Ok I know what it is, and I heard you can remove it by wet sanding. I read that appearently it's when the clearcoat isn't sitting smoothly and all you do is sand it down.

Well I have a black 04 GT that I bought from carmax some 4 and a half months ago and when I look at my hood, it looks like pretty bad orange peel and ironically my fenders don't have much if any at all. Firstly is this normal? The more I look at my car, it seems that parts have been repainted/replaced. The only idea I can come up with is that because the hood and front fenders are different material then maybe the paint finish comes out different.

Anyway, my hood feels smooth. But when you look at it, it just looks like orange peel. Is it still orange peel? Will wet sanding do anything? I don't have many pics of my car let alone in good light but heres a few of the hood:






I guess in the second pic you can see what I mean about how the fenders don't seem to have any but the hood is much more severe.



Thanks,
Brandon

 

Ya that is orange peel, but do not attempt to wetsand it yourself unless you know what you are doing and are very careful. You can easily go right through your clear or paint if you are not careful. Plus if that is stock paint the clear is usually very thin.

 

pay some one to do iy. I would suggest someone who has references you can call or know someones car he has done. Having an unexpierenced person wet sand the car especially a black one can result in it looking worse than before

 

yeah if you're inexperienced with wetsanding a car then I don't recommend doing it yourself. Thing is, most cars that still have the factory paint will have some degree of orange peel. All new cars I have seen have it. wetsanding would only work if the orange peel is from the clearcoat, otherwise if its in the basecoat then you would have to get it re-painted.

 

Orange peel isn't that bad really. You can cure the problem with 2000-3000 grit wet sand paper on a D.A. phuematic circular sander. When I painted cars, this issue was solved by getting a wet sponge and dampening the surface by squeezing the sponge on the area to be sanded. Then using the tool as a fast wet sander. Its not as hard as it seems, but I have been in the business of painting cars for a long time. *Don't sand any edges * Expect to buff out car * Use the lightest sandpaper pads to ensure not to burn the surface *.
You know what, don't do anything about it, if it's not a show vehicle just leave it be. If you have to ask, you really shouldn't mess with the coatings. This is the thing, only experienced painters know how to solve this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_peel_(effect)

 

Ok I was just wondering. I do have some "experience" with wetsanding I guess when I did all my paint touch up's. I have a sleeve of Meguiars unigrit 3000wet. It's great stuff. I was just trying to figure out if it is posible to fix since like I said my hood feels smooth so I figured that sanding down an already smooth surface won't do anything.

 

That seems like more then factory orange peel on your hood. I would think that the hood has been repainted. Be very careful wet sanding the car, better to pay an experienced body shop to do it.

 

Yeah when I look at my car under the sun it seems that the paint tone is inconsistant throughout the entire car. I'm starting to suspect that random parts have been repainted at different times and I am wondering why.

I hope it hasn't been in an accident. I bought it used from carmax and I did carfax it and everything.

 

wetsanding will take off quite a bit of clearcoat. If you have a paint gauge then you can find out if wetsanding is possible with enough clearcoat.

 

I used a paint pen the other day, it worked great. I would go with this