defects and blemishes in my "new" car

[bangster]

No one can believe I bought a car with this many issues. The main one happened between first time test driving it (it is 2 hours away, I work 12 hour days, not ideal) and then pulling the trigger. It has 2 dime sized dents, 1 giant through metal gouge, scuffs from boxes being stacked on it (it was a garage queen, registration lapsed, no insurance), stone chips from it's time in Colorado, every wheel curbed pretty badly, missing paint on the rear bumper cover, etc. Missing the engine pan and deflector, the lower grille is loose, the prop rod is broken off, the air intake snorkel is loose and the mount broken.

 

Having said that, it is a Sport, and AWD, and Silver, and no navigation, and with Moon and Tune. Missing the Comfort and Drivers Vision packages (mainly like the ambient lighting, puddle lamps, BLIS, and backup camera).

 

front driver tire low from sitting for over a month after sitting over 5 months, lots of curbing on the rim:

 

rear bumper cover, almost looks like a repaint, and dent a couple inches above it

 

the mother of all scratches, aluminum brake lever on a kids bike...happened after posting pictures of the car and me driving it and finally buying it

 

stress cracks, not sure if I will attempt to fix or not

 

leading edge rock chips, gonna be some grinding to get these ready to fill and paint

 

bumper cover

 

radiator core support, broken prop rod

 

intake snorkel mounts broken

 

What shiny bits made me not see all the defects

 

From a distance it cleans up nicely

'

 

Will add some not on ramps not with other cars around, and some of the underside. A few very minor surface rust spots (where the belly pad rubbed the sub frame, and the flange on the front cat to pipe, exhaust pipe is a little brown it is low grade stainless.

[bangster]

It wasn't yet 90 degrees this morning, so spent 90 minutes on it. Only used a couple types of rubbing compound and swirl remover, then coated it in some polish. It looks 100x better. I got rid of all the scuffs on the hood and deck lid, a couple on the roof. Also a long tall one on the front bumper cover.

 

Will spot sand and prime chips, waiting on some adhesion promoter to start on the bumpers. Also finding some more missing trim attachments, I might have to find a car on the street to find out what goes there, the ones in the junk yard and the 2 other Gen 1.5 fusions around me are as well, but I could see how it could get noisy flapping in the breeze.

 

Going over every inch of it I found quite a few more blemishes, water spots, and stains, but most came out.

 

Not sure how to get rid of the concrete that is splattered in the wheel wells, might just replace them.

[drolds1]

Wow!  Could you heap any more abuse on a car?    Muriatic acid will dissolve cement but IDK what it'll do to the plastic wheel well liners.  Whute vinegar and water in a spray bottle is said to work also if the splatter is not too heavy.

 

 

1

[sirtanon]

Looking at it closely, it definitely looks to have been neglected/abused.. and those wheels would definitely have turned me off.. but I guess much of it can be fixed one way or another.  It definitely would have made me negotiate the price down substantially.

 

  Have you thought about getting a new set of aftermarket wheels to replace those heavily curb-rashed up ones that are on it right now?  I bought a new set of wheels for my Fusion to replace the chromies that I've had on it for the past 3 years.  I definitely love the look of the new ones.  Granted, my chrome wheels were not the least bit scratched, but I was just kind of wanting a new look.

 

I'm anxious to see how the 'clean-up' works out on those worn/chipped spots.

[bangster]

I sorta want to keep the Sport wheels because they are one of the most visual cues that it is a Sport, and my track record with aftermarket wheels hasn't been great.

 

BUT I completely dig the 2009 Mustang Bullit wheels with the euro lip. If I can find polished (or chrome) for a reasonable price, I will go for them. I see then all the time for 200-400 bucks in other cities, never local, or semi local (120 miles or less). I might break down and get a set with tires for 550 bucks, but don't trust tires for an AWD car from a Mustang, where rears have 2/32 and fronts have 7/32s of tread left

 

Once I get the touch up spray paint and everything needed to fix the bad spots, I will try to document before during and after. All the scuffs I removed are hard to photograph.

 

I started grinding the curb marks, gonna get some bondo on them and filler on some chips and see how it goes.

 

I think I got the car for a decent price, I didn't steal it, but I didn't pay close to what KBB is even knocking down the condition and the miles. The interior is spotless except a small bit of the headliner in the rear corner (didn't see it until I was washing the windows). I was left with enough left over to fix things up and personalize it a little (add remote start, flip keys, HID projectors, angel eyes, rims if I find them, etc).