reviewed the threads and found considerable agreement that dark colors suffer from a great deal of orange peel.

i have a superblack track (04) and here are my observations:
reflectivity of the nissan paint is excellent. i can see minute detail from ground %/or tree reflections . from afar its superlative.
but
then you get close . i've owned alot of sports and performance cars over the years and THE ORANGE PEEL IS AMONG THE WORSE I HAVE EVER SEEN.(in addition, as covered incessantly on this forum , the soft paint is very prone to scratching---and yes. zaino does wonders and is worth every penny----you'll even get a little twinge of satisfaction when you reorder)

NOW, what can we do about the orange peel? earlier posts have suggested wet sanding.---sounds a step or two too extreme.
my detailer has suggested a four step process that he is certain will take out the OP without serious degradation of the clear coat. he judges paint at shows and feels this paint will have the smoothness AND reflectivity that characterizes show paint.
what are your opinions and experiences. do you just live with it??zaino over enough times that reflection overrides the "coarseness of the orange peel? let me know. i dont think i'm being obsessive. my last supraTTwas a premeire ed(93.5)and after 10 years the paint was superior.
would love to to trust my detailers opinion BUT----he also recommended teflon--------

 

What is his 4 step process out of curiosity since I too would like to reduce the appearance of the OP.

 

never heard of thise process.

but wet sanding should be the only solution, but does thin your clear coat

 

the four step process begins with a course buff followed by progressively finer compounds . in one stage a special pad is used that is significantly softer than the finest wet sand but still does a gentle cut. it was used on my supra and i was very pleased BUT the supra didnt have orange peel.
i am still debating this but know i have to do something.
i have always been a HP junkie and have never owned a non-modded vehicle other than daily driver SUVs.(BTW--i'm 56)
i plan extensive N/A performance mods, stereo upgrade and ,at the very least leather seat covers (katzskin or ztoyz) but probably will spring for after market leather seats like the cobra misano. my volk gt-7s(18x8 and 18X10 )will be here wednsday.soooooooooo i cannot do all these specialty things and ignore the orange peel.
surely someone has tried the wet sanding, buff or other measures. there's too many people obsessed with these cars to tolerate it totally.

 

sounds like a fancy form of wetsanding, probably more harmful to the clearcoat, but a better job of clearing up the finish...

anything that is abrasive is going to thin the clear coat.

 

I felt exactly the same way so I did this:

http://www.350zfrenzy.com/forum/show...&threadid=1890

Regarding your detailer's suggestion, I think he may find that there isn't enough clear coat to do what he plans. Before I decided to go the expensive route I experimented with one section of the car and found that you could get through all the clear coat without smoothing out all the peel. Granted you can make it look somewhat smoother without going all the way through the clear, but you may still have the other paint problems you mentioned above.

 

I don't trust the thickness of the factory paint to tolerate wet sanding out the OP. If I was lucky enough to own the Z, the first thing I would do is tape it off, scuff it up with a 3M dark beige pad(not red or green) and shoot the hell out of it with PPG DCU 2042 super clear. Do it in my back yard or where ever. THEN I would knock down the orange peel with light action with 1500 and follow with 2000, both wet. Then use the 3M finesse for black cars (leaves no haze) and when I finished it would look dripping wet like our dashes. All for about $200.00 in materials and maybe 2 days labor.