Removal of orange peel question...

Red Lehr

Red Lehr

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Hello all ! I have a freshly painted 64 Galaxie 500 2 dr. 3 coats of color and 3 coats of clear on it.There is some serious orange peel left on the car and I want to learn how to get rid of it if possible.

Can any of you nice folks help ?
I saw people using (denim?) pads on a DA buffer that were supposed to remove orange peel instead of wet sanding. Is this something to look into,or is wet sanding better ?

Thanks in advance for all the help !!
Red
 
im not a pro painter, but heres what i do with pretty darn good results
i start with 800 grit with a flexible backer, sanding in a straight ////// line. just enough to knock down the high spots of the OP, checking progress very often. then i switch to 1000 grit and go in opposite \\\\\\ straight lines, also using a flexible backer( this is by hand) and checking progress often.
after the surface is all smooted out( you can tell as there will be no more shiney spots on the paint) i switch to 1500 with a 3/32" throw da. when all of the scratches for the 1000 grit in a \\\\ direction are gone, i move onto 2000 grit on the da.
gotta be careful with a da. they paper can grab a lil booger/ spec of dirt and reak havoc. thats where i like hand sanding. i can hear if a piece of grit/dirt gets betweent he paper and surface.
and meguiars unigrit is pretty awesome stuff
 
See the car in my avatar? Same story as you ....although I wouldn't say it had "serious" orange peel. It was definitely noticeable, though, It was the first car I had ever color sanded and buffed and that was before I knew half of what I learned here on AG. If you've never done it before, it can be a little unnerving to drag a piece of sandpaper across fresh paint on a car. What definitely helped me was doing just a very small spot from start to finish rather than jumping right in and sanding down the entire car before I started the buffing. That defintiely helped me build a little confidence and see just how the process worked before I started taking on entire panels.

Good luck. It's not complicated or difficult work but it is VERY time consuming. It will take you many, many hours to do the entire car and have it come out free of orange peel and swirls. On a positive note, it is rather gratifying (and even enjoyable) to do it yourself.....well, at least it was for me.
 
Post some close of pictures of the orange peel. Ive wet sanded things that other people have painted before that had really bad orange peel I was told there was 3 coats as well and ended burning through before I got it all out. But it was just a really bad paint job. Normally I take the da with 1000 or 1200 dry until all the orange peel is out ( no shiny spots left) Then go with 2000 wet. Work in one direction first then dry it off you should be able to see sanding marks then go the other direction until you see the sanding marks in that direction then after that its normally ok to compound out. Then just take a wool pad with a heavy cut compound over it then a light or medium cut compound with a foam pad then you should be good. Sometimes youll see a few spots that still has orange peel that you'll have to sand again.

Its really not that hard its just takes time
 
It can be really inexpensive to go buy a block 1000, 1,500, 2,000 and 2,500 a spray bottle a small in expensive microfiber towel. And a little squeegee to wipe of water to see your progress.

All sand papers should be about $1 to $2

I'd buy 2 of each just to be prepared. Could be more or could be less.

I like to start with 1000 and have it soaking wet, then spray the car with fresh clean water.
Squeegee the work keep going if necessary, probably about 2 passes. Maybe even 3. Kinda hard to instruct online and not in person.

Stick to light to medium light pressure. Even if it takes you more passes better to be safe than sorry.

With 3 coats of clear your not going to be able to sand too deep just regular stock finish, you wont be able to get the mirror finish, you need about 6 coats of clear for that.

When you wipe of the 1000 if the orange peel seems fine enough that your brought it down enough. Go to 1500 give it a good pass or two then move on to 2000, with that you should be able to buff out. I like going all the way to 3000

The finer the sand paper you use the easier it'll be to buff and would help prevent burning the paint. It'll be tiresome but it'll be easier, look nicer, and safer.

Unless your going the DA route?
 
jdbillin said:
Its really not that hard its just takes time
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Yeah it's not hard at all, but really tiresome if done by hand.

I like using the DA 1000, 1500, 2000, 3000 then buff it. Makes the job fun!

All machine powered. I also feel you have more control with a DA opposed to doing it by hand.
 
The point about only having 3 coats of clear is a good one because you do not have too much product to work with. So set your expections accordingly which should be to minimize the orange peel vs eliminating it.

Meguiars makes a foamed back sanding disk that will knock off the high spots in the orange peel then after buffing the appearance will be greatly improved because reflectivity of light will be more uniform.

Machine sanding is easier, safer and provides more consistent results. Onlu hand sand the tight areas. That's my take YMMV.
 
rmagnus said:
Machine sanding is easier, safer and provides more consistent results. Onlu hand sand the tight areas. That's my take YMMV.
Click to expand...

I was always told that using a machine instead of doing it by hand was just being lazy... I always said ok i guess I'm lazy then and proceeded sanding with the machine.

It felt like I had full control of entire process like using a super fine laser.

First time i hear this and now I know i was right...
 
jdbillin said:
Post some close of pictures of the orange peel. Ive wet sanded things that other people have painted before that had really bad orange peel I was told there was 3 coats as well and ended burning through before I got it all out. But it was just a really bad paint job. Normally I take the da with 1000 or 1200 dry until all the orange peel is out ( no shiny spots left) Then go with 2000 wet. Work in one direction first then dry it off you should be able to see sanding marks then go the other direction until you see the sanding marks in that direction then after that its normally ok to compound out. Then just take a wool pad with a heavy cut compound over it then a light or medium cut compound with a foam pad then you should be good. Sometimes youll see a few spots that still has orange peel that you'll have to sand again.

Its really not that hard its just takes time
Click to expand...

HERE are a couple of pics of my problem. Thanks again for the help !!!!!
OOOPPS....pics won't upload !!
 
the paint pros i gained a lot of experience from taught me that color sanding will take off one coat of clear. that plus that by starting colorsanding by hand to knock the surface down eliminates the chance of urethane wave.
 
tomsteve said:
the paint pros i gained a lot of experience from taught me that color sanding will take off one coat of clear. that plus that by starting colorsanding by hand to knock the surface down eliminates the chance of urethane wave.
Click to expand...

If you are not sanding poly, but Lacquer, is there such a thing as wave?

My last paint job I started at 1000 and worked it up to 3000 all by hand. It was a bike so I did not see the need for teh DA. but would have been nice to use the DA for polishing.
 
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