Does anybody else's car show signs of orange peeling?

[BForbes]

Originally Posted by Jumpman

I'm skeptical of anyone who says there car doesn't have orange peel.

I'm confused here. Whats to be skeptical about? Ofcourse, there are varying degrees of it. Not all cars have Orange Peel.

Originally Posted by Red Bread

Wow, BForbes, that is awful! I've seen bad orange peeling, but that is probably the worst I've seen yet. Are those raw photos, or were they retouched to bring that out?



My Jet Black 135i isn't nearly as bad as that, except for possibly on the plastic bumpers or the door sills. Have you seen other BMW's with similarly bad orange peel?

No Problem guys. Me posting it is a curse now. You'll be looking for it and it will be more pronounced now. :-( I know. It is pretty bad. They werent retouched to bring it out. It was posted on another forum by a man who sold his Honda. He was pretty excited. He didnt quite notice it until everyone else pointed it out.

[FOXYCaymanS]

My e92 M has it on the quarter panels, around the "m" logo on each side... unfortunately it's be around with BMW's for years...

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97930

for more pictures/information.

[KeithLM]

I have some in my Crimson Red. I thought perhaps the texture I saw was because of the metal or something, I just didn't put much thought into it. Then I had it detailed and the detailer told me that was orange peel. Now I see it all the time. He did say mine was less than a lot of BMWs, and I've looked at a few others and can see he what he means.

[nikku]

I have noticed that BMW's have significant amount of orange peel but don't be too worried in regards to bmw only having orange peel, I have an infiniti and it has orange peel.

[Esmallstii]

Yep,...Orange Peel Sucks.
My 87 E30 Vert had "some" Orange peel when I bought it,..but it also had surface scratches all over it from the previous owners rings. SOOOO





TO ELIMINATE the ORANGE PEEL (and hundreds of surf scratches) on the E30:

1. I CAREFULLY AND LIGHTLY wet-sanded the entire car w/ 2000 grit Wet sanded paper. (It looked scary when i got done w/ this step but have faith.)
2. Applied 3m Rubbing compound with a high speed rotary polisher (Be Xtra careful w/ these puppies as one slip can burn your paint)
3. Then went over that with a finer polishing compound / swirl mark remover.
4. Went over that w/ a Final Polish
5. Pinnacle souvern Wax final coat.

Here's a pic of the result.Luckily i didnt burn through any spots, and the finish came out like a mirror,..no peel,..and smooth as glass.
Disclaimer: The wetsanding on the E30 either removed what was left of the clear coat,..or there wasnt much of one to begin with.
Im not planning on doing this to my 135i. Too Risky,..but figured it was worth passing along to the masses.

[shodanusmc]

The peel is in the clear. Just about all cars have it, some worse than others, and some makes worse than others. Dodge is the worst. If you really look close at your finish, you may also notice a fisheye, a bump, a piece of dirt painted over, bubbles, and light marks. No finish is flawless. Just live with it.....and yes, it is hard for a bodyshop (a good bodyshop) to match the peel.

[xantdieselx]

Almost all paints have a certain amout of "peel". About the only car that I have seen without any peel is Bentley. There paint is hand rubbed and polished to eliminate peel.

[xantdieselx]

Originally Posted by Esmallstii

Yep,...Orange Peel Sucks.
My 87 E30 Vert had "some" Orange peel when I bought it,..but it also had surface scratches all over it from the previous owners rings. SOOOO






TO ELIMINATE the ORANGE PEEL (and hundreds of surf scratches) on the E30:

1. I CAREFULLY AND LIGHTLY wet-sanded the entire car w/ 2000 grit Wet sanded paper. (It looked scary when i got done w/ this step but have faith.)
2. Applied 3m Rubbing compound with a high speed rotary polisher (Be Xtra careful w/ these puppies as one slip can burn your paint)
3. Then went over that with a finer polishing compound / swirl mark remover.
4. Went over that w/ a Final Polish
5. Pinnacle souvern Wax final coat.

Here's a pic of the result.Luckily i didnt burn through any spots, and the finish came out like a mirror,..no peel,..and smooth as glass.
Disclaimer: The wetsanding on the E30 either removed what was left of the clear coat,..or there wasnt much of one to begin with.
Im not planning on doing this to my 135i. Too Risky,..but figured it was worth passing along to the masses.

Good job. This will work on older vehicles. On our cars the clear is very hard, 2000 won't take out anything more than minor surface scratches and won't change the peel much at all. You would have to use something more aggressive and it would be like rolling the dice as to whether you break through and burn it.

