First of all if you are wondering what orange peel is, its when the newly painted surfaces have a slight resembling to one of these,
As you can see all the pictures below are of a set of lights, thats because i sell these tinted lights on ebay and this is the process i go through with all of them, however its exactly the same proccess as painting any other panel on your car, so thought i would post this little how too for people that want to try and achieve better results with their own spray work,weather it be from a rattle can or using a compressor and spray gun in a paint booth, you still end up with orange peel
The subject below has been finished in clear cellulose, using a compressor and gun.And has been left over a week to dry, the longer you leave it to dry before wet sanding the better the finish will look in the end, if you dont let it dry enough then you well just end up ruining your paintwork and have to start again,so be patient!!
I find using 2k leaves less of an orange peel effect and cures harder and more durable, making it a bit harder to wet sand.
Notice how the surface pretty similar to the orange, we will be soon getting rid of that,
As you can see below the reflection is very poor, ive used a mr Muscle just because it was to hand to use as an example,This picture was taken inside my shed,as you can see you cant even make out what some of the text says or properly see anything else in the shed.
Another picture to show how rough the surface is, Gloss black is probably the worst effeted colour and will always show any imperfections in your paint, more than any other colour. Which is why it is worth putting all the effort in to achieve a worth while end result.
So what do we do? We wet sand it thats what we do. But before we get started id just like to point out a couple of things. one being if you are new to this then be prepeared to end up sanding right through your paint and end up having to re paint it, this takes alot or practise to get right.so its well worth having a spare wing or something to keep practising on before you take the plunge and start on your own car. but here are some tips anyway.
Avoid any edges as this is where the paint is its thinnest,and as them having very little surface area compared to a large area inherintly you end up applying more pressure with the sand paper to them,so its no wonder you can sand through the paint in about 3 strokes if not carefull.
use plenty of water,as this helps the wet n dry paper work better as it cleans all the removed paint etc way an helps prevent deep scratches, it also doesnt do any harm to put a little washing up liquid in the water to help lubricate the sanding even more.
dont sand too hard, as you will end up with deep scratches
do small areas at a time and keep drying the area you are doing to check on your progress.
below is a picture to show where still needs flatting down,basically any shiny parts. you can also see ive been very carefull towards the edges too.
keep on flatening the paint untill all the orange peel is gone, and you are left with a matt looking surface that feels nice and smooth on your finger tips.
nearly done now
Once you have finished the flatting proccess and you are happy it all feels smooth then its time to buff the paint up to a shine, this can be done by hand or using an electric polisher,and using some cutting compunds, here i have just used a cheap rotary polisher off ebay for about £50,with a good quality head by farcela( same brand who make the cutting compound), what products you use is just down to prefrance, ive used g6 cutting compound as its finer than g3 and seems to give better results on black, im also told 3m finesse it is also very good on black
have to be carfull not to burn through the paint with these things, as unlike a PC they are not random, so just make sure you dont stay in one spot too long,
as for polishing its just a case of apply your cutting compund onto your newly flattened matt surface, soak your polishing head in water and get polishing,untill you bring up a nice shine like in the pictures below, i find having the hose set on a fine mist is a very easy way to stop anything from drying out as you polish, it can be used to rinse off any excess g3 before drying too
again like with the sanding aviod any edges to avoid burning through the paint.
Below is a pic just after buffing, still needs to be waxed but look at the reflection now compared to before, the pictures dont really do much justice as i have had to lower the quality for the internet.but look how you can see in detail everythin in the my shed
good, but still can look better so time to use some of this stuff,again the picture is a reflection from my paint work.
i prefare too apply wax by hand,although over a whole car you might prafre to use an electric polisher.
and here are the results after applying some wax, as you can see it has a very nice deep shine, looks even nicer in real life
bit of a close up, the end result is like glass
those are little specs of dust from the cloth you can see on the surface,not scratches
one more reflection shot of mr muscle, just compare that pic the the first couple
Hope this has been helpfull for anyone, any comments are more than welcome, if anyone wants to add to this with any more tips and advice please feel free to contribute.
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