Door Panel Replacement is slightly different than the original, looking for advice

[Exev]

Hi all,

I have a 2026 Bronco Outer Banks with Lux, SAS, and BAP I special ordered from the factory. The driver side window was scratched pretty heavily from the factory so the dealer replaced it but in the process, put a ton of scratches in my driver side door panel that weren't there before they did the work. The dealer immediately ordered a replacement and it was installed a few days ago.

Just today, I noticed the vinyl at the top of the panel looks very slightly different than the rest of the vinyl on my other doors. Whereas the new panel is very dull and matte like, the original door panels on the rest of my Bronco have a different sheen / reflection.

Now that I've seen it, it bothers me, so I look it back to the dealer and they can see it too but don't fully understand the variance because the part # matches both the old panel they took off and the part for my VIN. I've also cross checked against Ford's part website and I believe them, it's the right part number.

Has anyone dealt with this before? It's really disappointing given the vehicle has less than 2k miles on it and I really treasure this thing. I've saved up for awhile to get one factory ordered and in my garage just for the dealer to put scratches in the plastic and now cause this small but annoying issue. Such is life I guess.

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[NC_Oak]

not sure which part of the door skin you mean, hard to tell from photos. But if your concern is simply matching, I'd ask them to order a full set (that would presumably match).

 

[Exev]

not sure which part of the door skin you mean, hard to tell from photos. But if your concern is simply matching, I'd ask them to order a full set (that would presumably match).

It's the sheen difference. It's almost like they're different materials in a sense. I'm actually starting to think the door panel replacement they put on was not built correctly. HVBOM via the dealer points to the part they ordered and replaced it with, but if I look at other new Broncos, it doesn't match them either.

I don't get it and it's super frustrating.

 

[HeliPilot]

Could it be something as simple as the original panel has been covered with some sort of protectant that left a sheen and the new one hasn’t been coated yet??

 

[Exev]

Could it be something as simple as the original panel has been covered with some sort of protectant that left a sheen and the new one hasn’t been coated yet??

I don't think so. I wash and detail my own vehicles and that was the first thing I looked for.

 

[Exev]

I ended up taking my Bronco to a different dealer and they fully acknowledged the issue and flat out said the panel is wrong and needs to be replaced. They ordered the panel no cost to me while also submitting their own claim to resolve it. Fingers crossed!

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