[RPM90]

Originally Posted by Red Bread

Yes they do, but chances are they have more metallic flake, which makes orange peel harder to see. It's not unacceptable as 99.99% of cars on the road have massive orange peel. Unless your car is color sanded between each coat of primer and paint, including the clear, your car will have noticeable orange peel. Last I checked, only Maybachs, Bentley Arnages and Rolls Royces had color sanding done at the factory. Ferraris, Porsches, Aston Martins etc all have noticeable orange peel.

It's a fairly common mistake of auto body shops to not account for factory orange peel and spray paint on with less OP than factory. Some shops seem to take pride in spraying better quality than the factory, but sadly, it just makes identifying repair work much easier. Finding a shop that takes OP into account is much harder, but usually worth the trouble.

True. Generally, darker and solid colors tend to show it more, like red or black. Brighter metallic paints tend to fool the eye more and show this effect less.

For those who don't know what this is, and it seems it's quite a few, the orange peel is not something you feel. IOW, it's not like you have divets in the paint. It simply looks like the surface of an orange.
Thick paint can also cause this effect. BMW, Audi, MB, or higher end cars tend to have more layers of paint and that can add to the effect.
More coats but thinner coats can help make this not happen, as well as proper sanding and smoothing in between coats. But, this is mass production, there isn't time or enough profit margin to be that precise.
If you want perfection then go to a real professional auto painter and be prepared to buy for that hand applied perfection.

Once auto paints switched to water based paints, this orange peel seemed to become much more common. I'm sure there were better paint levelers that were volatile and toxic and thus they are no longer used. Result is more orange peel.

Here's some good info:

Hard and Soft Paints
Hardness: [In materials science, hardness is the characteristic of a solid material expressing its resistance to permanent deformation. There are three principal operational definitions of hardness: Scratch hardness, Indentation hardness, Rebound or dynamic hardness]
Hardness is defined as the ability of a material to resist local deformation (or penetration) from externally applied pressure, and is directly related to its tensile strength; stronger materials are generally harder. The enamel paint finishes on vehicles from the 50’s and 60’s era were as tough as porcelain. But rightly due to environmental concerns, those high percentage petroleum based paints have been generally superseded, resulting in the softer water-based paint finishes of today and the unavoidable orange-peel seen on many new and re-painted vehicles.
Today’s paints, unfortunately, rank somewhere near the bottom of the scale of hardness, especially single coat black / red paint the exception being white single stage and Ceramiclear, when compared to all the materials your paint can possibly come in contact with (always bear that in mind).

[e82vette]

if you call that orange peeling.....
I have it since i bought it... lol

[sparoz]

We had some hail storm here and I never notice orange peel before, and got the repair shop to have a look - and the peel is in the clear. He said it takes lots of hours of work to make it mirror finish but it can be done.

The other option is that what can be done, is to spray an over coat of clear to the entire vehicle and that would fix the problem....

Looks like I might just put up with it!!

[sullysdetailing]

Originally Posted by jzhang

do you really need to wax that much? I do mine every 3-4 months.

Wax should be applied every 4-8 weeks. Paint sealants should be applied every 6 months.

All new cars have orange peel even exotics.

[ichiban]

Originally Posted by 135iUSN

how is that considered OK - my 23k, 27k and 31k Honda never showed signs of whats being described here... totally unacceptable. if I were to encounter it.. it will be fixed...

they you should go out and look at your car. You have it.

[JimBeemer]

Originally Posted by Esmallstii

Yep,...Orange Peel Sucks.
My 87 E30 Vert had "some" Orange peel when I bought it,..but it also had surface scratches all over it from the previous owners rings. SOOOO





TO ELIMINATE the ORANGE PEEL (and hundreds of surf scratches) on the E30:

1. I CAREFULLY AND LIGHTLY wet-sanded the entire car w/ 2000 grit Wet sanded paper. (It looked scary when i got done w/ this step but have faith.)
2. Applied 3m Rubbing compound with a high speed rotary polisher (Be Xtra careful w/ these puppies as one slip can burn your paint)
3. Then went over that with a finer polishing compound / swirl mark remover.
4. Went over that w/ a Final Polish
5. Pinnacle souvern Wax final coat.

Here's a pic of the result.Luckily i didnt burn through any spots, and the finish came out like a mirror,..no peel,..and smooth as glass.
Disclaimer: The wetsanding on the E30 either removed what was left of the clear coat,..or there wasnt much of one to begin with.
Im not planning on doing this to my 135i. Too Risky,..but figured it was worth passing along to the masses.

Still looks like alot of orange peel to me. Between the gas cap and the tail light in particular, looks very orangey.

[TexasKid]

Orange peel? Welcome to BMW. Go to your local dealership and check out a new M5 or 750 and you'll see it all over the place...even on a $100,000 car.