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Orange peel

4K views 11 replies 8 participants last post by  BobsWK2 
#1 ·
I am asking for a tutorial on what causes this paint effect. I know it has been discussed elsewhere, but I need to know from someone who really understands this. My paint education ended in the enamel paint days.

In running my errands today, I paid attention to other cars. Wranglers are worse than Grand Cherokees. Mercedes are worse than Subarus. What happened to a flat paint job? Thanks. :confused:
 
#2 ·
i asked on the Meguiars forums many years ago. here is most of the answer.


Why does most all factory cars have orange peel? because factory cars are not color sanded and buffed all over after the final coat of clear.

Can you color sand a factory painted car? Yes
Is it a common thing? No
Reason: because factory painted cars are not shot with coat after coat after coat of clear like custom painted cars are with the intentions of color sanding off some of those coats of clear to leave a perfectly flat finish.............
 
#4 ·
So another thing I would add.

It's probably not the best idea to try to wetsand your orange peel out. You're going to reduce your clearcoat by a lot, leaving very little left for protection. This may not matter for the first few years of a garage queen, but as the vehicle ages and the clearcoat is worn down, it could pose an issue.

Cars that are going to be wetsanded to remove the orange peel are shot with extra clearcoat to allow for this AFAIK.
 
#5 ·
My durango was wetsanded before the sema show.....big difference between its paint and a new durango. I plan to have all my new vehciles done now
 
#7 · (Edited)
This is one of the reasons I considered buying a Porsche Cayenne, and they had Black Clear Coat exterior color available, and an all black interior, and Porsche tuned suspension. Anyway, the Porsche paint job is a mirror finish. If the one on the lot would have had BiXenon's and if I wasn't set on getting a new WK2 SRT8 at the time, I would have got the Cayenne probably. Then the SRT8 comes out priced $18,000 higher than expected.
 
#9 ·
This is one of the reasons I considered buying a Porsche Cayenne, and they had Black Clear Coat exterior color available, and an all black interior, and Porsche tuned suspension. Anyway, the Porsche paint job is a mirror finish.
Regarding orange peel, Porsche paint quality is as bad as everyone else's. Some cars may come out better than others because of incidental environmental variations while they were being painted, but it's just luck of the draw.

A brand-new $250,000 Ferrari will have orange peel. I am not aware of a single OEM that wet sands to eliminate orange peel from the factory.
 
#8 ·
Orange Peel is the uneven outer layer of the clear. I know this was stated but the thing is, its caused by many things. Too dry of a spray, too high of air pressure at the nozzle, too wide of a fan pattern causing the clear to be thin thus becoming dryer. The factory has orange peel, and I will tell you from doing it, its 100% easier to leave a car with a mirror finish by spraying 2 wet coats of clear and wet sanding the final coat. Its much much harder to spray the car to have orange peel and match the surrounding doors. (which is the goal of every paint repair on a factory painted car)

Hope this helped.
 
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