JJH

I've been reading the boards lately and have noticed that a lot of people are complaining about orange peel. Although I haven't seen the nissan Z from up close many times(i'm waiting to place my order until after the new year), and I can't see how bad the orange peel is, i can assure you that orange peel is normal on just about every car made and imported into the U.S. Take a look around at the Mercedes Benz and B.M.W.'s, and you will see orange peel. Its tricky sometimes to see it though. You sort of have to look at a reflection in the paint to notice it. My theory is that the curves of the Z accentuate the orange peel, and thats why many of you have noticed it.

I invite you guys to go to a classic car show, or even a reputable body shop and talk to some of the guys that have done restorations, and have gotton rid of orange peel, and ask them how difficult it was. In order to not have orange peel, a car must be wet sanded, prepped, wet sanded, prepped, and wet sanded. It is a very long and tedious process. I practically live at a family member's body shop, and I helped him restore a 69 corvette. We prepped and wet sanded the body for 2 weeks, and guess what, there are still parts of the car that shows little signs of orange peel. It is just too laborous and costly for manufacturers to prep a body to the point of removing all orange peel. It would take atleast 1 whole day to paint one car(thats with machines dedicating the time to wet sanding).

This is not a problem that nissan will be able to fix today, tomorrow, not even in the 2004 model.

Please take this information constructively. I realize many have noticed that orange peel is normal, but there are still a large amount of people complaining about it. I just hope this helps those people to understand that it is normal, just not always noticable on some cars. Usually orange peel stands out on very well kept, and waxed cars, with paint in good condition.

Hope this helps,
Happy motoring!
JJ