Why do I have dimples in my paint?

S

soog

New member
I just finished detailing my entire car. My process on the outside was:

Wash
Clay
Wash
SSR2.5
PP
SSR1
UPP

It was kind of a bitter sweet project. My car looks better but now I can really see all of the dents and chips on it.

It also uncovered all these little "dimple" type shapes in the paint. It is still smooth to the touch, and you dont notice it unless you are really looking hard around the reflection of the sun for swirl marks.

Is this just what happens to paint after 10 years? Was it a bad paint job originally? Is there anything I can do?

Sorry I don't have a digital camera, so there are no pictures. I was hoping someone else might have run into this as well.
 
This is known as "orange peel" is common in factory clearcoat finishes.

All that washing and claying and polishing and UPP left such a clear finish that and factory defects seem to pop out like a sore thumb.You could eliminate the orange peel with wet sanding and buffing but that would remove much of the protective clearcoat and I don't recommend wetsanding a daily driver that, other than some orange peel, looks great.

Dwayne
 
Thanks for the quick reply. Guess I'll just have to deal with it.

I don't know how you guys do this. It's gonna take me a while to get used to trying to perfect these things (cars) which are inherently imperfect.
 
The dimples are taken from a golf ball design and help your car go faster. Sort of like "speed holes".

Just kidding, orange peel is what it is.
 
2001civicex said:
The dimples are taken from a golf ball design and help your car go faster. Sort of like "speed holes".
Click to expand...

:lmfao

How much extra HP does this give me?

Orange peel just happens.

Eric
 
Most often caused from to little paint/too much air while sprayed. Manufactures slack on the paint to keep production costs down. LOL
 
Orange peel is a product of spraying the paint.
When it is sprayed the tiny droplets of paint are not able to flow out, or level themselves completely when they hit the surface of the car. One reason is that the paint needs to set up fairly quickly so it doesn't run. In order to get a paint finish without orange peel, you need to wet sand between each coat of paint and then wet sand and buff the final coat.
Orange peel has a benefit for the car manufacturers in that it does hide many of the minor imperfections in the body panels. When your car is polished and waxed you notice more imperfections ... If the orange peel wasn't there, you would see a bunch more. The more perfect the paint ... the more perfect the body panels need to be.
 
kimwallace said:
Orange peel is a product of spraying the paint.
When it is sprayed the tiny droplets of paint are not able to flow out, or level themselves completely when they hit the surface of the car. One reason is that the paint needs to set up fairly quickly so it doesn't run. In order to get a paint finish without orange peel, you need to wet sand between each coat of paint and then wet sand and buff the final coat.
Orange peel has a benefit for the car manufacturers in that it does hide many of the minor imperfections in the body panels. When your car is polished and waxed you notice more imperfections ... If the orange peel wasn't there, you would see a bunch more. The more perfect the paint ... the more perfect the body panels need to be.
Click to expand...

Another sign of the times:rolleyes::(
 
jaybs95 said:
Soog,
Don't feel bad I have been noticing orange peel on alot of new cars :dunno

"J"
Click to expand...

I have heard new car salesman at the Chevrolet dealership refer to orange peel as "shine and gloss".
 
shine and gloss??? omg thats funny, i just did an 04 svt cobra with the "shine and gloss" so bad that i thought it was a repaint,(orange peel and the odd fisheye) however the guy that owns the car figures the original finish will hold value-i shake my head, remember the old lead based paint?? there was a finish!
 
Repost

This is a repost from some time back. Seemed like it fit this thread as well.

At one time I knew a guy that had one particular talent that made him very popular with the dealer repaint shops. He could match the factory orange peel after a repair was made. I have no idea how he did it and he wouldn't share the information with anyone.
He really thought it was funny that he was in demand because he could screw a good paint job up so it matched what came from the factory.

Charles
 
Okay, I guess this fits in here and I also would like to show off my ignorance.....On the Tacomas and Tundras (maybe other models...I know these two for sure) on the bottoms of the doors there is what seems to be "orange peel" paint. I have asked a couple of friends about this. One of them, an off-road enthusiast, says that it is called rocker-shultz (spelling??). He says it is to prevent rock chipping from tire sling up. I don't know about this one, but every new Tundra I looked at on the lot had it as did the Tacomas. It looks like it purposefully done that way also. So my question to the DC peeps is.....What exactly is it? Orange peel or this rocker-stuff? I haven't noticed it on any other makes, but then again, I really haven't looked either. Thanks!!
 
It is a type of chip guard. It is sprayed on at the factory to help keep the stones from chipping the paint.
If you notice, it is a lot thicker than the clearcoat and also more flexible.
You can buy similar products at body shop supply stores but it is not as effective.

"Why do I have dimples in my paint?" Dimples make your car cuter :)
 
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