1993 Cobra Registry

Hello all

I'm looking at buying a 7500 mile car and current owner sent me pictures of cracks on the hood, said its never been hit or painted - has anyone heard or seen this before? Is it a common issue? It kind of looks like really bad orange peel. Any help would be appreciated - image below.

thanks

wazana9050 wrote:Hello all

I'm looking at buying a 7500 mile car and current owner sent me pictures of cracks on the hood, said its never been hit or painted - has anyone heard or seen this before? Is it a common issue? It kind of looks like really bad orange peel. Any help would be appreciated - image below.

thanks

Common, no. What the exact story is, hard saying since he's not the original owner. Maybe its the original hood/paint, but for whatever reason it had some blems and somebody tried to clear over the existing finish and didn't prep it right.

Either way, that looks to be a really nice car, you just need to agree on a what you think is a fair price, and I'd definitely use that as a bargaining chip. A good body shop could fix that hood without much fuss and retain the original paint, unless it issue go all the way to the primer.

The cloth cars don't come up for sale near as much as the leather ones for obvious reasons so if you're going to hold out, it may be a while before another one comes up.

Better jump on that $28k car.. Before some else does.

He got back to me and said front nose was repainted and that concerns with me with only 7,500 miles - I'm afraid that the car was hit and front end and hood were painted. He is saying it was not hit

dbrennancobra wrote:Better jump on that $28k car.. Before some else does.

Are you saying your getting back into the cool club again?

WillyB93 wrote:

dbrennancobra wrote:Better jump on that $28k car.. Before some else does.

Are you saying your getting back into the cool club again?

Not with a car that has a repainted hood with cracks in it! This is well below your standards. Right, DB?

Got more info - he said front end may have been replaced - he is the third owner - so in my humble opinion car was either wrecked or has 107,500 miles not 7,500. My search continues.

Thanks all

wazana9050 wrote:Got more info - he said front end may have been replaced - he is the third owner - so in my humble opinion car was either wrecked or has 107,500 miles not 7,500. My search continues.

Thanks all

I think the mileage is correct.

It's pretty easy to tell if it's been replaced if you've seen enough of the Foxes over the years. The time front end damage gets a little squeamish is if the radiator core support had to be replaced/straightened, in which case you generally have inner apron damage as well. Uni-body may or may not be tweaked. If it was just a parking lot fix, I wouldn't worry about it, but I wouldn't be paying that kind of cash for it either.

To be honest, even though the market seems to be on an upward trend, that car could be 100% right and I wouldn't pay asking price. Of course me has two in the gararge.............lol!

i have seen several with the cracks and some i know have not been repainted, some look great but if you get it nice and clean and look really close you can see them.

1993cobra wrote:i have seen several with the cracks and some i know have not been repainted, some look great but if you get it nice and clean and look really close you can see them.

I have seen this on a number of Fox bodies. This is a relatively common issue with the paint on these cars. Especially ones that have been exposed to the weather.

Ok, Just an FYI, Ive owned at least 50 or more 93's painted quite a few also.

the Hoods come from the factory with Rock Chip protectant underneath the primer and paint, after 15 to 20 years or so of sun, engine heat, and use, the paint on the hood tends to get small, very small cracks in the paint. Has nothing to do with repaint, just TIME! paint does not last forever, our cars are getting old, and as long as the finish is shiny, and looks good for shows I wouldn't see a need to worry about painting them, that's just how they are aging.

I AM the original owner of my '93 Cobra and my car had cracking in the paint issues after the first nine months that I owned it. Ford warrantied a respray of the hood and one fender but after about a year the cracks came back. Over the years it spread to other body panels and I finally had the car chemically stripped and repainted a couple of years ago. My car's paint would get about 1/2" and 1" long splits in the paint. At first it was just a few panels but it eventually did spread all over the whole car.

When my body shop guy started sanding on the car he called me to come have a look. There were many layers of paint on my "factory" paint job just as shown in the first pic. Not sure why but he said it looks like it took about 8 or 9 trips trough the paint booth at Ford. I would say that my paint splitting was caused from too many paint layers

Wow very interesting.
I recall here in BC that a friend was a sales man at ford during the foxbody days and numerous times the new cars needed repaint due to train or transport issue's.

I hadn't thought of that. That makes good sense.

Ford pwr wrote:I recall here in BC that a friend was a sales man at ford during the foxbody days and numerous times the new cars needed repaint due to train or transport issue's.

It wasn't just train and transport issues back then. Ford's build "quality" was a loose term at the time and their paint from the factory was not always top notch. Also, Ford's use of clearcoat was recent back then. It's funny to look at a '93 Cobra window sticker and see Clearcoat Paint as a $91 option.