Anyone else notice this? Primarily on the doors and rear quarter panels/fenders is where I see it. Didnt notice until I zainoed.

Turn on a real low light in your garage and view the car from an angle. At first I thought I saw dings and nearly **** a pickle. On closer inspection, I see that it is the paint. It has a "wavy" effect. Noticed it after the Zaino.
What's up with that?

 

03 CS Track

Welcome to the Orange Peel club.

Every 350z's seem to have it, anyone who says they don't are in denial. I attended couple of 350z club meetings, every 03 and 04 had it. I then visited 2 dealers in Bay Area to look at the new 04's in the lot. All 04s have this problem as well, you just have to know how to look. Also,

This seems also true for every BMW Z4s I've looked at as well.

 

The quality of factory paint jobs has gone down hill fast. Every car I've owned that's been a 2001 or older had a very smooth factory finish. All the cars in our household newer than 2001 have noticable orange peel. I took care of the situation with the 350Z, but it was very expensive.

 

Blame the environmetalists. One of the problems is today's high-solid, low-solvent paints. They don't flow together very well, this helps cause orange peel. Look up autopia.org, you'll find a wealth of info. It is possible to fix it though. Will cost ya approx $9000.
And it won't last long with regular driving.

 

Or you can try a DIY.
This site will tell you how : http://www.goodspeedmotoring.com/?page=color_sanding

 

Good link but now it makes me want to go sand down my entire car.....

 

hehehe....I don't think you should though. Just get a Porter Cable random orbiter buffer, some yellow, white and gray polishing pads, 3M swirl removing compound, good polish like Klasse, sealant, carnuba wax, and detail the heck out of your car. I have my car pc hooked into my home cable modem line right now so I don't have access to the bookmarks on my home pc, but I will post some good links later today. My buffer and pads are on their way in. I've been hand detailing my car all this while, but it'll be a lot easier/better with the polisher/buffer. Fall/Winter is a good time to keep your car clean in Florida.
I think all/most of us take exceptional good care of our Z's. My friends can't believe that this month it's been a year since I've had my Z.

 

The cost and durabilty all depend on how you fix it. You can a better looking and more durable finish than Nissan put on for about a third of that price.

 

Arent the cars painted in Japan though? The EPA doesnt regulate there? Am I missing something

 

Lets see some pics of this! I have A 03 CS, and I dont notice this problem with the paint.. I think most of you are ****-retentive..

 

Do a search for Orangepeel you'll find pics. Your car has it too. You don't know what to look for.
I went to a car show and looked at the high end BMW model, and it had orangepeel as well.

 

No, dont think so... My paint is perfect

 

Wanna bet? You have it ESPECIALLY if your model is an 03. You don't know what to look for...no offense.

 

I was at a dealer last week and saw two 2004's. One black and one silver. The peel was obvious on the black but you really had to look for it on the silver due to the reflective properities of the color. There are two factors at work here. Some colors hide it much better than others and some cars have worse cases of it than others.

 

03 Track CS

Park you car in the garage with light or some place where there is shade (since you have CS). Look at your paint surface "sideways," you will see ripple effect throughout the paint -> orange peel.

 

Some information- there are only a select few companies that make paint for cars- so even in Japan ( or wherever) the paints are basically the same. The low VOC stuff is the result of California laws adopted everywhere. The catalyzed paint is great for the manufacturers because it sets fast, low emissions, etc. But, it does not flow like the old paints, hence orange peel. Once the clear coat is on, the orange peel cannot be removed unless you cut through the clear coat You might be able to lessen the impact, but the peel is in the color coat, not the clear coat.

 

Nope, just looked at it like you wrote.. No ripple effect in my paint

 

CS is the hardest color to see orange peel on. I used to have a white car, and even that was easy to see it on. I thought I escaped it too until I used Zaino. With Zaino, there is so much shine that everything shows in the paint.

You definitely have orange peel unless your car was repainted at the dealer. You'll see it oneday

 

This is exactly right. The orange peel is not caused by the clear coat as many believe.