I recently fixed (or tried to fix) some scratches in the clearcoat on the hood of my FX4 I applied clearcoat to the damaged area but, now have some orange peel in the repair area. What would be the best way to minimize this. Should I wet sand and reapply, try rubbing compound. I repaired damage in some other areas with no problems. Any Ideas?

 

*Not here to offer help*
Just want to know what orange peel is.

 

Wet sand it and buff it.

Orange peel is exactly that. It looks like the peel of an orange. All paint has it just different degrees of how bad it is. It's actually put into the paint from the factory to hide blemishes in the metal.

 

Am I reading this right? You painted the hood with clear?

If so, are you experienced at paint?

 

I'm guessing it was touch up paint.

 

It's not always that simple.

While OP can be the clearcoat sagging and causing the appearance, it can also be the colorcoat. Obviously, if it's the colorcoat, there's not too much you can do with it -- other than a full 'to metal' sand and then a full respray. Most, including me, wouldn't be willing to even consider that.

The long and short is to have it looked at by someone who is VERY familar with modern clearcoated finishes (ie: a good body shop) and get some opinions.



See the texture in the reflection of the light? That's orange peel. It's typically caused by excessive film build (ie: too much paint sprayed). The paint (be it clear or color coating) will 'sag' due to gravity prior to full cure.

Just about every single FoMoCo vehicle that I've *ever* seen (including a GT) had OP. It's standard equipment on everything from a $6,000 Festiva to a $200,000 GT.

 

Agreed, but wet sanding is how you remove orange peel regardless if it's in the color coat or the clear coat.

The picture you posted definitely has orange peel in the color coat which means it'd need to be wet sanded to the color coat, re-cleared, and buffed.

 

I'm guessing you applied it with a paintbrush in just a small area? The only thing you can do is wet sand it, buff it, then hand polish the entire hood. That is IF you know what your doing. I've also noticed the tendencies for Ford vehicles to have excessive orange peel, it makes them 100 times harder to do repair work on because you have to match the orange peel on the repaired panels to the peel on the factory paint. Pain in the ****...

 

The man knows his stuff lol

 

Just pointing out that there's a lot more to it than just attacking it with 1000 grit... that's all.

Kill em' with information rather than tiddly winks.

 

Yep. Tons.

 

Rain.....giggle.

Rain.....giggle.


Rain....giggle one last time. cough, cough, giggle, cough.


Sorry, but i am sitting in my camper, on vacation and haven't been on the site in weeks. Been sick with the flu and tried of being in the rain. All the things I am going to be cleaning and polishing when the rain stops are all running through my head.

None of my posts tonight have made any sense not even to me, call it a medication haze induced by rain, cabin fever, and bourbon and coke.

 

Generally speaking, it's best to live with the OP whether it's in the color or in the clear. Even if it's in the clear, it is difficult to completely remove it without compromising the clear.

I've tried several methods to remove/reduce the OP appearance, including wet-sanding and re-leveling with varied degrees of success.

My advise is to give it a polishing with a moderately aggressive polish, followed by less aggressive polish, followed by a finishing polish. This will should remove most swirls and imperfections, and, if the OP is in the clear, you should see a slight improvement. If not, then it could be in the pigment coat.

Either way, other than normal polishing, it's best to leave it alone.

 

In an attempt to offer a slightly different view on wet sanding, look at it this way. Orange peel is made up of a layer of paint with peaks and valleys in it. The overall thickness of the coating is relatively consistent though. So, if you wet sand, you're most likely going to reduce only the peaks. In doing so, you run the risk of actually breaking through to the base coat in places. When this happens, you have a much bigger mess to deal with. The trouble is, you only know you've gone to far - when you've gone too far.

I'll agree with Boss here. Unless you know you have a ton of clear to sand and buff through, you may want to learn to live with it.

 

Speaking of living with orange peel, here's a shot of a recent detail of my second car. This was done with Meg's #80 on a PC followed by Collonite 845. (Thanks to Boss429 for lots of guidance!) Note how although the orange peel is now fairly evident (it wasn't before the detail), the shine more than makes up for it.