Been doing the body work on my sisters '58 Beetle and am getting ready for paint. I've painted a couple times on newer cars and always had the orange peal look on the paint. I wanna try to get this job to be smooth as glass. Do you guys have any recomendations to prevent it? Should I just wet sand it? What stages of grit should I use? Any help would be appreciated...
caused by shrinkage of filler, primer. wet sanding and buffing help, but let it cure longer in the booth at temp. and it will help some. you will probably still have to buff it a bit to be smooth as glass.
When using single stage urethane paint, I start with 1000, then 1500, then buff. Go SLOW, you burn through and it's time to start over. Clear coats work the same way but they can get hazy if you buff too hard. Everybody has their pet paint system. Whatever you use make sure your temps are correct and your air is clean and dry. These steps help prevent problems. Orange peel is a matter of degree. I've had some jobs lay down so smooth that I refused to touch them. The next one you feel like sanding the whole thing down. There are lots of variables that affect your finished product.
I've only painted a couple cars, and had trouble with orange peel because it was too warm when I was painting, and the paint didnt' flow. My solution was to let guys who know how to paint do the final spraying....I'll still do the bodywork, primer, and prep work. If you want to get good at painting, I think you'd do well to hang around someone who knows what he's doing, and also be prepared to make a lot of mistakes while you're learning. Remember that if you don't get orange peel, you're probably gonna get runs or sags, and finding the happy medium takes a lot of skill (and having good luck doesn't hurt either)
Nailhead, orange peel is also caused by spraying too dry or too fast. What kind of paint are you using? What is your gun distance and pressure? At what temp is the booth? Follow the paint manufacturer's application recommendations. I tend to spray fast and therefore am always at risk of getting orange peel. What helped me was, slowing down to the point of running the paint, and then I knew what the limit was. I'd then spray a little faster so that I could get a good medium/wet application while not running it. To help wet-sanding the orange peel, I like to spray lots of clear, like 4-5 coats. That way, I can wet sand and buff with less fear of burning through. Also, like Squirrel said, hang around and watch someone who can paint well, and you can pick up some tips from them. And practice on some test panels before doing the real thing, that way you're more confident and can see what works best for you. Hope this helps. Hank
It's been years since I was associated with selling automotive paint, and I know a lot has changed since then, but when DuPont Centari was in vogue, there were at lest three different temperature ranges of reducer. If someone was having problems with orange peel, we'd sell them the next step colder reducer, which would allow the paint to flow out longer.
If you're not a professional painter, & don't have a booth, it's best to use a quick-drying reducer/catalyst & let it get orange peel if it wants to. Then buff it - I use 1000 wet on a sponge pad (medium density - not the real soft or real stiff ones) & buff with 3M Micro Finishing Compund, then polish with machine glaze. I use foam pads for both (white for buffing & black for polish). HTH, ~ Paul aka "Tha Driver" Since I gave up hope I feel much better.
The other main factor of orange peel is spraying too far away from the object you are painting. When the paint leaves the gun it is atomized, but the further away you get the small particles of paint join together to form large droplets giving you orange peel. A good distance i use is 6 to 7 inches from the object using a HVLP gun running at 8 psi at the gun, but this will vary depending on what paint you use. Hope this helps, Jim
Ive been painting for 10 years and have a crap load of custom and factory jobs under my belt and have very rarely walked away happy with a job that I had NOT buffed out....you should take the extra time to wet sand and buff your work, It just makes it that much cleaner and smoother in the end. Use extra clear if you must and or hire a mobile detailer to finish the job for you( I have done this and it has always been good for me). Plus maintain 6"to 8" away while spraying and try to put a blending agent in your last coat of clear to help overall flow in the coats below, remember the pigment stays ontop while the solvents travel down to the sealer and evaporate back up through entire millage, so a blending agent can be your friend in the last coat!
Pay a pro, I`m sure not all body shops are that busy. Maco will give you a decent paint job f you do the prep. If you still want to be a cheap ass make sure you at least have quality gun. Air pressure, distance, reduction, temperature, air flow, gun settings all come into affect.
exactly, seldom is the paint glass like out of the gun. i've done some really good (good as i can get ) to some really crappy (funny the crappiest was done at a body class). a lot of varibles, air/water, gun, heat/time of day......i personally think that the urathane paints flow out better the the enamel did. and by the way i'm in NO WAY a professional painter.......... good luck
Hey Nailhead, Color sanding any enamel, be it an alkyd, poly or epoxy isn't the answer, the prevention of the peel is the ticket. As pointed out above, triggering your spray gun properly, the selection of a solvent matched to the material you are shooting, and the tempture at which you're using it at all play an important role in preventing that orange peel. Several pratice sections on test panels, using the same materials and equipment you're going to be using on the complete repaint, will payoff big time, and prevent ya from becoming 'detail boy'.
What type/kind of paint are you using? Are you shoting in a booth or just in a garage (is it heated)?
Go to a professional automotive paint store and get a zahn cup. This measures the viscosity of your ready to shoot paint mixture. Check each time you refill the paint gun and add reducer as necessary to get the drain time right. It's just a cheap plastic cup with a hole in the bottom that makes every paint job better, because the viscosity will always be the same each time you pull the trigger. Consistent viscosity is one of the tricks to a good paint job.
Sure do- keep practicing your painting- it aint always the paint- sometimes its the painter.(Who is still new at painting) Dont worry though- you'll get there
Hey Nailhead, There are a lot of varibles hear, type of paint, type of reducer, amount of reducer, type of gun, size of air tip, amount of air pressure and teqnique. I would highly recomend a Zahn #2 cup as someone said in a earlier post. Do an internet search you should be able to pick one up for around $150.00. I have not had any luck getting those through auto body stores. You don't need a fancy paint booth to do good work but a decient compressor and good paint gun are worth the money. Ive had good luck with PPG products and all products should have a "P" sheet which is basicly an instruction sheet for that product. Pay attention to dry times and flash times. If you are trying to cut cost PPG has a lesser line called OMNI. What little I have used it has been OK. I have many times produced a finish with mild orange peel about that equal to what you see on some new cars these days with no sanding or buffing. This is not what I consider show qaulity but have been amazed with the level of qaulity that people are happy with. Find a good painter in your area that would be will to coach you would be a major help. Hope this helps. Walter
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