6SpeedBowtie

I have read several posts about Orange Peel.

What is it?

and

How do I prevent it?

Thanks.

jlfrogy

You can't prevent it. It happens when they paint the car. Don't know what causes it, but most cars have even a little. My vette has very little or it has been polished out. If you look at your paint at a certain angle the finish it looks just like the peel of an orange. Hence the name "orange peel".

Wayne88

Does this [ orange peel] happen to factory finishes or just repaints??

:bb

KLO

Both, orange peel is eliminated after the final shooting of clear coat by wet sanding and the cutting and polishing the paint with a buffer, since factory cars are not wet sanded all over (some may be sanded in spots as you can see if you tour the Vette plant as I have, they sometimes pull a car off the line and repair a run or spot in the paint) most all factory cars will have orange peel.

Oraange Peel has many causes but basically it is uneven application or uneven drying of the clear coat.

DetailingDude

People have confused what Orange Peel actually is.

What you get out of the factory, 99.999999999999% of the time is not Orange Peel it's a bit of what I call lazy waves. It's a fact of the newer painting process...... depending on the manufacturer's painting process you can find it to be lesser to a degree.

What Orange Peel really is is often found in a body shop atmosphere where they have improperly adjusted their gun and/or paint settings. What you can see if that is the case something that actually looks like the peel of an Orange.

How do you avoid getting it? If you ever have to get your Corvette repainted don't skimp. Find out how they prepare the surfaces before painting, the conditions they paint in and if they do any wet-sanding/buffing after the painting.

:cheers:

Thud

New EPA regulations limit the amount of solvent that can be added to the paint pigment.

As a result, the paint is a bit thicker and doesn't spread out perfectly evenly when it hits the surface.

A lot of cars these days have "factory orange peel" including my 02 Z06. Basically it looks like the paint has a slight bumpy sort of texture if you get up close, even though it feels perfectly smooth. Most noticeable on dark colors.

DetailingDude

Exactly! The origin of the term is from something that actually looked like Orange Peel. Now it's been co-opted to mean something that's not as smoothe as glass.

These days you only really see Orange Peel in an aftermarket body shop....... factory paint is just lazy waves.

George Cooper

My 2000 DBGM had plenty of orange peel from the factory, and the clear was very soft. Pretty bad paint job actually. Eventually got it repainted with wet sanding, and there is not a trace of orange peel and the clear is much more durable.