# Orange Peel



## RandomlySet (Jul 10, 2007)

Hi all....

Just had a request to polish someones car that has just came from the body shop covered in orange peel....

How hard/easy is this to correct?

Pads I have are Rubbish Boys red, orange and blue

Polishes I have are
AG SRP
Dodo Juice LP 
(I know those 2 wont do anything)
Mark V Uno
Mark V Qwik Kut
Mark V Mystique
Mark V AIO
Mark V Glisten

and a couple of other Mark V samples!


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## pdv40 (Sep 11, 2008)

Doesn't orange peel need to be sanded back and then polished?


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## RandomlySet (Jul 10, 2007)

that's sorta what I was wondering 

Either that, or a really abbrasive polish


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## Richf (Apr 26, 2008)

Think it needs wet sanding and it is a bit of a minefield , i read up a great deal before i tackled mine and i still made a pig ear out of it , its not easy to be warned


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## RandomlySet (Jul 10, 2007)

balls to wet sanding a whole car! lol

may give it a go (only if he's gonna have another respray anyway lol)


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## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

You'll need to sand it.

Only way you'll manage to knock back the OP by machine polishing is if the paint is really really soft and you go at it pretty hard - that's if the OP is even in the top coat...


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## kenny wilson (Oct 28, 2008)

Sorry, I must be missing the point here. It went into a bodyshop and came out covered in orange peel? accepted that? paid the bodyshop? and now you are tasked to attempt a correction. Not for nowt I'm guessin.
Think I would go back to the culprits.


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## RandomlySet (Jul 10, 2007)

Clark: cheers fella....

Don't fancy wetsanding a full car! would take weeks (a panel or so at a time). Probably would be better off goin back to bodyshop


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## PETER @ ECLIPSE (Apr 19, 2006)

sounds like a poor spray , but by todays standards thats the norm, take it back


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## karl_liverpool (Sep 25, 2008)

theres no actual need to wet sand it. it can be done by rotary and compound
i did a focus rs today and every one of them came with op as standard.
when finished i had made a 50% difference to the look of the paint and more than doubled the depth. with 5 hours polishing by rotary and cartec paint control. 
none of my polish contain fillers. they are all bodyshop refinish products

if it doesnt reduce with compounding then its in the colour coat. showing that the body shop never flatted the paint down before clear was layed down


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## fleagala (Apr 18, 2009)

whats wrong with orange peel?


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## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

First thing I'll say - you do _not_ need to wetsand to remove orange peel... It happens to be very effective at removing orange peel but this is because the removal rates are high and that is what is required to flat back to where you will get a mirror smooth finish (if, of course, the OP is not in the colour coats).

However, you can also approach this using a wool pad on a rotary polisher and a heavy cutting compound such as Meguiars #95 or #105 at high speeds - this I find more effective that wetsanding at orange peel removal as the removal rates are faster, and over a larger area. It has its disadvantages though - use of wool requires a high degree of competency with a rotary polisher, and care must always be taken to check the thicknesses regularly as wool can and will remove a lot of paint...

Second - depending on the orange peel, I would leave well alone... If its a dullness, generally caused but the paint not "spreading out" as it should, then this is easily shifted with some Fast Cut or similar on a cutting pad. If its actual orange peel (much broader looking, more "rolling" hills on the paint) then removal of this requires a lot of paint to be shifted relative to normal polishing - I would avoid this unless you are going for a garage queen, as clearcoat relies on its thickness to adhere to underlying layers and thicker clearcoat leaves greater flexibility for future polishing - going in gun-ho just to shift OP is not sensible. Be very careful with removal rates and know exactly what this means for the finish you are working on.


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## fleagala (Apr 18, 2009)

Is the problem with orange peel just down to personal preference?


