Orange peel
 

So I've been wondering how many of you guys have problems with your paint having far to much orange peel? i know its all over my front bumper and some parts of the rear... i was wondering if there was anything we can do about it, and also if this is a common problem amongst all us Z owners.

I do not have this problem, but for those who do, it may indicate that your car suffered some minor body damage prior to delivery. I have a friend who used to do minor body repair and dent removal for a local dealership. About 50% of his work was repairing bumpers whenever a car accidentally hit something while it was being moved around (by salesmen, service techs, whoever). Have you ever looked at how tightly packed cars are on many dealer lots and wonder how they move so many cars around without nicking them? Well, they don't. Let me put it this way -- it happened often enough that my buddy was employed full time. Anyway, my point is that if you notice some imperfection in your paint, especially on the bumper, it's possible that it was scratched or bumped into by another car at the dealership (or even at the dock), and was repaired before you took possession. That's why I walk around and closely examine a vehicle from multiple angles before I'll accept it.

Many of the Zs I have seen at dealerships have really noticeable orange peel on the front and rear plastic "bumpers". Really looks pretty bad but I guess all mass production vehicles suffer from orange peel. Most noticeable on the non-metallic paint (red, yellow).

Not sure what the dealer would do to fix it pre-delivery.

Aye. The red 370Z in their showroom had orange beel all over the drivers side from front to rear but the hood and front bumper didnt have it. And here I thought it was just me...

What's orange peel?

When poor, uneven clearcoat shooting leaves very very very small ripples and waves in the paint that looks like the skin of an orange fruit. Only proper colorsanding and buffing can fix this.

When a car has been re-painted it doesnt lay flat. if you look at the clear coat in the light you can see it seems to have the texture of orange peel. Its what many look for as a sign of damage.

Orange peel:

http://www.ronjoseph.com/expert_witn...ge_peel_lg.jpg

hey semtex this is orange peel correct? http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/4167/img00044.th.jpg

Appears to be, yes. I'm guessing the texture of this part stands out from other surfaces of the car?

yea it does... im taking my car to the dealer soon anyways so ill tell them to take a look at it...

WOW good to know. I will have to make sure I inspect the car really closely.

I haven't discovered any orange peeling in my paint.. but silver tends to hide a lot of imperfections (and I love it for that).

I have black, and yes, there's a ton of orange peel, mainly on the rear bumper panel, enough that i've gotten comments from friends and mechanics about it. But I just figure that the cheap paint job was part of the lower cost of this car. Probably not a big deal. If it matters to you enough, you could always just wet sand and polish it. But very carefully.

Noticed it myself on pretty much every 370Z I saw at the dealership. Doesn't really bother me at all.