My paint is fine ,but you see how many mile my stang has ! And yes it's louder (to bad we can't hook a megaphone under there .lol Another reason why ford put it there was for fire suppresion ,in the event you had a engine fire .(premise was if you did ,you just slam the hood down to attempt to put the fire out ) In 33 yrs of owning 5 mustangs ,and 18 of owning this one ,never needed it .