when looking from the rear you can see the (in my case silver) bumper with a black inlay inside this cavity.

I know i'm being picky but the hole is about the size of a 10 cent piece and it is situated on the passenger (left) hand side of the top 'roof' of the cavity.
At the rear of the car if you get on your knees and look inside the cavity and look up at the horizontal piece above the black inlay piece it is easily seen.

On my car there is loose paint sitting around the hole as if it was paint was applied right over the hole during manufacturing but it had nothing to stick on.

Interestingly if you look at the middle of the bumper bar in the same location as the first hole (only at the middle of the car) you can see a small indent of the same size and again on the right side of the bar.. If I had to guess it looks they are mould marks from when the bar was made.

The dealer told me he looked at another car and it has the hole so it was 'normal'.

When I showed the guy at the paint shop he told me it was probably a drain hole.. Hmm.

I just wanted to see if anyone else had this same hole before I accept the dealers explanation and forget about it. I just figure that the other two are painted so why isn't this one - and perhaps when taking the bar out of the mould it 'broke'..

Thanks mutchly in advance..
Chris.

chris

Appoligies.. That Balcon should read Falcon :-)

BlueAU

Are Ford coughing up for the respray?

JR

Never take the dealers word for it when you have other options.

Go and look at other new SR's yourself and see if they have the hole. Of course the dealer is going to deny anything is wrong - that's what they do best!

__________________
Editor: Street Fords Magazine - Issue #1 on sale MARCH 2005
E-mail: jr@streetfords.com
Co Founder: 3FB Inc.
To see my old BA Falcon XR6, click HERE

chris

Yep.. They have been quite good so far..

chris

Agree!!!! My problem is I can't find any SR's.. I searched the dealers yard this morning but only XR6's and XT's (which don't have this rear bumper)..

I figure I could ring ford too.. but they would just tell me to ring the dealer..

Chris.

FORDWOGBOY

hey chris, ive had the same problem on my rear bumper in the same spot there is a hole. But luckily the paint hasnt flaked away and hopefully it wont. Sorry to hear about the misfortune hope everything gets sorted out without too much hassle.

Cheers
Dave

__________________
'Dec 03 BA Falcon XT - Tint | Cruise | 17" Alloy Wheels | BA SR Kit | | SSS Auto | Front Power Windows | Scuff Plate Inserts | 2.5" Mild Steel System | Pacemaker Headers | ////Alpine 600 Watt 12" Sub | Lanzar 1000 Watt 4 Channel Amplifier |

Possible Future Mods
- Cornering Lamps
- Colour coding Sidemoulds, Mirrors and Front Grille

chris

I just heard back from my dealer and apparently he spoke with the Ford Paint department that had previously approved my paint repair and was told that this hole is created during the manufacturing and confirmed it was from the mould. Apparently because a lot of them are like this during manufacture they don't consider this a warranty issue.

I know the hole is in a place you can't normally see but I don't know if I should be happy with this or try and fight them..

What do you guys think?

chris

So you just have a thin film of paint with nothing but air behind it?

I guess they all must be like that.. Dealer reckons he has seen two other all with holes..

Strange thing for Ford to manufacture like this.. You'd think they find a place for the mould holders that is at least out of sight..

Thanks for your help!
Chris.

FPV TURBO

1800 respray, must have been a crap paint job.

I hope it comes back ok not like our AU II fairmont which came back worse.