Orange Peel Effect

[sjanisz]

Hi all,
Been hard at it removing swirls etc with megs deep crystal 123 and scratch x,
got rid of the swirls alright however instead of the mirror finish, I have what can be described as orange peel, sure its shining brilliantly but its certainly no mirror. Any ideas or is this just a **** paint job from VX, car is 2 years old and ultra blue

cheers SJ

[pogo]

sounds like thje car may have been resprayed at some time maybe due to damage,yo usually get orange peel effect when theres been a crappy spray job done on the car must admit the paintwork on my car is mirror smooth good quality for a vauxhall!

[rushy]

As above, sounds like a poor paint job mate.

[johnmac]

I have this "orange peel" effect on my 2004 black Sri.I only noticed it months after I had bought it,after a good polish AND on a really sunny day.I took it to a Dealers and they said that it must have been a repair (on the roof!!!). I went back to the company who sold it (this is probably 8 months after buying the thing) and questioned the condition of car they had sold me.They checked "allegedly" and said there has been no accident repair.

Apart from going down the route of trading the car in etc (getting shafted!) there wasn't an alteranative due to the timescale that had passed.Just unlucky.I'm none the wiser as to whether it is a bad paint job from the manufacture of the car OR it is a repair,but popping the sunglass holder out,I can't feel anything on the metal of the roof and there is nothing obvious elsewhere.

Luckily it rains a lot in Scotland so it only bothers me 5 or 6 days out the year.

[VauxVeteran]

That is 95% a repair, very unusual to see it from the factory these days as a machine sprays the body I believe, in the old days you would get it on a new car if the painter had been on the beer the night before, best solution I can think of is to mask it with some colour magic, might work.

[John H]

If you look close enough, you would prob see it on a lot of our cars, Andy started a thread about it a while ago, check this......LINKY

[v6 kid]

bottle of g3 and g10 compnd will sort u out mate am a spraypainter to trade feel fre to pm for info

[Bainie]

Ford cars are really bad for orange peely paint, I would imagine it is the factory finish, you have just brought it out more by polishing it. Go have a look at the roof of a new focus, I looked at an ST, you could actually feel it !!

[AR-CoolC]

I would say that every car painted at any factory in the world has orange peel to some degree. I've even seen it on brand new Bentleys etc.

what you are experiencing is a phenomenom called "looking at the car after cleaning it and now notice every small detail"

Rubbing it down or going at it with heavy compounds is very unlikely to make any difference, as the orange peel is usually the surface of the colour layer underneath the clear coat.

It's just one of those things with modern cars I'm afraid.

[VauxVeteran]

I'll agree with that, everytime you use T-Cut etc, you take off a layer of laquer or paint, I remember T-Cutting my dads old FD Victor, it was white and had bloomed (gone dull) I worked real hard by hand giving it my special T-Cut/Wax Polish hybrid 1981 mix, got her up like new, 3 weeks later it was dull again.

Btw, not that i imagine many of you would use T-Cut, but if you do, 50/50 in a bottle, good shake, apply one panel at a time, and buff off, the T-cut in the mix cuts the paint, the wax kinda gives some protection, but best of all it makes removing the T-Cut a doddle, much easier than the T-cut only method.

p.s why did that stuff always smell like wee?