bumpy appearance

[tbaz]

i DA cut clean / polish /wax and the pathfinder is black free of scratches/swirls and is clean and reflective. i used m85/83/7x2/NXTx2
my finish looks clean reflective but not crystal clear, kind if bumpy looking. but when i took a good scuff out with 85 on the rear it looks crystal clear(just that one spot) is this just a paint thing or is it me.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: bumpy appearance

Sounds like Orange Peel.

You remove Orange Peel by wet-sanding but this is usually done and safely done on re-paints, not factory finishes.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: bumpy appearance

Here's a pictures of some orange peel, its in the paint in the upper portion of this pictures, see how it has kind of a bumpy look to it?

[Mike Phillips]

Re: bumpy appearance

Here's another picture of orange peel

[tbaz]

Re: bumpy appearance

yes thats exactly it. any way to get info on this, like is there anyway to rid this or make better or products to compliment this

[Murr1525]

Re: bumpy appearance

All you can really do on factory paint is have the shiniest orange peel possible...

[Mike Phillips]

Re: bumpy appearance

Murr1525 is right.

The way you remove orange peel is by wet-sanding the paint flat and then using a rotary buffer to remove your sanding marks.

In the REAL WORLD mos of this kind of work is done when the paint is fresh, as in a day or two old after being sprayed at a body shop.

Not a factory baked on, case-hardened clear coat that is a thin as a piece of printer paper. Sure you can sand factory paint, but getting the sanding marks out is where it gets tricky because the paint is not very polishable, that's another way of saying it's usually to hard to work with.

It's also not a good idea to tackle anything that you spend a lot of money on, (like a new car), and "learn" how to wet-sand, cut and buff.

Just using a rotary buffer to buff out an ENTIRE car is a whole bunch of work that requires, a strong back, strong arms, strong legs and lots of energy as it's going to take you days to do the job right.

Unless you have years of experience wet-sanding, cutting and buffing paint, it might be easier and cheaper to learn to accept the orange peel as the kind of quality car manufactures give you and the next time you buy a car look more closely and if you find the car you're interested in to have orange peel and your expectations are to hight to accept this kind of lack of quality in workmanship then be sure to let the sales person know, maybe even writhe the manufacture a letter.

The other option would be to have you car repainted and then arrange ahead of time to find a shop that can deliver a quality finish with no orange peel and now swirls and be ready to pay for this level of quality.

That's kind of the reality of it.

Don't forget that first option... learn to live with it... that's the lest costly option...

[HK77]

Re: bumpy appearance

Here's a pictures of some orange peel, its in the paint in the upper portion of this pictures, see how it has kind of a bumpy look to it?

Hi Mike, my car has that orange peel effect like in your above picture but not that coarse and it's finer a little bit and can see only from some angles. Only yesterday, I found out that the reason why the reflections of my car is shady and not clear is because of that orange peels. My car has been re-painted last year and today, I go to the paint shop and discuss with them. They said it's very difficult to not have orange peel effect when spraying Crystal White Pearl Colour (062) colour code. I don't know they are right or wrong.
But they offer me an option to recondition the paint during these days. They said they will lessen these orange peels with rotary and compounds. Is it possible in that way? They never said about wet sanding. So, I want to know whether it's still possible and safe to wet-sand my car after it's been painted for about 1 year. If so, I will ask them to wet-sand too.

Thanks

[yalerd]

Re: bumpy appearance

But they offer me an option to recondition the paint during these days. They said they will lessen these orange peels with rotary and compounds. Is it possible in that way? They never said about wet sanding. So, I want to know whether it's still possible and safe to wet-sand my car after it's been painted for about 1 year. If so, I will ask them to wet-sand too.

If it's not that noticeable then I would live with it and maybe won't let the paint shop touch it since you just recently did a full detail.

Maybe they can remove a little bit of the orange peel, doubt they will remove it 100% but I'm sure they will not deliver your car as they took it, chances are if you decide to let the paint shop work you'll have to give it a full detail again.

