What is orange peel on car paint?
Also calledPebbling, Poor flow, Poor levelling
A texture like orange skin is a spraying fault, not damage. The paint dried before it could flow out flat. The causes include wrong gun settings, the wrong thinner, or painting when it is too hot or too cold. Some orange peel is common on factory paint too. The sign of a repair is that one panel does not match the next.
What kind of repair does it need?
Sanding and polishing, if the clear coat is thick enough. Wet sanding then machine polishing takes the tops off the texture. Severe cases are sanded smooth and painted again.
Depth decides it. If there is enough good clear coat above the fault, it is sanded flat and polished. If levelling it would go through the clear, or the fault is in the colour, the panel is painted again.
What to do next
Get a detailer to check it first. Whether it can be polished depends on clear coat thickness, which can be measured. If you paid for the respray recently, take it back to whoever did it before paying anyone else. This is faulty work.
Sources
- Axaltapaint maker
Paint droplets dry before they can flow out and level smoothly together.
- PPG GBpaint maker
Rub out the orange peel, compound and polish
- Dr. Beasley'sproduct seller
Some orange peel is common on modern factory paint.
- Sherwin-Williams Automotivepaint maker
a minimum film thickness of the clearcoat (2 mils) is required to maintain adequate ultraviolet protection
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