Check your Paint!
 

As the end of my 3/36 warranty approaches I gave my Expy a good once over and found this
http://home.pacbell.net/cclary1/Paint__Medium_.JPG
Above the rear passenger door in the drip channel. It looks like metal flakes had gotten mixed in when they painted it and now they are rusting and popping through. This is happening at 16 months of ownership. The suv is garaged every night and washed weekly. I am taking it in tomorrow and will report back what they say. This is poor quality at it's finest. I suggest everyone else go check their roofs in the daylight and look for this problem.

Definately sucks. Inside the drip channel is odd.

I found a similar problem on my lower passenger door just behind the molding where the lower door meets the front fender. I haven't said or done anything about it yet as its not rusting or noticeable unless your laying on your back under the door.

Dropped it off today. They were pretty receptive and admitted it was a flaw. I will know more later, may have to paint the roof. I don't want this stuff to spread.

Well got a call from the dealer. They tried to wetsand the problem areas and that didn't work, so they will repaint the entire roof. I didn't think it would seeing that the paint and clear coat are so thin on the roof. We will see what happens.

Thanks for the warning, My Expy will be turning 36K this week and needs a thourgh cleanup and inspection.

My 2007 exp had the same problem along the font edge of the hood,the paint was starting to bubble, so my hubby took it in to the dealer and they repainted the hood no questions asked. Ford called it contamination in the paint. Now we will have to see how well it holds up to an upstate N.Y. winter!

glad to see they are fixing it Berry

I'm waiting for my Expy to start rusting everywhere after all the bull**** I went through.

I found similar rust spots in my drip channel too, but not as bad. Its the weld seam between the roof and the side panels. The Expedition use a self leveling filler compound that gets painted, but a lot of vehicles use a black trim piece to cover the gap. I'll be taking my Expy in to have the apply touch up paint to the problem area. Its out of the cosmetic view, but I don't want it to spread.

As long as they remove the rust.

They ended up painting the entire roof. They tried to 'spot' paint the rusted/bubbled areas, but it didn't look right.

I got my Expy back last night. I didn't want to mess with a complete repaint of the roof, so I just had them apply touchup paint to the few trouble spots. The roof line is out of site unless you're standing on the running board. I'm satisfied with the repair and they were nice enough to leave me a fresh bottle of touch up paint. A nice gesture considering I've spent more on gas than what the paint costs taking it to the dealer 3 times for this issue (once for the service writer, once for the body man to give his opinion, and lastly the repair)
I'm certain as our vehicles age, we'll start to see the paint crack off of the roof seal since its a painted elastomer that will flex and the paint will not stick to as well as metal. Mine may be more obvious than others because of my white paint, and the sealant is black. Most vehicles nowadays use a black rubber trim piece to cover the gap.

I agree with the channels. I know they have to put something over the weld seam. I guess if it starts to look bad you could put your own rubber molding.

As far as the rust fix, I think your going to be ok. You can also get a prep pen like this http://www.langka.com/images/lpreppen.jpg to clean away the rusted/bubbling paint, clean the surface, prime let dry paint, let dry then clear coat. They sell the primer and clear coat pens at any auto parts stores.

It's a shame Ford has sunk to the level that are at as far as paint quality. My hinges were not even painted from the factory. When they re-painted the roof, they painted them though. The paint is so thin on the roof it is ridiculous.

I had the same thin paint roof problem on my former Eddie Bauer Explorer, which my dealer considered as normal. Then, after the warranty expired, the paint were peeling off, despite best efforts to keep the truck washed, waxed, and garaged.

My previous current-gen Limited Expedition had dust or speck under the paint on the roof channel. That may well be like that rusted specks like you have few years down the road!

My old Explorer also have areas that were not painted that they should have, results in paint peeling in nook and crannies. My old Expedition has that as well, unfortunately as I get to know the truck intimately as I washed and waxed.

I am done with Fords for now. They have long ways to go before I re-consider them in the future.

Well the paint saga continues. After having a chance to look at 'their work' I have found they did a horrible paint job. 1) the prepping is the worst I have seen. About as good as a Earl Sheib job. They didn't remove the satellite antenna or rear windows-they painted up 1/8" on the antenna-there are drips and sags all over above the rear window. There are numerous large dents in the body along the top sides where I assume they rested there knees while sanding! There is a huge dent near the antenna. They blended in the paint and stopped it in the middle of a panel instead of painting the entire panel, which will cause the clear to fail over time. I have a call into the dealer, I will post pix soon. Unbelievable.

You have got to be kidding me berry, what a bunch of idiots. . . ..