Exterior: Paint

Check for major peeling and scratches. Virtually all CVPIs will have minor scratches and dings throughout that are not worth worrying about. But Ford’s paint was garbage, and certain paint colors - particularly white, and to a slightly lesser extent, black - will exhibit serious peeling resulting in showing the bare metal underneath. This should at least be painted over with spray paint or something to avoid rust, but once peeling (or worse, rusting) starts, it will not stop. You will need to sand down the whole car and repaint it.

Check also for bubbling paint, which signals either rusting or Bondo. Rusting is bad, but Bondo is… slightly less bad, if the rust was neutralized before its application.

Finally, check for orange peel texture on the paint. This is not a major issue, but it signals a poorly done paint job. If it is only on one body panel, that panel is probably not original.

The paint code (assuming it has not been repainted) is shown on the door sticker, which is placed on the internal edge of the driver’s side door. This sticker also has VIN, build date, and other fun tidbits.

The following is a list of known paint codes taken directly from each year's Order Guide:

Avoid Maaco unless you are dirt poor.