orange peel in clear or paint?

[NVCobra]

Hello, ive read the orange peel threads but still havent figuered if its in the clear or the paint or both. I have a black 97 cobra and ive got it looking real good and reflective,but it has the dull fuzzy reflected images.ie the rough edges of what its relecting. I can see that its the clear that has the orange peel,can this be leveled out completely. This is the first time its been buffed. Do you think i can level this completely. I just dont want to get to deep.

[Mike Phillips]

Free advice, don't attempt to wet-sand factory paint jobs. 2 reasons:

1) Factory clear coats are baked on and tend to be fairly hard.
2 Factory clear coats tend to be adequate for normal service life, but not for learning how to wet-sand

Body shops and customer painters wet-sand, cut and buff their paint jobs usually the next day after spraying the paint, sometimes longer, each painter knows his paint system best and how long of a window of time they have to easily remove their sanding marks.

Please understand, it's easy to wet sand paint, (put scratches in), if the paint is cured, i.e. hardened, then it's difficult to remove them.

Here's a thread that I posted to on Detail City when a forum member asked about removing orange peel via wet-sanding, read my responses there.

Wet Sanding Orange Peel

Mike

[NVCobra]

Ok thanks again Mike

[Superior Shine]

Although I do agree with Mike, I have and I do on an occasion completely color sand / wet sand vehicles with factory paint to remove orange peel.

The clear coat is what has the orange peel texture on a 2 stage/ base coat clear coat finish. Color sanding the clear will level it and in turn the clear will reflect light more evenly giving you a deeper brilliant shine.

Understand that color sanding will compromise the integrity of the finish and color sanding is a highly specialized service. I provide the service only if my client chooses shine over durability.

This service is best left to "garage queens" and not a daily driven vehicle.

[DETLMAN]

I agree with all posted with one small adition or exception.

When you shoot a bc/cc paint there will be orange peel in both base and clear but you can sand the clear so that none will show...level the paint.

I personaly dont sand factory paint all that often for the same reasons mentioned,

[Mike Phillips]

For everyone reading this, Joe and Brian are two people who have been there and done that.

There's an old saying that goes like this,

"Try to learn from other peoples mistakes because you may not live long enough to make them all on your own"

You can see pictures of Joe's wet-sanding work on factory paint in the Extreme Makeover forum, so it is true, it can be done, but you want some experience under your belt before you start these kinds of jobs.

Some of the best experience you can learn comes from the School of Hard Knocks. Lessons taught at the School of Hard Knocks can be painful, but also very valuable.

Here are two powerful examples of DETLMAN's and Superior Shine's work

DETLMAN's work

Superior Shine's work

Check them out...

Mike

[Superior Shine]

Thanks Mike





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