Removing Orange Peel

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SnowgodCCR

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Well, today I started the process of removing the orange peel from my JK...it's a bit nerve wracking at first for take sandpaper to a brand new vehicle's paint, but once the first cuts are made and there's no turning back, it's more of a "get your mind into it and do it right" process. I tested the process on a small section of paint inside the driver's door to make sure I could do it right, and I'm going to do the whole car on my next day off. Can't wait for that new buffer to come...I'm NOT polishing the whole thing by hand. The inside of my door is looking great so far. Wish me luck and steady hands!
 

hyde

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He is trying to make the wrinkles less visible ???? I don't know..
 

Marlon_JB2

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Orange peel is annoying. It's the small "wrinkles" in the paint that resemble the peel of an orange. That's what he's attempting to remove. I wish him luck because I hear this isn't easy.
 

JIMMY JEEP

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It's called flatting the paint and it's not to hard to do ,just make sure you have fine grade sanding paper plenty of water and a bit of washing up liquid and importantly a sanding block to prevent you from rubbing to hard in one place and cutting to deeply into the paint . You'll need to buff up the paint later and add some wax to protect the paint . But if you've never done it before it could be a costly project if you cut to deeply into the paint your next journey will be to a bodyshop.
 

SnowgodCCR

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JimmyJeep is exactly right. It's also known as "FLA" (fat lady's ass), "OLA" (Old Lady Ass), etc. It's a side effect of using spray guns to apply paint. There are waves in the paint, and although your paint will still be smooth to the touch and clean and all, you still won't have perfect mirror-like reflections, they will be all wavy. It's not a problem with the paint, just an annoyance if you're into having a show-car finish on all your vehicles (in the last 2 days I've spent about $320 buying supplies to restore the finish on my '85 944 that I'm picking up this weekend- I like a show finish). So far the process has been going well, it's just ALOT of work by hand, and I honestly don't want to finish it by hand, so I think I'm going to throw some wax on the areas that I've done already to protect the paint from the weather, and wait to do the polishing when my buffer gets here later in the week/early next week.
Like JimmyJeep said, it's not hard at all, just that finesse is key. I'm using 1000gt wetpaper over a foam applicator pad to distribute the load, lubed with Meguars Quik Detailer, to flatten the paint, then I'm going with Meguiars Deep Crystal system Polish, then Meguiars Scratch-X, and I'm getting good results, but I need a finer wetpaper - around 2000gt or so I think, maybe even finer. The resulting shine isn't quite up to what I was expecting, but like I said, I need a finer paper and a better polish (I'ma get the paper in an hour or so hopefully, and then I've got medium cut polish on the way from the interwebs, along with a fine cut polish. Should do the job quite nicely....I hope.
I'll see what I can do about taking pictures along the way with this.
 

AZKJ

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You like a show finish, eh? I guess getting out on the trail and getting some desert pin stripping is out of the question?
 

06Liberty

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No offense, but that seems like ALOT to go through for something that not many people will notice. But, I understand the fact that you're probably not doing for other people but for yourself. It's just not for me, I'd rather just wax the crap out of it.:)
 

tjkj2002

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Just remember you only have 2 coats of clearcoat from the factory,sanding it will take at least 3/4-1 layer off,making your paint job more fragile.When I painted mine I sprayed 8 coats of clear on,figureing a complete buff(bufing will also dimish the clearcaot thickness) about every 2 years or so.

When I worked a bodyshop I used 3000 grit pads on my DA(no water,no need for it) and then buffed out with 3M's medium grit rubbing compound,then hit again with 3m's machine glase,and finally applied a good coat of 3M's "race glaze" (very goood stuff,very expensive),since you are not to apply wax to fresh paint for at least 6 months.

Almsot all of my orange peel is gone,then again there was not much to start with,you can eliminate most of the orange peel by adjusting the spray gun,OEM paint has alot of orange peel due to a robot painting it.
 

JeepJeepster

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My liberty doesnt really have any orange peel and Im really happy about that. My mothers 06 Grand is covered in it and it really ruins a paint jobs.. Looks like crap in my eyes but to the untrained eye it looks fine.

I wouldnt recommend that anyone wetsand their paint since some people said it was easy, thats a quick way to really screw your paint up. I drove 5 hours to take a class on it but I would never try it on my jeep till I got a few beater cars under my belt.

Meguiars Deep Crystal polish has zero diminishing abrasives in it, its basically a pure polish so it will not help in removing the sanding marks. Its purpose is to bring out the shine in the paint, so using scratch-x after it will just remove the polish you just put on.

I would at least use Meguiars #80 but that would probably not be enough, so I would bump it up to #83 and try that with a cutting pad on a rotary buffer.

Like tjkj said, using a DA works out awesome and gives a more uniform sanding.

1000 grit is way to low, 2000 would be the bare minimum.

Be careful and enjoy! :)
 

SnowgodCCR

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You like a show finish, eh? I guess getting out on the trail and getting some desert pin stripping is out of the question?

Not at all...that's the reason I have so many detailing products laying around - it's so that I can buff the pinstriping out :D . Trust me, it's already got plenty.

My liberty doesnt really have any orange peel and Im really happy about that. My mothers 06 Grand is covered in it and it really ruins a paint jobs.. Looks like crap in my eyes but to the untrained eye it looks fine.

I wouldnt recommend that anyone wetsand their paint since some people said it was easy, thats a quick way to really screw your paint up. I drove 5 hours to take a class on it but I would never try it on my jeep till I got a few beater cars under my belt.

