Orange Peal

[Race Grandpa]

Just got my Miata out the body shop where they had to replace the front bumper. They used an aftermarket bumper.

Most of the bumper has orange peal. They told me that it always happens.

Last year we had to have the rear bumper of our Lexus repainted and it did not have any orange peal.

Why the difference???

[ChevyNick]

Well whoever did the paint job didn't do good prep work, wet sanding between coats, etc...

[Shootist]

Orange Peel

Was it the same body shop?Aftermarket bumper should have nothing to do with it.
Orange peel is the result of mediocrity in the application of base, and/or clear coat.
They should have wet sanded and buffed the finish. Take it back.

[greg0303]

Re: Orange Peal

The paint surface should be flat not wavey. After spraying paint it has to be sanded flat and sanding marks have to be removed by compounding and polishing.
The body shop didn't do it right.

If possible ask them to fix it.

[Murr1525]

Re: Orange Peal

It probably always does happen when they do it....

[Race Grandpa]

Re: Orange Peal

State Farm came by to look at it and they did not like the job. The original paint job had a very slight amount but it almost took a magnifing glass to see it.

State Farm is going to have the shop do it over again.

I suspect that those insurance carriers that provide insurance with no local agent or inspectors would have ever help me with this. Or it would be like pulling teeth to get them to take care of it.

I recommend a good insurance agent with local agent.

State Farm comes out to do audits on cars that have been repaired & repainted.

Thank goodness I have State Farm

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Orange Peal

The amount of orange peel present has everything to do with the way the painter lays down the paint. While some level of orange peel is extremely common, even on very expensive cars with OEM paint jobs (think high end Mercedes Benz, BMW, Lexus, etc) a good painter should be able to match the factory orange peel when repainting a panel as part of the collision repair process.

The process of laying down multiple coats of clear coat only to sand most of it away in order to end up with a perfectly flat finish is generally only done on high priced custom paint jobs. It is a very time consuming and therefore expensive process. In the collision repair industry you just won't find an insurance company that will pay for the extra time needed to do this. But that doesn't mean you should accept shoddy work, and while some orange peel is acceptable it shouldn't be excessive. In fact, it should match the factory orange peel in order to be a seamless repair. Let's face it, if you've got a car with a fair bit of factory orange peel throughout (and we see this all the time) and a body shop were to replace a fender, for example, but they sanded that fender dead flat so that there was literally zero orange peel, it would look out of place on the car. It may be an expert paint and finish job on that fender, but it's actually not a correct repair because it doesn't match the rest of the car. What are you to do then? Pay someone $1500 to wet sand and compound the rest of the car to match the repaired panel? So the problem can go both ways. But for the body shop to just pass it off by saying "it always happens" is a bad sign indeed.

Our Jason Rose, in his travels through Europe, often tells the story of how the body shops at nicer dealerships in Germany, Switzerland, Norway, etc are the nicest parts of those dealerships. The guys working in the body shops are highly respected, the work areas extremely clean. And if a painter has to replace the fenders on three cars, one with heavy orange peel, one with medium peel, and one with light peel, he'll match those varying levels of peel as he shoots the paint. Finish work involves just some light spot repair with a foam pad and compound. The thought of wet sanding an entire panel and then wool pad compounding it is just completely alien to them and they don't understand why it's so common here. Of course, there are painters here in the US who can do the same, but whereas it seems to be the norm at dealerships and body shops in Europe, it's the exception here.

Good for State Farm for taking care of you and making the shop redo the work. After all, it's State Farm who's actually paying for the work, and they shouldn't accept shoddy work either.

[Shootist]

Factory Orange Peel

Never thought I'd see the day when we talked about "matching levels of factory orange peel". I have worked in the automobile industry since the 1980's with Chrysler, Volvo, SAAB, Lotus, Maserati, Mercedes, BMW and Mazda.
The factory paint jobs today are the WORST I've ever seen.