Well after hating the fact that i have orange peel on my car I decided to do something about it. I took it to a shop and we wet sanded it. It took about three hours of sanding, one hour of buffing and 2 hours of waxing and stuff. The results are pretty good. I dont know if the pictures do it any justice because it was raining and the shop was dusty. Here are the pics. I hope to have some better ones in the sun. I didnt go into the car that deep. It was really bad on the roof and on the hood and doors. You might be able to see the orange peel that I could not get out.

 

2

 

3

 

4

 

forgot the pic. Geeeez

 

I thought if you wet sand your car, it would remove some of the paint and clear coat.

 

Clear coat, you get the imperfections out of it. You get a smooth even finish. In otherwards you buff out the waves in the clear. You do it just enough to not damage the UV protector, but enough to get it even.

 

Looks good. Any tips for knowing when to stop before the clear gets too thin? Also, what grit did you start with? Meguiars suggests 2500 or 3000 for factory clear coats.

 

If I am not mistaken, orange peel is a valid excuse for dealer repair. The body and finish are warrantied against this kind of stuff. However, you probably have just voided the warranty on the finish if you wet sand it. I hope you consulted with the dealership before all this was done?

 

2000 grit. Most of the sanding was done by a body guy that does a lot of custom work. I mainly did the light sanding and he did the large body panels like the roof and hood. It was mainly a light sand then compound buff to even it out. He did a 911 for me like that right after he painted it and it came out beautiful.

 

Try taking it to the dealer and tell them to fix it. I have looked at dozens of Z's and they all have orange peel. Look at the orange peel threads and see what Nissan is doing about it. Nothing!!!. I love my car, but hate the peel. Nop big deal. I'll fix it myself. I really don't care if they warranty the paint now anyway because they are not going to fix it. Tried it and it failed.

 

even my dads car has orange peel and it is over 3X the price of my car, EVERYCAR now days has orange peel from the factory.

 

25% of the people who responded to the orange peel thread on this forum say that their 350Z's have no orange peel. But yes, I have also seen expensive cars with the condition. I have also owned several relatively inexpensive late model cars (2001 and later) that did not have noticable peel.

 

I heard that the reason for the orange peel is that they use different paints and clear at the factory. You know environmentally and people safe stuff. I dont remember this much orange peel in new cars back in the 90's.

 

here is another washed and in the light.

 

Mind if I asked how much?

 

You know it's all about who you know... Just kidding. he is a friend of mine. Between the two of us we did it it took a whole day. He does alot of work for me, but if he was to charge, I would guess around 300 dollars. Give or take.

 

labor is typicly 60$ an hour. cost of materials should be near nothing considering all you need is polish, maybe 20-30$?

Id love to do it, but way too scared to risk the paint, Id be afraid that in a few years it would break down or something, then gotta get it repainted, adios to resale value, ect.

but kudos for having the gonads to do it. but I think the camera is making it look worse then it probably looks in real life. looks like it has orange peel, but I think its the downsizing of the image...

 

I'm keeping the car as a collection type piece. So I'm not worried about the resale. The guy that helped me has been doing this for 20+ years. He does awesome work. There is still a little orange left but from what it was, it looks 500 times better. I'm really glad I did it.

I was at he carwash friday and another Z pulled up. He started looking at mine. He looked at me and said "Why does your car shine so much more?". That gave me a little more sattisfaction of the outcome.

 

I'm in Dallas - I might have to pm you about this when my z finally gets here *bookmarks thread*