Ford Says Owners Shouldn't Drive Their New Mustang GTD For A Month: Here's Why

Getting ahold of the most expensive street-legal Mustang is a privilege reserved for the lucky few. Even if you did manage to apply and secure a GTD after jumping through all the hoops and Ford's crazy allocation process, you may still have to wait a bit before you drive this track weapon on the road — 30 days, to be specific.

You can still drive it anyway, but Ford recommends against it. Surprisingly, the reason isn't recall-related, as many may assume, but rather its paint. Ford has advised Mustang GTD owners to wait 30 days for the paint to fully cure and gas out.

It's not uncommon to see exotics getting paint-protection-films or PPF applied as soon as owners take delivery, and most GTD buyers will likely follow the same route. The last thing you want is to drive your $325,000 Ford Mustang GTD through a hailstorm and damage its paint.

However, Ford is keen to point out that the wait before PPF is necessary, due to the Mustang GTD's extensive use of carbon fiber, as the traditional curing process that works with steel and aluminum can't be performed on the GTD at the factory.

If Ford is specifically telling its GTD customers to let the car sit, then listen to the company. Unlike steel or aluminum, carbon fiber is quite tricky to paint. Not only should it be prepped with additional care, but selecting the appropriate painting technique is also critical, owing to carbon composites having a unique set of properties.

De-gassing is especially important to prevent pinholes or bubbles in the paint caused by trapped air inside the carbon composites. This, of course, can apply to any surface and not just carbon. Since this uber quick Mustang is a limited-run special, built in partnership with Multimatic, it's not fully subject to the usual assembly line formalities and instead follows a more hand-made approach, evidenced by the GTD's paint de-gas window.

If you apply PPF before the paint fully cures, it can lead to bubbling and even serious paint damage. Mass-produced cars can usually avoid the wait before a PPF treatment, since they rarely use exotic materials, and the industrial ovens OEMs employ can cure the paint fairly quickly.

Professional installers have ways of inspecting the paint to know if it's ready for PPF. To avoid paint damage and expensive touch-ups in the case of the GTD or any high-end sports car, it's best to follow the OEM's instructions. If there aren't any such guidelines, the usual industry-recommended wait time for PPF is between 30 and 90 days, contingent on paint type, humidity, ambient temperature, and the actual curing method itself.

So, when someone asks why the brand-new six-figure 815-horsepower Mustang GTD that you just bought is sitting in the garage without being driven, tell them it's the paint.