Orange Peel

M

markthom

New member
Having become addicted to Autopia, I catch myself paying more attention to the cars I see in the line next to me at red lights, in parking lots, etc. One thing I have noticed is that virtually all cars seem to have OP to some extent. Is this a result of the factory painting processes or is it an inevitable part of any paint procedure?



Are there any auto makers who consistently put out vehicles with dead flat surfaces? I'd like to watch out for such autos to see what a flat surface looks like (aside from the beautifully leveled paint I have seen on Autopia).
 
Generally the more expensive the car the less orange peel it has, although there are exceptions of course. The cars I most consistently see without orange peel are BMW's and some Audi's. There is a BMW 330xi in the underground lot I park in and I swear it's got some of the best paint I've ever seen. Most "luxury" cars are pretty good too, Ferarri, Bentley, that sort of thing.



Like I said there are exceptions to the rule. My sisters 2001 Civic Si has almost no orange peel, so who knows.
 
Some may disagree but I find Cadillac paint pretty much OP free . I do a lot of them and that's what I find . I have noticed that price of the car has nothing to with how the paint comes out from the factory . Just this tuesday I did a brand new X5 Bimmer that made the moon look flat. A regular customer with a S500 coup has by far the worse case of OP , its at least an 8 on my OP scale . :chuckle:
 
Well many MB's I see has OP and a friend of mine who just bought a 745IL last week has it. So who's to say whether the actual price of the car has anything to do with it.
 
Ya, like I said there are exceptions. Maybe when I said price tends to mitigate OP I was thinking more of Bentley's and stuff. Now someone will tell me they know a guy with a Bentley and it has terrible OP. :P
 
Rollman said:
I have noticed that price of the car has nothing to with how the paint comes out from the factory . Just this tuesday I did a brand new X5 Bimmer that made the moon look flat. A regular customer with a S500 coup has by far the worse case of OP , its at least an 8 on my OP scale . :chuckle:
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I suppose you have to consider that the badge, in the case of MB & BMW (and heaps of others) , does not always mean the vehicle is manufactured in the same factory or even the same country. For instance I believe the 3 Series BMW we get here in OZ is built in South Africa. The Chrysler 300C for the Aussie market is being built in Austria.



I can report that my wife's Audi TT has one of the best paint jobs I have ever seen.
 
Orange peel can be limited depending on the skill of the painter. In order to get a smooth as glass, orange peel free finish, the paint has to be wetsanded and buffed. I do not think this is cost effective to most car manufacturers. Wetsanding is labor intensive to say the least.
 
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