Orange peel

[Trac_511]

What causes it? Is it in the panel (sheet metal) or poor paint application?

[ffboy]

Orange peel is caused more by poor application or preparation. If the panel is the one that is poor, at an angle it will look a bit wavy even if the paint was applied, buffed/polished properly.

[Forrest T.]

Orange peel is an uneven application of paint. I'd wager all paint has "some" orange peel to it. When viewed up close, it looks like an orange peel, hence its name.

High end makers and custom painters remove it by careful colorsanding, and then buff and polish to a smooth finish.

[admin]

Keep in mind that generally speaking orange peel is really a natural occurrence of the application of paint on mass-produced vehicles -- it is not considered a defect on a mass-produced vehicle.

From some points of view it is considered to serve a purpose, including hiding very minor blemishes in body panels.

[Trac_511]

Thanks for the info. A portion of my rear bumper was repainted after an accident and I noticed the repainted part is like glass while the original paint has orange peel. I guess my Explorer falls under the mass-produced category.

[ffboy]

Maybe the repainted portion of the bumper had fillers applied to it to even out and prepare it for paint, leaving the rest of the bumber untouched. If I remember, some platic bumpers are textured, so if is scratched or damaged in some way and filler is applied, the texture will be filled in and upon sanding remove the textures. The fender flaring of our SUV is plastic and textured, it was also scratched. The whole thing was repainted, the color was a match to the original color, but since it needed filler and sanding, it ended up being just a bit shinier than the rest.