Meguiars Deep Crystal polish has zero diminishing abrasives in it, its basically a pure polish so it will not help in removing the sanding marks. Its purpose is to bring out the shine in the paint, so using scratch-x after it will just remove the polish you just put on.

I would at least use Meguiars #80 but that would probably not be enough, so I would bump it up to #83 and try that with a cutting pad on a rotary buffer.

Like tjkj said, using a DA works out awesome and gives a more uniform sanding.

1000 grit is way to low, 2000 would be the bare minimum.

Be careful and enjoy! :)

I didn't know that about the Deep Crystal polish, I thought it wasn't really doing much...I picked up some Fine Cut cleaner last night, that was working fairly well, but I think I need at least a medium cut to remove the 2000g marks. I'll get some 3000g and try that when my DA gets here (this is the LONGEST week ever btw - I'm waiting on a crapload of detailing stuff AND a Porsche - oi)
Got cutting pads, cutting compounds, all kindsa crap on the way from Meguiars...should be here after the weekend.
 
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SnowgodCCR

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Update:
I have the following products on order, lemme know if I'm missing anything
Wool Cutting pad
Foam polishing pad
Finishing pad
Backing plates for said pads
Power cleaner (9 on a scale of 1-10 cutting power)
Medium Cut cleaner (7 cutting)
3000grit paper
DA Cleaner/Polish (Megs #83)

Missing anything? I don't think so, but I'm not quite sure.
 

SnowgodCCR

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Update again

I got my crappy orbital buffer out today after work (crappy- $25 at Autozone) and went after the square I started on and all I can say is WHAT an easy time! After buffing by hand for a good hour yesterday trying to get the sanding marks out, the 5 minutes of doing it by machine were incredible. I think I'm ready to go at the Porsche when it gets here...If I can produce these kinds of results without all the cutters and pads that I SHOULD be using, then when I have the rest of them I think I'll be able to do pretty good. Well enough to go after the rest of my jeep first at least. I'll get a picture in the morning when it's light out.
 

flair1111

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When i painted cars the best way i found was this...


Start with a flexible foam sanding block wrapped with sand paper as follows...


startd off wet sanding with 1500 grit until an even white haze is formed all over the jeep when dried off. If you missed a spot or need more sanding in a few areas, then do it. STAY AWAY FROM CREASES OR HARD BODY LINES!!!

then repeat the same procedure using 2000 grit.

Then use a "water bug" with 2500 grit, then again using 4000 grit.

each time the white like haze must be even , but it will begin to fade with each step in paper grit..

Then buff with a medium buffing compound using a buffer.

then buff a second time using a mirror glaze compound.

If done right, you could win a show with the way your finish will look afterwards. it takes some time, but its well worth it. I spent almost 40hrs doing this procedure on an 86 Ford truck which was the last time i did this. It was black and wound up looking like it was wet it was so smooth. Good Luck.
 

desertkj

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I would really like to see before and afters if you have them. I've been getting big on detailing, but I am still definitely not willing to take sandpaper to my Jeep, although I know that is what it really needs.
 

SnowgodCCR

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I would really like to see before and afters if you have them. I've been getting big on detailing, but I am still definitely not willing to take sandpaper to my Jeep, although I know that is what it really needs.

It's kinda hard to see except in person, but the hood has VERY noticable orange peel on it, so when I do the hood I'll take pictures of before, during and after. Right now I've put the whole thing on hold until Wendsday, when all my compounds and my new buffer luxhello.gif get here. Woohoo!
 

SnowgodCCR

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I freaking quit. The amount of work/risk involved in the process isn't worth the results for my jeep, which I'll be getting rid of in a year anyway. I did a few practice squares, and I'm just not getting the results I wanted. It seems that there is OP in the color coat in addition to the OP in the clear coat, so even after sanding the clear flat, there's still orange peel visible. At least I gained some valuable wetsanding experience from this, I don't know if I'm going to be willing to take the paper to my porsche when I get her, but I have the ability to now anyway.
 

tjkj2002

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I freaking quit. The amount of work/risk involved in the process isn't worth the results for my jeep, which I'll be getting rid of in a year anyway. I did a few practice squares, and I'm just not getting the results I wanted. It seems that there is OP in the color coat in addition to the OP in the clear coat, so even after sanding the clear flat, there's still orange peel visible. At least I gained some valuable wetsanding experience from this, I don't know if I'm going to be willing to take the paper to my porsche when I get her, but I have the ability to now anyway.
About 75% of the orange peel is in the base coat,it's more noticeable in some colors then others,some colors(like red) will have some OP but will "seem" to sand/buff out,but it's still there just hidden to the human eye due to the clearcoat being not as thick as before.Grey,silver,and pewter are the biggest OP'ers and really will never get rid of it no matter what you do,just time to sand all the paint off and and repaint with more uniform strokes,moister free air and in a true downdraft paint booth.
 

SnowgodCCR

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About 75% of the orange peel is in the base coat,it's more noticeable in some colors then others,some colors(like red) will have some OP but will "seem" to sand/buff out,but it's still there just hidden to the human eye due to the clearcoat being not as thick as before.Grey,silver,and pewter are the biggest OP'ers and really will never get rid of it no matter what you do,just time to sand all the paint off and and repaint with more uniform strokes,moister free air and in a true downdraft paint booth.

And I've got a grey jeep. Thank you for confirming what I suspected. Very frustrating. The spots I did FEEL as smooth as they should be, but visual results are very disappointing. I KNOW that all the OP should be gone, but alas is's jst sealed under the clear. Bastages.
 

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