i have this and i hate it and i'm sure that there are a lot of you out there with it too.

is there a solution to this problem whatsoever?? why does this happen?? anyone??

thanks in advance

Joe

 

Cuz ford's paint robots are friggin idiots

only way to get rid of it is to wetsand it away. dont' think there's any other way short of repainting, so you pretty much just have to live with it

 

And wetsanding it would be a beast. I think just about every Ford owner has some.

It has to do with dry/cure times the way I understand it. Not sure I can explain more than that.

RP

 

It is kind of like what RockPick said about dry/cure time. Something to do with the damn EPA and making Ford and others change their methods and paint itself, or how it is applied or some bone head reason the EPA came up with.

 

ahh...that sucks

 

Yep, I would rather have a hard time breathing then have "orange peel"

 

ok, wut does "orange peel" look like?

 

If you have it, and most do, sometimes not all over but in some areas. If you look at it, the paint, just right it kind of looks like hills and valleys in the paint. In other words it don't look real smooth. I guess you could also say it kind of looks like a golf ball with the dimples.

Or, it looks like and texture of an "orange peel"...

 

It's the clean air act. And, no, it's not some stupid thing that the EPA came up with... it's part of an international pact to work to eliminate hazardous air pollutants (HAPS) from the air that we breathe in the coming years.

It was very much needed. Take Pittsburg or Chattanooga for example where air toxicity was killing many types of animals and also making numerous tens of thousands of people sick. We need air regulations... plain and simple.

RP

 

You know we did have orange peel before those regulations came out.

It just has to do with the paint not being level. Can be caused by many different things. The way to get rid of it is to blocksand between coats of paint so it is all smooth. They don't have time at the factory to do that.

 

Painting any vehicle has a ton of variables that can cause (or avoid) orange peel. To get into a technical discussion here would be useless and boring. Look at it this way, your paint went on in droplet form. The goal is for all of those droplets to stick and lay down flat on a surface. By the way, all of these surfaces are on different angles. (Getting paint to lay down flat on a flat / horizontal surface is the easiest.) So, AVOIDING orange peel where the paint is actually applied is the hot setup.

Now, what do you do if you have it? Sorry, wet / block sanding is about the only way. This takes off the high spots in the surface. The only problem is possibly sanding right through your clear coat. (That creates a whole new set of problems.) The real solution here is not to try to do something silly yourself. Get a professional to help you. Good luck!

 

I would think that wet sanding, as you say, would be very expensive. I have some on my truck and I have seen it on other cars/trucks, and honestly I don't think it looks all that bad.

If you have a good wax/polish on it, has a nice shine I think it will look awesome. It is not like other car/truck brands don't have the orange peel on them.

 

my pacific green 98 has some orange peel but i find that every time i apply Meguiars 26 it goes away for the most part. Dark colors suck for orange peel anyway.
Dont you use 2500 grit sandpaper for wetsanding?

 

mmm...pacific green

 

Orange Peel: A paint surface with a texture of "hills and valleys" similar to the skin of an orange. Excessive orange peel is considered a paint defect. It can be reduced by sanding, compounding, and polishing. Definition by 3M Corporation

Orange peel is the result of an applied coat of paint (basecoat, clearcoat, or both) that doesn't flow out or level fully. Keeping in mind that paint is basically applied as a liquified plastic, the cause of peel is that the paint either doesn't stay liquid long enough to completely flow or the material is to viscous to allow it to flow out. In either case, the paint ceases to flow before the surface is completely level. The result of this is a lumpy surface that resembles the peel of an orange, hence "orange peel. So, to eliminiate this problem, you lower the viscosity or simply keep the paint liquid longer, right? This may not be a s easy as it seems. Solvent-borne paints are categorized by the ratio of paint solids (resins, pigments, binders, etc.) to liquids (solvents).

In the US, manufacturers are required to use high solids paints, with a ratio of about 60% solids to 40% solvent. To better flow the paint out, we need to add more solvent. The problem is that the EPA won't let us add aditional solvents. These solvent restrictins stem from the EPA's limits on Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). VOCs, which are in almost all solvents, are a cause of low level ozone - read smog - forcing these restrictions. In other countries, these restrictions either don't exist or are more lenient, allowing manufacturers to use low solids paints (as low as 30% solids to 70% solvent), which tend to have a smoother appearance. To combat the US handicap generated partially by EPA restrictions, paint companies are developing new technologies.

Waterborne paints, for example, are essentially low solids paints (up to 60% solvent), but they are legal because de-ionized water (not VOC) is a large part of the solvent package. In addition to the low solids aspect, waterborne paints have many other neat properties that help improve the performance and appearance.