I hate having to leave my vehicle there that long. Oh well. Hopefully that will be my last visit for a while.

Thanks for the info.

 

I had my faded cladding replaced under warranty last week. At my request, I got the eight replaced parts as well. I was planning on having the extra pieces painted but the dealer broke a few important tabs off when they removed them.

Fullhouz
04 XLT

 

bet it was not by accident.

 

My dealer said they needed them for the warranty validation from Ford and would not part with them.

 

We finally have gotten the pannels replaced because of the fadding and they replaced them all, no questions asked. They look great and they as of right now are tight against the body and do not rattle. We have about 16,000 miles left on the warenty and we are wondering if they will have to be replaced within this milage. I am kind of currious about what I can do to maintain them from fadding. My only other option is to replace them later with the body kit that I found and posted earlier.

 

I think that the new panels are probably mixed with a different blend of materials to fight the fading issues. It wouldn't make sense to replace panels with identical panels only to have them fade again. That would be a huge hit in Ford's little wallet.

 

LITTLE??

 

That was my little sprinkle of sarcasm...

 

I had the same problem with the cladding fadding and turning white. I took it in and showed it to the service rep and he had them replaced. That also solved the problem of the rattling cladding at high speeds. All under warranty.

 

I have to take mine in tommorow I will let you know...

 

I made an appointment to have my cladding replaced. I took it in on Monday evening, it was supposed to be finished when I got off work Tuesday. When I got there the service rep told me the "trim guy" called in sick. He apoligized and offered me a rental car. No big deal, he was bending over backwards to be helpful. They called me Wednesday afternoon and told me it was finished. When I got there the service writer apoligized again and told me he also had my truck washed. The lot-guy brought my truck around and the first thing I noticed was the same faded, crappy-looking panels on my truck! I am starting to get upset at this point...the service guy calls for the "trim guy". He starts to rip him a new one until the "trim guy" tells him that he just does what the service order tells him to do. The service writer wrote the order to replace the lip-moulding (goes around the windows) and he did, and it looked great, but it did before he replaced it!
Anyway...I got my new cladding and picked up my truck on Friday evening.
I have gotten three calls from the dealership asking "how was my service experiance", would I be able to fill out a "Customer Service Survey" from FORD completely satisfied?
This is the first problem I've had in 18 months with my dealer. I think I'll call them and tell the I want to test-drive an '05 Mustang for the weekend and then I'll be complely satisfied
James

 

Weel had mine replace today with no problems at all from the dealer. The service manager told me they were produced without UV protectant and that has been fixed on replacement panels..

 

My cladding was fading too, it was replaced under warranty.

 

I had the same problem. Ford, after calling numerous times complaining, issued a TSB to cover them. TSB 032303. Good Luck

 

Matt, I'm in SoCal and have faded body cladding on my 03 expy. I took it to the dealer (cerritos) and no help, talked to ford and no help! Please let me know how to go about this problem, I can't believe how rude everyone is at the dealer and ford! There is a serious problem if these body parts are fading after 1 year, what do we do next year and so on? Thanks for your input in advance. Damien