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.

Yeah, to be honest, you'll see them on a lot of cars anyways. Some friends of mine have em on their M3's and TL's, all original paint too.

Semtex is right—this is the reason you are seeing the orange peel that you do on some of the Zs.

I can confirm this too. My Z really only has light orange peel on the rear bumper cover (my car is also black, so peel is more noticeable). It's pretty much uniform over the entire back of the car, but you'd probably not notice it unless I pointed it out or you were looking for it.

I'm 99% sure it came from the factory this way, especially with someone else seeing the same peel on the same part of the car. Orange peel is not necessarily from dealer touchup. In fact, just about every car I've seen below 50k has orange peel somewhere to some degree.

Many new cars have the peel due
 

To new environmental standards in the industry. The older paints were less likely to cause the orange peel but due to new standards we are stuck with it. The old paints were deemed harmful to the enviroment. Many cars that cost much more then the Z have it as stated. You can however, wet sand between coats to cut down on it but this cost too much money for the companies.

Thank you Old Chuck . . .
 

I am glad that you chimed in on this subject. Orange peel
is NOT from "a car that is damaged" but from what you
stated. THANK YOU OLD CHUCK !

Orange Peel cars : Corvettes, Porsche, Mercedes Benz,
Aston Martin, Lotus and many more. Just look for it on
car lots.

For the record, I never meant to suggest that the presence of orange peel necessarily indicates a minor damage repair. I am saying that it may indicate a minor damage repair. It's an important distinction, and I stand by my position that it may be due to minor damage repair. Mind you, it'd be a crappy repair job if there's orange peel left over.

I just went to the dealership and it seems they all had the orange peel, I think its one of those things you either live with or have to fix on your own....... oh well

Consider myself lucky, I have Platinum Graphite and it is orange peel free....... the Black, Yellow, and Blue Z's on the lot all showed some amount of it though. These new environmentally friendly paints due suck unfortunately.

John

Related Subject: The new Lexus LS actually receives hand sanding (yes, by real humans) between coats to alleviate this problem. The environmentally friendly paint really is so bad that this is necessary for a mirror like finish.

I couldn't find a Z without it. Believe me, I checked....BIGTIME. I'm willing to bet I could find some on any of the folks cars who said they don't have any :) Just a hunch. My 370z has it, my 2007 Titan has it, my wife's BWM has it, all my friends cars/trucks have it. With the new environmental standards affecting paint, from my understanding, there is no way around it...unless as someone said "they hand sand it with a human" between coats.

ok while i was at my service dept i had mentioned the orange peel and he actually said that its on purpose to give the paint texture... i was just stunned he would say that

Did you go *cough**cough* bullsh!t *cough**cough* ?

You should point out smooth areas where there's no orange peel and tell him you're reporting those as paint defects then. Call him out on his BS. He can't have it both ways.

Well, that makes sense as you wouldn't want to slide off the hood or trunk. And those uncomfortable times when a friend leans against your Z while your talking, and they need at bit more support in butt-denting your door. :eek:

I have Pearl White, and although I don't have Orange Peel, I do have very faint "orange" marks/streaks on the front of my side skirts (passenger side), near where the splash guards are. I have had this since the car was brand new and it will not come off. You cannot see it except under bright light. Maybe a professional detailer can do something about it.

Overall, I'm not too impressed with the Nissan paint quality. My side skirts and splash guards are a different shade of white than the rest of the car. It is not too noticeable, but when you compare it to the quality of a Lexus paint job, it definitely falls short.

I have to admit thought, the Nissan Pearl White color looks really awesome at night time when parked under street lights!

Nothing new with Nissans. It was quite noticeable in my '03 350Z, and there were numerous complaints as well. With my 370Z, it's not as bad. What I hate is rock chips. I won't be surprised, but paint is very thin on Nissans.

If someone simply cannot get over what orange peel their new Z may have, then go to a professional detailer who uses paint thickness meters and have them detail and do paint correction to your Z. They can tell whether they can wet sand an area and remove the orange peel or not.

^^^ I know it's off the subject, but true that about the rear speakers CBRich LOL!

Oh and yeah I have some orange peel on my rear bumper too on my yellow Z!

i can live with the orange peel the only reason i was at the dealership is cause i seem to have overspray underneath my clear coat on my rear bumper... so my rear bumper will be getting resprayed soon, under warranty.

I dont know if its true, but I was once told it is like that on bumpers and along the bottom sides/rear of the cars to help protect the paint. Maybe like a different type of clear coat. My pearl white doesnt have any though. Although my Subaru and my dads Corrolla and Camry have it. I work at Toyota manufacturing in KY, I can try to find out if this is true or not. Never thought about it anymore till I seen this thread.