Paint feels smooth, looks wavy?

T

TheOther1

New member
Hi all!



I have a 2011 Volvo XC60. I washed it today, clay barred it and finished with Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant 3.0 This is the first time I have used a clay bar. The paint feels amazingly smooth, but I see distorted reflections:









I have not seen it in the daylight yet, but I would imagine it's no better. Any suggestions? I do not have any orbital buffers or anything like that, just good old fashioned elbow grease, so I guess that limits what I can do.



Thanks for taking the time to read this and for any advice you may have!
 
Nothing you can do about orange peel it comes with factory paint jobs. 99 percent of cars come with it. Each car varries though in how much it has.. Only way to remove it is wetsand then compound which I don't suggest doing especially how new the car is.
 
Most factory paints have orange-peel.

Without any sanding and buffing machines, you can't do anything about it.

Anyway, the clearcoat might be too thin for any serious sanding to be done.



In your photo (assuming the focus is spot-on), I think the main problem is blurness.. The fluorescent light looks pretty straight, though of course, not 100%.

It might be something similar to this:

Picture1.jpg


There's orange peel of course, but the main problem is blurness and "darkness" of the reflections. Compounding can certainly help to improve things. But once sanding has been done (LOL...I can feel Accumulator going "uurrgghhh!":lol)...

misc076.jpg
 
gigondaz said:
... once sanding has been done (LOL...I can feel Accumulator going "uurrgghhh!":lol)...
Click to expand...



Heh heh, yeah....guess I'm getting my opinions on clearcoat thickness across :chuckle:



IMO if you want orangepeel-free paint on a new car you oughta buy a Bentley (though not all of *those* are 100% either now that they're not doing everything by hand any more, so make that a pre-1998 Bentley).
 
1500, 3000, some compound and polish and your rockin and rolling orange peel free! Lots of orange peel there. You have lots of room to sand on that. I will suggest getting a paint thickness gauge.
 
Wow. Thanks for the replies, everyone. At the risk of sounding completely stupid; orange peel is paint applied unevenly, but my clear coat evens it out so it feels smooth? Sounds like without proper tools and experience, I can't get rid of it.

I'm guessing 1500 and 3000 are sanding grits? I don't think I could bring myself to do it.

In the SE US area, approx. how much would it cost to have someone fix the orange peel? I can't swing even a down payment on a Bentley, pre or post '98.
 
TheOther1 said:
At the risk of sounding completely stupid; orange peel is paint applied unevenly, but my clear coat evens it out so it feels smooth?
Click to expand...



I've been wondering the same thing. I've read that orange peel is from the paint being applied unevenly, yet people sand the clear coat to make the orange peel "go away."



Anyone care to explain how that works?
 
mitsuman47 said:
I've been wondering the same thing. I've read that orange peel is from the paint being applied unevenly, yet people sand the clear coat to make the orange peel "go away."



Anyone care to explain how that works?
Click to expand...



It's not the PAINT that has the orange peel it's the clear coat hence it's correctable.. If that was your paint then nothing you can do. I believe it's the drying process I think that gives the clear that orange peel look.
 
stiffdogg06 said:
Not worth it on a factory paint job... It's thin enough already. Plus, being silver it doesn't show that bad...
Click to expand...



Agreed, not worth reducing clear coat thickness on a daily driver.
 
I'm a little surprised you've never noticed this on cars before? Orange peel like that is present on literally, 99.999 (probably a lot more 9s, actually) of modern mass produced cars. Actually, the picture you posted looks, ime, better than average for OEM orange peel.
 
TheOther1 said:
Wow. ..approx. how much would it cost to have someone fix the orange peel? I can't swing even a down payment on a Bentley, pre or post '98.
Click to expand...



Heh heh, if you thin the clear (say, through wetsanding away all the orange peel), and then have to take off *more* for some reason (say, it gets some scratches), you might find yourself with overthinned clear that fails due to UV exposure or somesuch. Then you're looking at a repaint that *will* cost as much as a downpayment on an older Bentley ;)



Yeah, if you just knock down the high spots you *might* be able to reduce/remove the orangepeel without thinning the clear too much, but it takes a lot of skill and a fair bit of luck for it to turn out that way. If you're polishing every year or so anyhow (say, over regular, wash-induced marring) I wouldn't risk it. [Heck], I *don't* risk it on my cars, even though I could probably get away with it on a garage-queen like the S8.



Heh heh, Barry and I get a kick out of :argue this one :chuckle:
 
mitsuman47 said:
I've been wondering the same thing. I've read that orange peel is from the paint being applied unevenly, yet people sand the clear coat to make the orange peel "go away."



Anyone care to explain how that works?
Click to expand...



The "ripples" are like peaks and valleys in the texture of the clearcoat. You sand it level, knocking down the "peaks" until they're at the same level as the "valleys". Then you compound/polish away the sanding scratches. THEORETICALLY you don't make the clear all that much thinner than it already is in the valleys (except for what the compounding/polishing removes from the whole paintjob), but that's only if it's done *just* right (that's the skill part). IF there are more valleys than peaks the paint will probably be OK (that's where the luck part starts to factor in) unless it was kinda thin to begin with.



Note that some paints have insufficient clear to begin with; it's not unheard of for a red car to end up fading even with factory-thick clear (and there's not way to fix that without repainting). Thinning the clear makes such problems much more likely, so many of us only take off clear when we really think it's necessary (i.e., when the marring gets too bad to live with). Of course, there are other people who simply shrug off the risk and polish all the time...good luck if you go that route.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top