Question for F150 Detailers about orange peel

[mxracer49]

I have a red FX4 Screw F150. As most (or all?) F150 owners and detailers of are aware they tend to have pretty significant orange peel. Is there any possible way to minimize it without wet sanding? 105/205 combo? Just minimize. I know the only real cure is wet sanding, but I read of one place that wet sanded half a F150 hood then placed it on the roof of their business after correcting and polished/waxed the whole hood. They took it down a year later and claimed the paint faded much worse on the wet sanded side. I probably already know the answer.

[Markus Kleis]

Re: Question for F150 Detailers about orange peel

Welcome to MOL!

To answer your question, what wet sanding is doing to remove orange peel is removing paint. Ideally, it is mostly removing paint from the PEAKS of the orange peel, and not the valleys.

Then, after that is done, and the paint is smooth and level, you would need to buff out the sanding marks. As you have already noted, doing this with a factory paint job is NOT a good idea. There simply is not enough paint to work with.

If you try and accomplish the same level of orange peel reduction with a pad and polish, you actually are going A.) Most likely spend a very long time doing it B.) Remove paint from the valleys more than proper wet sanding technique would, and C.) You will end up with the same end result: not enough clear coat.

To make matters worse, and likely what your source mentioned the clear coat has the majority of the UV protection in the upper layers of the clear coat. Thus, the more you sand/compound/polish, the more crucial UV inhibitors are removed, in turn increasing the rate of fading of the paint underneath.

My best advice would be to simply focus on dealing with things within your realm of control (swirls, scratches, slickness, contamination on the paint, etc), and learn to live with the orange peel that all factory cars have.

[mxracer49]

Re: Question for F150 Detailers about orange peel

Thanks for the welcome and the reply!

Pretty much what I figured. Wet sanding is the only way. Pads can't level clearcoat or paint as effective as a flat surface correction (sanding) because the pads, being soft, follow the contour of the clearcoat/paint. Am I on the right track?

[Carfire]

Re: Question for F150 Detailers about orange peel

with Mark
Welcome to Meguiars Online!!
I also have a red F 150 it does have a lot of orange peel. But mainly on the tailgate and on the B and C pillars.

[onawrxhigh]

Re: Question for F150 Detailers about orange peel

What you need to take into account is that with a factory paint job orange peel starts with the very first layer of paint(primer) and is magnified as the other coats of paint are added(colorcoat and clearcoat). Unlike a professional autobody shop that specializes in show cars OEM vehicles are not blocked and sanded between paint steps. This is why show cars start with a orange peel free finish. They with spray on some primer block and sand, then spray on the colorcoat and sand, then spray multiple lays of clear, then sand out any orange peel and then buff to a mirror finish. I would not consider sanding an OEM finish due to the simple fact that it is harder that repaints(harder due to being a baked finish which makes removeing sanding scratches hard to buff out), and your clear is what is actually providing the UV protect. We all know what happens when we remove to much clear we get clearcoat failure. I have a 1999 F-150 and the tailgate has bad orange peel. I have just learned to live with it.

Andrew

[Carfire]

Re: Question for F150 Detailers about orange peel

I agree with Andrew.
I am not planning on wet sanding, so I just deal with it.
As it is my truck looks better with orange peel, than peoples cars who do not have orange peel.

[Tuck91]

Re: Question for F150 Detailers about orange peel

i have noticed a little orange peel on the bedside of my truck but other than that it is pretty minimal, i am not skilled enough or confident enough to wetsand a car and i can live with orange peel and i dont want CC failure to arise later on

[Chesney09]

Re: Question for F150 Detailers about orange peel

Rookie question, what are you talking about Orange peal? What is it actually? Pics?

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Question for F150 Detailers about orange peel

As Mark pointed out, factory paint is too thin to safely sand and buff to remove orange peel.

Besides the thin factor, it's also going to be more difficult to remove the sanding marks as factory paint is baked on and usually fairly hard, this will make removing the sanding marks difficult.

Best thing to do is to learn to live with it

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Question for F150 Detailers about orange peel

Rookie question, what are you talking about Orange peal? What is it actually? Pics?

Orange Peel is a term used to describe the surface texture of paint on cars, here's a picture, it's the dimpled area on the hood.

[onawrxhigh]

Re: Question for F150 Detailers about orange peel

One other point I forgot to make earlier in regards to the orange peel and modern paint systems is this. If you wet sand a car with OEM paint that has orange peel and BC/CC. You are just sanding on the clearcoat and only slightly removing the orange peel which is show all of the built up layers of orange peel from the other coats of applied paint. It will not be removed completely due to the fact you are only sanding down the highest points of the clear. To remove it you would have to sand down to the valleys if the peel. This would more than likely remove to much clear resulting in clearcoat failure soone than later.

Andrew

[Chesney09]

Re: Question for F150 Detailers about orange peel

Orange Peel is a term used to describe the surface texture of paint on cars, here's a picture, it's the dimpled area on the hood.

Ahh ok, I understand now. I was kind of stumped on the term Orange peel when I read it on other forms and finally thought I would ask. Simple term to realize I guess now seeing a pic. Thanks Mike.

[To be named later]

Re: Question for F150 Detailers about orange peel

Can application of a good polish followed by good wax minimize the appearance of orange peel? I know that the polish and wax don't actually fix the orange peel since the problem is with the paint under the clearcoat, but will it at least help?

Or do you just end up with a nice shiny orange peel?

[Nappers]

Re: Question for F150 Detailers about orange peel

It may soften it a little bit as our Neon has orange peel and I'm not going to sand it for fear of a thin CC.

It does look better though but it's still there. I just learned to live with it.

[Hemin8r]

Re: Question for F150 Detailers about orange peel

I've worked on one F-150 before and I did notice it had some orange peel. It wasn't too bad though. After the paint was polished and waxed it really wasn't that noticeable unless you were up close and had the right light. Not that the polishing stage or the waxing removed the orange peel.

You can see the orange peel on the 5th pic down

http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22782