1993 Cobra Registry

Hello all, need a little help from experts. I just had #1624 detailed by a pro, he said there's no clearcoat on the front bumper and rear wing, anyone else ever noticed that on yours? His initial thought was that it's been painted, but the car has 15,000 miles on it, the paint looks great, but does have plenty of little nicks, touched up spots, fine scratches, to where I just will not believe it's been painted, just not perfect enough for someone to have gone to that much trouble. Any thoughts on this? Mileage is legit based on all the records and research I've done, but this is a mystery to me, I went back through all the pages of the forum and didn't see anything about this which worries me. What do you guys think?

Lots of unexpected things can happen to a car over 23 years, even one with low mileage. The front bumper and rear wing normally have clearcoat on them from the factory.

a lot of cars get paint touch ups at the dealer, after going through new car make ready.look at the vin sticker and see if it is there , has paint on it, or has a paint line around it. you should be able to tell if its been painted

Thanks for the replies, I checked all the vin tags really close, only thing strange is that the tags on the front and rear bumpers both have a clear piece of tape over them, is this different than everyone else's? But nothing else that looks off

Front and rear bumpers do have a clear piece of tape like protectant over them.

could this have anything to do with why some cars have a lighter or darker shade of color on the bumper? Or is that just an overall issue with foxbodies? I've come across a couple of red one's and I notice it in pictures and always tell myself that would bother me seeing two different shades. Makes me think the car has been repainted.

The paint quality on these cars and others of the era was not the best to begin with and sometimes doesn't age particularly well. In addition, the paint ages a little differently on the plastic bumpers than on the metal fenders, etc. You sometimes see this color difference between the paint on the plastic and metal parts, especially on cars that were exposed to the elements on a more regular basis.

I'm the original owner and right after I took delivery I noticed the inside of the front bumper cover near the battery was blue. Like the cover was originally blue and was repainted black.

I went back to the dealer who didn't have a clue. I wasn't pissed, just curious so they looked up the "record" on it. Whatever that is. They said at the time that if there was a repair after leaving the assembly line there would be a "record", but nothing.
I'm thinking they needed a cover, had a blue one and painted it black.

Who knows?

robj

Interesting story. If car was repaired by ford prior to getting to dealer, dealer would have no record of it. There were a few red cars that didn't have clearcoat, but they were car's 1-10. No telling what happened along the way for sure.


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There was a time period at Mfrs that urethane parts were painted using a flex agent in the paint, as opposed to the paint used on metal...In that case, the urethane parts were painted on a different production line, and then mated to the car...That accounts for variance in shade and finish quality on urethane vs main body....I have seen unrestored cars where various urethane parts would have more than 1 or 2 pieces that didn't match in shade on the same car.....Hope this might help....

My teal car front bumper has always been a shade different. Not to noticeable unless you are in the right light but none the less, it has always drove me nuts.