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SMC is NOT compressed fiberglass sheets! I'm sure you can measure differences in surface profile as you can with metal! My "guess" is "orange peel" has more surface profile then the SMC. Have a profilometer? With the latest AFM technology I'm sure you can measure anything!
Profilometers: Paraphrasing an article on the subject:
Optical Profilers: Quantitative measurement of surface topography is now a key QC/QA requirement in an increasingly broad range of industries, products and materials. This includes measurements on finished products, such as for hip implant bearing surfaces, to aesthetic considerations, an example being orange peel in automotive paint.
Optical profilers offer a very large Z-axis range (depth) from a few nanometers up to feature heights as great as 10,000 microns.
AFM: The latest tool in the arsenal of solutions for QC Metrology is the atomic force microscope (AFM). In an AFM, a hyper-fine tip, such as a single crystal of silicon or diamond, is mounted on a lightweight cantilever arm and brought into contact with a surface.
The in-plane (or XY) resolution of an AFM is mainly limited by the tip radius, and it is often 10 nanometers or sometimes better. The resolution in the vertical (Z) dimension is not directly related to the tip, and may be in the range of 0.05 nanometer (0.5 Å). (= 0.000005 microns!)
They do look nice from 10 feet. Too much print through up close, especially on an eighty thousand dollar machine. Is the body made with different materials as compared to the c6?
Yes, that's something you have to accept, but what you get in return is a car a good 500 lbs. lighter, and a minimum of $50K less expensive than the competition.
I'm completely brand agnostic, and have owned a dozen or so high-performance vehicles (over 50 total) from almost every manufacturer except the exotics. I was impressed by every one of them. I'm also more tuned into how a car performs. This one is very, very good and from a performance standpoint better than any other I've owned.
10 feet away is good enough. I don't have the desire to be any closer unless I'm inside.
If it bothers you that much a Cut and Polish from a quality detail shop will smooth things out. I've been quoted $700 - $1000. Quite frankly I've gotten used to it and it doesn't bother me anymore.
Your right Jake, it's that darn Corvette fiberglass "printing" just like in did on the first in 1953 (and some subsequent years) with glass cloth laid in a gel coated mold !" It's not the "Orange Peel!"
1953 Vette Being Manufactured from Fiberglass Cloth! Great 22 Minute Video;
TCA Ultra Lite (fiberglass composite) > 1st introduced on the '16 Corvette > 20lb weight reduction on a coupe.
Significant reduction in body panel density > 1.6 for 2014 > 1.2 for 2016.
Patented treatment technology used on glass microspheres allows resin to adhere to the matrix & increase the interfacial strength between the bubble & the resin. This results in a more robust resin mix that makes molded parts more resistant to handling damage, preventing microcracks that cause paint pops, pits & blistering.
On the C7, a total of 21 body panel assemblies, including doors, decklids, quarter panels & fenders, are molded from TCA Ultra Lite.
