What are you talking about? Almost all cars have orange peel, most of them just as bad as the Corvette.

Every car I looked at when I went to the D.C. Auto Show had orange peel, including the Porsche 911 Turbo and the brand new BMW 7-series.

Hell, I even got a pic of the 7-series' orange peel.

It's washed out in the camera shot and looks worse in person:

 

The paint job on my '99 Nassau Blue coupe is dead-sexy. Very little (if any) noticable orange peel. (and trust me, I'm very picky). At the last Vette show I went to (in Boerne Tx) I saw some blue '04 com. ed. vettes there and the orange peel was HORRIBLE.. worst I've seen on ANY car. Heck, even my 60 year old mother pointed out the orange peel on these cars. So, as far as I can tell, the orange peel finish seems to have gotten worse later on. Oh, and yes, there were several of those blue vettes there and they ALL had the peel problem, big time.

 

I have a yellow corvette that the district manager says has 100% orange peel. The car is 2 months old and looks terrible. GM says that this is normal and to drive the car and injoy it. unreal for a $55,000 car

 

That is I will find orange peel on EVERY car painted with a robot and not sanded after the fact.
I dont care if the car was 20K or 200K if it is done with a robot and not sanded it is almost impossible
Bottom line is live with it or pay the money to have the car painted correctly

 

Physician, heal thyself. At least learn how to spell "lacquer".

I've been painting cars for over 30 years, have seen every kind of orange peel known to man, and have block sanded many show cars until my fingers bled. The idea that all orange peel is in the clear coat is pure myth. I can't tell you how many times I've seen guys with a heavy hand sand right through the clear coat, only to discover that the orange peel was still there in the underlying base coat. This is true for acrylic lacquer, enamel, urethane, polyurethane, and the newer water-based formulations. Granted, on base coat/clear coat systems, the underlying base coat is very thin, and is usually pretty flat. "Usually" is the operative word.

I do agree that the factory robotic painting systems don't help, and neither do the flexibility and heat expansion characteristics of composite body panels. But another factor that accentuates orange peel is the nature of the thinners that the factory uses. They want the paint to dry quickly to avoid picking up air contaminants. Custom shops often use retardants to slow the drying process, thus allowing the paint to flow out (smoothe) while it dries. I've done some cycle helmets and tanks using acrylic lacquer mixed with lots of retarder that took several hours to dry, and required no sanding whatsoever. Talk about a wet look!

Sadly, acrylic lacquer is now almost impossible to find, thanks to EPA rules. I miss the days when you could get high as a kite while spraying, without worrying too much about destroying your lungs.

 

 

I see orange peel on almost every car I get close too. My 03 QS Z seems to hide it better than other colors though.

And yes black seems to be the worst for showing it.

Tom

 

there's not an inch of orange peel on my '01 x5 4.4i (blue) and yes, i know what it looks like, it's all over my 04 z16

 

Thanks for being the spell check police.. it's obvious to me that you have spent 30 years sniffing lacquer fumes.. there is never any orange peel in base coats because the coats above it fill in the shrink . Anyone who has been around paint as much as you say should know that. You clear coat any car and when you block sand the clear, the highspots of the orange peel appear dull because the sanding block just hits the high spots and the low spots appear as shiny dots...because the sanding block has not hit them yet. Anyone who has block sanded knows that when the shiny dots disappear, the orange peel is gone... the paint is flat and ready to be buffed. Try detox HITMAN99 it could help... I've been around custom paint jobs for 40 years and have done my fair share of block sanding.

 

I too have many years vested in the field of painting. Both in finishing, and refinishing. If you study how paint is applied then you should conclude that all liquid paint that is applied with a spray-on application, be it human or robotic, will have some rippling left in the film. Why? because as the liquid is atomized each droplet of paint is sphere shaped as it travels through the air. Then when the sphere lands on the substrate it flows out from its rounded form and joins with the other droplets. The 'leveling' has only a certain amount of time to take place before the film is dried thus preventing further movement of the film. Things that change the rate of cure of the paint will also change the amount of leveling. Application viscosity, air presure and volume, distance the spray travels through the air, even the differences in the paint resins and pigments all have some effect on the final appearance of the orange peel. Clear coats should be less likley to create their own orange peel due to the lack of pigments. But they will do little to cover up the orange peel that is beneath them. The peel may have started in the prime coat and you can still see it in the last coat of clear. If you want a surface that is smooth as glass, sand and buff it.

 

[QUOTEBe glad they didn't block sand your car. You only have two clear coats.[/QUOTE]

That isn't quite true. Actually the clear coat on the C5 is pretty thick. I've cut the clear coat down deep when removing bird **** etching and was amazed at just how thick the clear coat was.

Tom

 

All the Vettes have orange peel. The orange peel is a done by design. Most Vettes have equal orange peel just some colors show it a little more. As for color sanding and buffing, it can be done all day on these cars. Once you knock down the high spots the cars look awesome. The car has plenty of clear on it and you won't hurt a thing. My shop has color sanded well over 50 C5's and everyone thinks these owners have new paint jobs once when we are done. We generally take 1000-1500 grit paper to the car. Most shops won't touch this type of upgrade as they don't feel comfortable. If you're ever in SC send me an email and we can discuss fixing you up.

(dtsngit@bellsouth.net)

Mike

 

ok- being a novice I gotta ask this question. I thought orange peel was normal? At least a little. I have it on my car - but I was told it was normal. Do you have any pictures - so I can compare it to mine?

 

Ok, I am confused - I have orange peel over my entire car - I noticed it when I bought it 1 year ago and took it to the dealer and they said it was normal? Did they lie?