Anybody wet sanded to eliminate factory orange peel? (pics)

[DuaneB]

I just bought my 05 coupe a month ago, and it needed a good polish, lots of fine scratches... and the orange peel that every G seems to have.

So after touching up about 100 paint chips (I think the previous owners towed it behind a motor home)... I decided to wet sand the entire right fender to see if I could eliminate the orange peel. It worked quite well... not sure how much clear coat I have left, but I didn't sand through it anywhere. Anyone tried this?

Here's the pics... only downside is that I wanna do the rest of the car now!

The process was:

1500 grit wet sand
2000 grit wet sand
Menzerna Powergloss with PC7424 and orange lake country pad
Menzerna Micro Polish with PC7424 and white lake country pad
Pinnacle XMT Carnauba Finishing glaze with PC7424 and black lake country pad
Pinnacle souveran wax applied by hand.

[DuaneB]

here are the final pics

[InTgr8r]

Did you gauge the paint before & after?

I'd be scarred silly about going through.

..BTW nice job

[DuaneB]

no I didn't guage it... I wasn't too worried... it's not a new car, and the paint is not perfect anyway... so I figured I haven't got a lot to lose. It was a relief after wiping off the powergloss tho! To see that it was gonna shine again :-)

[Darkstar752]

Looks good. Although you didn't go through, you certainly removed a lot of the clear coat. The UV inhibitors migrate to the top of the clearcoat, since that is where they prevent most of the UV rays from coming into the clear coat and damaging it. Now that you have removed a good layer of the clear coat, a large amount of those inhibitors are gone.

Basically, you're not working with much, expect oxidation, and don't expect your paint to last a while. It will look fantastic for the time being, and just lightly polish it every 4-6(PO85 or PO87) months I'd say to keep it looking great until you finally go through the clear coat. Also, the "UV protection" that wax claims in negligible. I would say wipe the car down with 303 Aerospace every month to slow the oxidation, although I'm not too sure if it will take away from the finish at all. It's worth a try since 303 actually contains UV inhibitors.

[never gone]

I'm surprised you got all the wet sanding marks out with a PC. I would bet it would look even better if you used a rotary.

[ttrank]

Came out very nice.

[j 4 lD]

Nice, but why would you take off so much of your clear coat? Not planning on keeping the car too much longer? Or is there a repaint in the near future?

[RickyGill]

looks nice

[DuaneB]

thanks for the comments everyone... interesting point about the UV inhibitors!

I do plan on keeping the car, but it's my daily driver and I have a very long commute... about 300km (180miles) per day. A nice repaint isn't out of the question, and I do like the car to look great. Living in Eastern Canada, this car will be in the garage for about 4 months during the winter... a perfect opportunity for a repaint someday.

[TOGWT]

Orange Peel

Orange peel is paint film surface that has a dimpled appearance that paint takes on due to an equipment/operator caused defect. Like wrong paint-gun pressure and/or distance from panel, an operator not knowing how to set-up the equipment to get a good enough mixture to atomize for that particular type of paint, or even a partly blocked paint-gun nozzle, improper pre-paint preparation and /or paint application, or uneven drying of the clear coat.

It should be eliminated after the final shooting of clear coat by wet sanding the paint film surface, and polishing with a mildly abrasive polish and a high-speed rotary polisher.
Correction- it can also be removed (with limitations) by wet-sanding (colour sanding)

This kind of work should only be undertaken by a very experienced enthusiast or a professional detailer; experienced in colour-sanding (wet-sanding) / paint renovation, more so than detailing, someone who uses a paint thickness gauge (PTG) to measure and document the vehicles paint. This is a technique that takes a lot of practice to perfect.

[DuaneB]

Thanks TOGWT! I stopped several times throughout the sanding process, blew the surface dry with compressed air and only sanded until the orange peel was gone, it was very evident with the sanded surface when I reached that point.

I'm not exactly a beginner... I have painted several cars and done lots of bodywork, but I am by no means a professional, it's more of a hobby. I think a paint gauge and a rotary polisher may be in my immediate future... the PC did take a while to eliminate the sanding marks, and I had to apply more pressure than would normally be used with the PC. The entire process for just the fender was probably about 3 hours.

Although my short term results are fantastic... and I probably will do the rest of the car after I get a paint gauge... there is a pretty significant risk of ruining your paint so be very careful if you try this.

[DetailDan]

Did you wipe the surface down with alcohol or a paint solvent to make sure the sanding marks were removed and not actually hiding behind the polish oils?

[DuaneB]

Dan, no I didn't. I'll have to plead ignorance here.... so would you do this after the first polishing step? I used powergloss to remove the sanding scratches, I assume that wiping down the surface after using the powergloss would be most appropriate? (That's the only point in the process where it would make sense to me).

Thanks!
Duane

[GreenGoblin]

I wet sanded my whole car starting at 1500 going up to 3000, I did not burn thru anywhere... but I have done it many times.