Orange Peel Paint

Orange peel - it is possible to wet-sand orange peel, but if you try to eliminate it completely you risk severely compromising the paint thickness. Wet-sanding levels the paint (and removes orange peel, harsh acidic or alkaline marks, etc) it removes approximately 0.025- 0.003 Mils (a Mil is 1/1000th of an inch) of paint from the vehicle using 2000 -grit finishing paper.

Be aware that a clear coat has a thickness of 1.5 – 2.0 Mils, removing more that 0.3 – 0.5 Mils of clear coat may cause premature paint film failure. As a point of reference a sheet of Saran wrap measures 0.95 Mils

A digital paint thickness gauge will allow you to measure the film thickness of the paint system which includes the e-coat, primer, base coat (colour) and clear coat, total thickness is usually 4.0 – 6.0 Mils. Check the paint system both before and after wet sanding and this will tell you how much paint has been removed.

For these reasons all car manufacturers now specify that the paint thickness be measured in 0.1mil, or 1/1000th of an inch before and after any wet sanding or buffing. The following are the maximum allowable clear coat reductions the major USA car manufacturers will allow; Chrysler- 0.5 mils, Ford – 0.3 mils, GM – 0.5 mils


For more information see “Colour / Wet Sanding” articles on DetailingWiki; a series of informative, knowledge based and unbiased articles dedicated to automotive detailing
 
Last edited:
TOGWT said:
Orange peel - it is possible to wet-sand orange peel, but if you try to eliminate it completely you risk severely compromising the paint thickness. Wet-sanding levels the paint (and removes orange peel, harsh acidic or alkaline marks, etc) it removes approximately 0.025- 0.003 Mils (a Mil is 1/1000th of an inch) of paint from the vehicle using 2000 -grit finishing paper.

Be aware that a clear coat has a thickness of 1.5 – 2.0 Mils, removing more that 0.3 – 0.5 Mils of clear coat may cause premature paint film failure. As a point of reference a sheet of Saran wrap measures 0.95 Mils

A digital paint thickness gauge will allow you to measure the film thickness of the paint system which includes the e-coat, primer, base coat (colour) and clear coat, total thickness is usually 4.0 – 6.0 Mils. Check the paint system both before and after wet sanding and this will tell you how much paint has been removed.

For these reasons all car manufacturers now specify that the paint thickness be measured in 0.1mil, or 1/1000th of an inch before and after any wet sanding or buffing. The following are the maximum allowable clear coat reductions the major USA car manufacturers will allow; Chrysler- 0.5 mils, Ford – 0.3 mils, GM – 0.5 mils


For more information see “Colour / Wet Sanding” articles on DetailingWiki; a series of informative, knowledge based and unbiased articles dedicated to automotive detailing
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:whs::goodpost:
 
Some one did a write up on their wet sanding project and the results were amazing! I think it was a Honda he did and the results were WOW!
I plan to try it myself in the spring.
 
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