flyz33

i've read this about so many ppl complaining about how the z car has orange peel. I am getting a z in about 1 month and want to know what it is. i know it has to do with the paint and many cars have it. Simple explanation and pics of it greatly appreciated.

-yes i did search! but couldn't find my answer, please no yelling, just want a quick answer then this can be deleted

Stone Z

It's a characteristic in the paint that makes the paint look as if it were textured like that of an orange. If you look *into* the paint you can see it.....it also makes the reflection appear blurred because of the orange peel affect.

flynnibus

Like they said.. think of the surface of an orange.. and its texture.. thats what the paint looks like when looked at closely.

Look at the car from an angle.. in the reflection.. does the car give a polished, perfectly smooth reflection... or does it look dimpled and rough?

It will not look rough from a glance, but if you look at the car reflecting light, you will see it more.

Think also what you see when you see rough plastic painted, vs smooth metal.. it looks like that.

Z's tend to have it pretty bad on the side panels.

flyz33

that makes alot of sense, thanks; pics and other info. would be appreciated

flyz33

ohhhh, I see, man i see why it can get annoying. Well its no too bad really. I don't think it will bother me much if I have it on my car. Good pic., just like the other ppl desecribed it.

exzeltus

I didn't think it would be THAT bad. If I had that with a brand new car, I'd definitely want an exchange/refund.

apsilon

I don't want to get involved in the whole "my new car shouldn't have orange peel" thing but I've *never* seen a japanese car that didn't have it from the factory.

You do all realise it's deliberate (in a way) right? The paint is much thicker in the areas with orange peel. It's done to build up strength to resist chipping from rocks etc. it's an effect of the paint being applied too thickly. Mass production can't afford the time to properly build up coats of paint so it's done this way. Sure it doesn't look good but neither does chipped paint.

FWIW any decent detailer can rub it down but if the paint chips easily afterwards don't complain.

Matt.

JJH

Orange peel is very normal for every car maker imported and made in the U.S. except for Ferrari, Jaguar, and other exotics. Porches even have them. Orange peel has more to do with the surface of the car than the paint. The only way to remove orange peel is to put in many, many, many hours wet sanding a car before painting it. Its not so much the paint itself, but more like the bond between the paint and the surface of the car. You already saw what it looks like. Go down to your mercedes benz or bmw dealer and you will see it on all the cars there. People don't quite understand that orange peel is normal unless you want to pay major $$$ to have a body shop wet sand it, prime it, wet sand, prime, wet sand, prime, then paint. Even still, you might have orange peel.

flynnibus

The 911 targa that pulled up to us at our Z meet didn't have it.

I haven't seen it to this extreme on my hondas either. Its VERY noticable on my black Z, and I have a black honda, and a green honda.. never seen it stand out on them.

Also, I don't buy your explaination about bond between paint and metal.. and them not prep'ing the metal. Last I looked, sheet metal was smooth. Now, not sanding between paint coats.. I can understand..

I accept my Z's paint... and the fact that probably most cars have this to some extent.. but its definatly MUCH worse on this car then others.

And if its done to better resist chips.. then why doesn't my hood have it? (where most chips occur!)

Its the verticle surfaces that have it bad on the Z.. the sides of the car.

JJH

I understand that you think the Z's have it worse than other cars. I saw a red porche boxter convertible at the auto x this last weekend, and guess what, it had orange peel. Looking at it from far, and even up close i couldn't tell. Once i looked at a reflection in the paint, there it was. My car, along with my entire family's cars have it. There is only one car that i know of personally that does not have any orange peel, and thats a relative of my family that has a 67 corvette, restored to original. I helped him out a bit to restore it. Do you know how many hours we put in wet sanding the car? We were wet sanding it, no ********, for 2 weeks. This was after priming it and wet sanding it several times. Do you know what happened when we painted a small portion? Thats right, orange peel. Strip the small portion that got painted and continue wet sanding. It took forever, but in the end, there was no more orange peel. I'm just trying to tell you guys that its normal, and very difficult to get rid of. If its in the paint, and nothing to do with the surface like you claim, then why the hell do you have to put in so many hours wet sanding before the paint goes on????

Oh, usually, orange peel is seen easily on very well maintained paint jobs. Before i was able to fully polish and wax my car, i could never see orange peel. Now that its in pristine condition, i can see it very easily. Why is it seen in the Z more? I don't know. Personally, i think its in your heads.

You don't have to buy my explanation, i'm just trying to shed some light to all this crap and complaining about "my car has orange peel." Well, so does every other car! Take what i said for what its worth, if you want to ignore it, fine. If you listen, fine too.

kih80

weird, I never had orange peel in my car. I have an acura RSX now and don't see it and never heard of it before. (I hang out in the car forums a lot)

hum i'm getting the z soon but orange peel does look little bad.

Is there any way you can fix that problem?

apsilon

When I posted before I was using a text browser and didn't see the photo. That looks to be up around the door handle in which case it is bad. Orange peel is gnerally only found on the lower portion of a car, the bottom 1/3 at most, as this is the area most often hit by rocks thrown up from the tyres.

If this is how it is all over the car then it's much worse than it should, or needs to be and Nissan needs to do something about it.

We don't have the Z here yet so I'm waiting to test drive one before putting a deposit down. I've seen a white one up close but to be honest I was more concerned with looking at the interior than the exterior. If this is how it is all over I'll seriosuly be considering something else.

rahilio

i had 4 hondas in the last 5 years and my wife drives a 2002 crv yes it they dont have orange peel but somethig i can tell you is the paint chips wayyy to easy. it even boils easily with bird shi... um droppings.

smcgee1970

I have worked on the engineering design and setup of automated paint lines for automotive plants. So here is a basic summary of the process.


1. Raw sheet metal is formed and welded into the body of the vehicle.

2. The welded assembly is quickly inspected and any rough spots around welds or metal edges are quickly sanded off with disc grinders and belt sanders.

3. The entire body assembly, prior to mounting of any other component, is dipped into a cleaning / etching chemical to remove any trace oil, grease, and release agents from the die stamping process.

4. The entire vehicle is dipped into an e-coat bath. This forms the base of the paint layer, fills pits in the sheet metal, and seals the body from rust. This is basically a dipped primer coat.

5. The e-coat is heat cured rapidly by infrared heat panels.

6. The body is hand sprayed is certain areas that robotic painting arms can't reach.

7. The entire body is automatically spray painted by robotic arms is one fast, heavy coat.

8. The entire body is passed through a heat cure oven which "bakes" the paint at high temperature with infrared panel heaters.

Hoods and other accessories are usually painted on other automated lines using processes appropriate for the material and finish requirments.

Orange peel and most other surface defects like fish-eyes, are a direct result of the cleanliness of the bare metal, thickness of e-coat, level of cure on the e-coat prior to painting, and paint thickness. Paint sag is also caused by too much paint thickness. The only way to avoid these "defects" is many thin coats of paint applied after wet-sanding each prior paint coat. The same thing applies to clear coat operations. Due to the production rates required in automated factories, there simply is not time to paint "properly". The plant would have thousands of cars backlogged trying to get through the painting operation. This has resulted in the need for one-coat painting.

ztom

My 350 has no paint sags or fish eyes - just orange peel.

I recently painted a '57 Olds and got fish eyes the size of quarters - it was a lot more noticeable than orange peel, and something you don't want to see in any paint job (I believe it was due to spots/specks of silicone).

JJH

Thank You!
I guess what i wrote was not entirely correct. I only wrote what i thought i knew from experience. The jist of what i was writing was that its normal, and the only way to avoid it is to wet sand before applying the next coat.