Anyone with a newer Escape/Mariner notice a paint problem on the rear hatch?

On my 2006 Mariner, on the top edge of the rear hatch just above the hinges I noticed there is paint missing. You can see it if you stand on the side of the vehicle and look down and rearward from above. Looking closely, it actually looks like these two areas were never painted from the factory as you can see the grey primer and just a spray of body color paint around it. I took it to my local dealer and their body shop guy called me up and said he saw the same exact pattern on his daughter's 2004 Tribute. My guess was that this is a factory problem, possibly from the way they hang the doors for painting....maybe it interferes with the spray in these two spots.

Anyway, his advice was to just have it touched up because removing the door and all of the hardware may invite other problems.

Thoughts?

 

I will take a look on my 07 MMH. I also remember somewhat the same thing on my former 03 Navigator (only saw it by standing on the bumper to wash the roof). It didnt seem to matter asthetically or had any problems, so didnt think much about it.

If you dont see it, and it wont cause any premature rusting (not likely here in So.Cal) or chipping, or something, I would probably not worry about it.

 

I just noticed basically the same thing on my 05 FEH. I am short(5'6")& I was standing on a 3 step ladder waxing my truck. I noticed right over the hinges that there where two very small spots that the paint wasn't bare metal but kinda looked like primer.

The two spots looked like rub marks as if the tailgate wasn't lined up right & the paint had rubbed off, but there was nothing touching or rubbing in any way so I just touched up the spots & didn't worry about it.

~John

 

I looked at the top of the liftglass hinges on my 07 Escape - manufactured in July '06 and there are no unpainted areas

 

no. not above the glass hinges. the hinges for the door which aren't visible from the outside. right along the thin edge where the top of the hatch meets the roof.

 

Exactly

~John

 

saw a Mariner parked on the street today. Took a close look and it too had the paint flaw. Maybe one more thing to add to my letter to Ford.

 

I must have spent 5 minutes looking for the unpainted areas on the top edge of my 07 and there is nowhere that is not painted completely. I would guess that whatever problem there was was corrected.

Mine was built in July according to the sticker

 

I took a really long look today, and my 05 FEH does not have any unpainted areas around the hinges. i looked at it with the door closed and open. nuthin. maybe it has to do with the location that it was made. do you or can you take a pic of the spot and post it. i would like to what it looks like. maybe it just dosent stand out in the green color

 

Finally had a chance to look at my 07 MMH. The paint problem is there.

It's really not noticable unless you were looking for it, or waxing your car at at spot.

Here's a picture of the spot. My 07MMH is black, it's currently dusty (just been to the beach the other day), and the reflection is my garage door. The blemish is only about 1", maybe 1.5" right on the edge (you can sorta see the blurred hinge in the dark crack, just left of the blemish). I stood on the rear tires and took this macro picture. It's kinda hard to see because of the lighting, but you can see it in this picture.

https://www.greenhybrid.com/share/fi...4/P9050076.JPG