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## RandomlySet (Jul 10, 2007)

Dave: cheers fella.... Will have to pay a visit to the car, and see how "bad" it is. Then let the driver/owner decide. For me, it would be another box to tick to say I've practised and had experience.

fleagala: Orange Peel is, well, what it says. Instead of having your paint look like a mirror (flat and smooth), it looks like your looking into a reall shiney orange LMAO


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## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

Sorry, I should have stated that wet sanding is my preferred method of removing orange peel ahead of machine polishing :thumb:


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## RandomlySet (Jul 10, 2007)

lol.... cheers guys.

I only have the above polishes. Really do need to invest in more. Suggestions? I was thinking of going down the Menzerna route (seem to have a wide selection at all levels)


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## Dream Machines (Mar 13, 2006)

OP can be permanently filled in by about 40% but only if it is in the clear coat
heavy OP is definately a wet sand job.


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## adam87 (Dec 11, 2008)

The bodyshop should have sorted it out to be honest!

I recently bought a mercedes vito with bad OP all over due to a poor respray and currently in the process of sorting it out.

Heres a picture of the front wing before


After 15 mins or so using 2000 wet n dry


Finally after G3 and 3M machine polish(taken on a different overcast day but trust the sun to come out as im taking the photo!)


and heres a pic of one side almost done


Wet sanding is no harder than using a machine polisher!

You just have to be very careful!!:thumb:


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## kos (Jun 19, 2008)

having worked in a body shop i'm no starnegr to wet sanding. most body shops aim for a "gun" finish , let it dry then nib it down slightly with some mild wet sanding to remove any dust then they maching polish it.

99% of time there is a slight orange peel effect. some people dont notice some dont care as long as its shiny lol

i for one like my paint flat, smooth like glass.

we do go heavy with the clear coat laquer and this is because we will flat it right back before machine polishing.

with the following 2 cars with 2 of us working it too 3 10 hours days to flat and polish the cars (OK plenty of ciggies and beer during but they were long days)

there are some areas that are difficult to do and you risk doing damage so there is still some minor orange peel

and some examples of why we flat a cars.......

wet sanding/flatting

started with 1500, then 2000 and finished with a finer grade 2500 or 3000 i cant remeber which



















this next picture shows why this is done, you can see high and low spots and if you want the glass finish, flat it




























then it gets polished....
































































and the finished car




























































































































































































and an other which was flatted right back











































yes i'm ill for going to such lengths at times


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## adam87 (Dec 11, 2008)

Wow,

Quality work Kos 

Loving that estate to!!!!!

Great Stuff! :thumb:


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## Sharpy (Mar 25, 2007)

Kos that is beautiful work there, and 2 VERY smart BMW's


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## kos (Jun 19, 2008)

thanks guys , i'm ill when it comes to BMW's

i've worked on and help build over 11 feature cars and i've had 3 of my own cars featured over the years, number 4 ( the red e24) is now finished and soon to be featured and number 5 will be done some time in the next 12-18 months ( its a mental e30 M3) 

i love that glass finish.

but i think it was daveKG who made point, flat it down too much you are boardering on overthining the top coat of laquer and inreality it is there to protect the car. the 2 cars picuted are show cars, so we were able to build and paint them in shuich a way we could get away with flatting them to that extream
on a dialy driver i would no go to that level


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## bofh (Apr 14, 2009)

Nice job mate, it's all a matter of money at the end of the day. If you want a top paint job then every coat of paint from the pimer up has to be flatted back and flat! It's either flat or it's not, simple. It's a lot of work and I wouldn't expect to get a flat paint job from a shop for 2-3k, double that and your getting close.

Certainly would be nice to be paid to take your time and do it right, but most people don't understand just what's involved, if they did they would pay someone else to do it


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## Sandro (Mar 16, 2008)

that estate is daaaaaaaaamn hawt! lovely!


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## Cholosoft (Jul 24, 2008)

I've heard you need to sand the whole car.


Never did the job.


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## kos (Jun 19, 2008)

Cholosoft said:


> I've heard you need to sand the whole car.
> 
> Never did the job.


look at my post on page 1, the red car gives you an idea of what you have to do


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