[Pocket_Aces]

Re: bumpy appearance

In all reality unless its a show car you want some amount of orange peel as it is a sign that the paint is still factory, especially if the orange peel matches across all panels. Many repainted panels get wetsanded almost flat to remove runs, sags, and particulates in the paint which is something I look for when I am buying a used car. All factory paints unless someone has wetsanded them will have some amount of noticeable orange peel, even lexus, BMW and Ferrari though some delusional people will try to argue that.

[HK77]

Re: bumpy appearance

Wow! Paint shops are that bad!! Yes, I washed, clayed, DC2, M21 2.0 on it last week. Now, the car is shine and clean except that orange peels. Regarding the statement "they will not deliver your car as they took it", do you mean they will give me back my car with full of swirls? If so, I have to think twice b/4 sending my car there. But what I thought that, as they are professionals and they said they will use rotary and so, I had hoped they can even remove somes swirls and scratches out of my paint. What's your opinion?

Thanks All Anyway

[Mike Phillips]

Re: bumpy appearance

They said they will lessen these orange peels with rotary and compounds.

Is it possible in that way?

Compounding with a coarse compound with a wool pad will remove paint, so yes it will remove orange peel but it will remove the lower points of the paint at the same time, not just the peaks, so it's not the best way to remove orange peel

The best way is to sand the pant flat and then use a rotary buffer with a compound to remove the sanding marks.

They never said about wet sanding. So, I want to know whether it's still possible and safe to wet-sand my car after it's been painted for about 1 year. If so, I will ask them to wet-sand too.

Thanks

If you read this forum enough you'll note that there are more "Horror Stories" about people's experience having their car sanded and buffed than their are "Success Stories".

Most sanding and buffing is done at body shops within a few days after the last coat of paint is sprayed. During this time the paint tends to be softer and it's easier for a person to remove sanding marks.

After the paint fully dries and hardens it's still easy to sand, it's the removal of sanding marks that becomes difficult.

Besides all of the above, most the time when this kind of work is done the people doing the work either don't have the knowledge of how to find the job without leaving swirls or they don't have the inclination to finish the job without swirls and then you're left with a swirled out finish.

Print this out and show it to the people you're thinking of letting do the work and see what they have to say about each step they're going to do starting with the sanding step and listing every step all the way as to how they'll do their last machine process to insure all swirls are removed.

They should be charging you a lot of money for this to because it's going to take a lot of man hours to do it right, how many depends upon how many people will be working on the project. Will it be one person? Or 3 people? The more people the faster they can do the entire process but if it's just one person then to do it right you're talking about 2-3 days and that means 2-3 days of labor.

If the job is done if a few hours, that speaks volumes about the quality of the work.

2 Questions for you to answer

1) Is this your Daily Driver?

2) Or are you getting a Show Car ready for display?


My 1975 GMC Jimmy has Orange Peel and I have ZERO plans of wet-sanding it just to get rid of the orange peel. I want maximum paint thickness so the paint will last over the service life of the truck or until I decide to repaint it. It's a truck, it's a daily driver, it's used and abused. Removing the orange peel doesn't make good common sense for a vehicle like this and the way it's used. More important is to just keep it clean and shiny and keep it protected too.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: bumpy appearance

Here's the most recent "Horror Story"

http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27977

Can't find a recent "Success Story", I can easily find some more "Horror Stories" though...

Sorry to say, but that's how the industry works, that's why so many people come to this forum and learn to do it themselves.

You'll rarely find a person that will work on your car you like you would if you had the skills, knowledge and experience to do what needed to be done.

Look for this type of person to do your work and be willing and ready to pay them accordingly.

The Mindset of a Professional Detailer

[HK77]

Re: bumpy appearance

Thanks All, especially Mike for your very informative advices. My car is a daily driver but I just love my car shine, clean and pop among other cars. So, according to your advice, I think it's better I learn to live with it and sending my car to a body shop and come back with the worse condition.

Thanks All.