Step By Step Orange Peel Eliminator

Paul Perreca

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Mar 30, 2005
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I've seen a million people with the same problem. I want to help. Their body shop they paid to paint the car did not "Cut and Buff" their car. In fact, cutting and buffing are the same thing, so this expression means nothing. Sanding and Buffing is the term we use at Paul's Auto Body. Here are our STANDARD PROCEDURE step by step...

Orange peel is not when the paint drys before it hits the surface. It is just the clear coat, it will always be in every single paint job ever. There is no getting around it. These were all questions I had when I first started painting. There will also be dirt in the paint as well. The dirt doesnt look like "dirt" at all, it just looks like a fish eye (where clear lands on a silicone-like chemical, and lays around it not on it, and you cant fix it w/o repainting, ppl often add Fish Eye Eliminator which helps, but if that silicone is on your surface of painting, your forked)

I am going to jump to the final steps of "FINISH" work --
Remember when buffing, the buffer speed is VERY VERY important -

Step One- Paint car and clear it -
Step Two - You WILL HAVE ORANGE PEEL!!! (not much of a step) Wait till the clear is dry, according to the directions on the can, every clear is different. We have clears at my shop that dry fast enough to sand and buff within 2 hours. Others 2 Days.
Step Three - Wet sand or DA sand (dual action) with 1000 to knock the orange peel down. Do not go TOO far Because if you do, you wont have enough clear left to sand when you need to recess to finer grits, which is in the next steps.
STAY AWAY FROM EDGES (body lines, ends of panels, sharp curves, etc...) WITH DA. Only Wet sand carefully near edges.
Step 4 - Dry off car where wet, and look over it, clean it up w/ a terry cloth towel, and look over, you will know where you missed, and where you need to go over again, usually you will have to.
Step 5 - Dry off again. Your 1000 grit sand paper is too rough to fully buff out with compound. You can get away with it on light colors (white, lights silvers, beiges) But on darker colors, BLACK ESPECIALLY!!!. Go over entire car with 2000 grit paper. Now, 2000 grit is VERY easy to buff out, and going over the entire car with it will make your back breaking buffing much easier and faster.
Step 6 - Once 2000 grit wet sanding is done, clean car and dry with air blower or by any means nesessary. (Wool pads do not like water)
Step 7 - Now you are ready to buff - Buff with a wool pad first (only do 1-2 square foot sections at a time)(on light colors, when your done w/ the wool pad, all thats left is polish, but when working w/ dark colors, there are too additional pads, each foam, and of different textures) WHEN YOU THINK YOU ARE DONE BUFFING AN AREA, DO IT AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!! You are not done with one shot. YOu must go over a square foot area at least 2-3 times thoroughly in order to buff everything up to a luster w/o missing anything.
Do the entire car like this, it will take time. And Do not rush.

BUFFER SPEED for Step 7 = 2000 RPMS at the MAX, feather the trigger when near edges (meaning let on and off frequently, in case the buffer grabs an edge, the wheel will stop rotation, instead of power through and burn you edge, than your screwed)

Step 8 - Once entire car has been gone over, clean off excess compound before polishing, and go over for dull spots. Buff them with Wool wheel.

Step 9 - Clean again, with terry cloth towel, and you are either ready to polish, or go onto your next pad (due to lightness and darkness of your particular color). Polish with a polish that is fresh clearcoat safe, ask your local auto body supplier and they will know. DO NOT WAX.

Dark Colors ---- TURN BUFFER TO CORRECT SPEEDS AS NOTED
Step 9 - Note - Buffer speed 1800 max, but I use it at 1500 - Switch buffer over to the velcro pad, which you will stick the White Foam pad onto. THis pad has a coarser texture, but not too coarse. (***NOTE*** New White pads come with edges that are not sharp to the touch, but are too sharp to use on your paint, you must get a peice of sand paper, and spin the pad using the buffer on the sand paper on the edge of the pad to kill that sharp edge, or it will cut through your clear - you will be glad I included that, trust me) ONce pad is ready, use little drips of compound, not nearly as much as when your buffing, and white pad the entire car, stay away from edges as much as possible, and be sure to feather the trigger around edges you need to.

Step 10 - When your done white padding, look at car, you will see swirls everywhere, this is normal. You are doing great. Next you are to take those swirls out. Switch to the black pad. This is a very soft polishing pad. Get a buffer safe polish, and do the same as you did with the white pad. You will feel like you have accomplished an amazing goal, this pad makes you feel very good about your job. (or very bad depending on how well your wool pad work was). Do the entire car, and than wipe excess compound with terry cloth towel.

Step 11 - Get a fresh clearcoat safe polish, and with a damp towel, apply to one panel at a time and use as directed on the bottle. Wipe to a beautiful luster and you have yourself a glass surface - (in accordance with very flat and nice bodywork)

I wish all of you the UP MOST LUCK with your finish work, because its alot harder than the actual paint job itself - it takes a touch, and a feel, and you must show it love, and affection, or it will burn you, it will burn right through and require repaint.

REMEMBER LET THE TOOLS DO THE WORK, DO NOT APPLY A TON OF PRESSURE CUZ A SPOT WILL NOT BUFF UP, IT IS LIKELY THAT THE CLEAR IS VERY HARD AND THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT, LIKE I SAID, SHOW CARE AND TENDERNESS - AND YOUR PAINT WILL RESPOND THE SAME!!!!!!!!
GOOD LUCK!

By Paul Perreca at Paul's Auto Body -
 
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OH yea, be careful around the gas cap door, you will definately burn right through that little lip if you're not careful -

Another thing to watch for - THE ANTENNA - IF it is on and you buff around it, the buffer (ive seen this happen) can rip that antenna right down into the paint and cause a massive migrain paint headache -

I cannot stress enough buffer speeds. They are key. Keep that buffer speed down below 2000 and you will hav ea much better chance of it not burning through.
 
Yea, alot of people dont know these things, and it is a surefire way of making your car look like a show car, as long as the existing paint is decent, you can work with it!
 
Sounds good, hey Paul, where are you located. I'm in the middle, well closer to the end of my prep work and looking for a place to do my paint job. Going for BLACK btw.

Also about my prep work. I have been finishing each piece with 600grit on the primer. I've been using a regular sandable primer. Are primer sealers and fillers necessary? Anything I should know? Any tips would be great. I've been getting through this ordeal "ok" but doing prepping an entire car in a 2 car garage cluttered with dirtbikes by oneself isn't very fun. Sanding everything down and primering about 1 million times and sanding to perfection is bringing me to the point where I want to say **** it and set the car on fire.

Anthony
 
This thread deserves a "STICKY"

Yeah, making that glass look is very time consuming. That is why paint jobs can be sooooo expensive. Actually the paint job is cheap, it's the prep and finish that costs so much.
 
Anthony, I am located in Folsom, PA - I live in norwood. Area code 19033- Yes adhesion promoters and sealers are veryyyy neccessary for long term long lasting jobs. If you dont, you'll probably see where the primer is when the paint on the car dies back after sun takes its toll - every little step counts ESPECIALLY WITH BLACK- dont set the car aflame lol - It is time consuming, and i know how bad it can suck -
Heres a tip for you and most others if at all possible --

If you plan on doing all of the body work yourself and priming, and all prep work yourself -- and you also plan on doing the finishing work yourself (using steps in this thread of course lol) Your best and cheapest bet would be to have MACCO shoot the car - because i've heard they only cost anywhere from 250 to 500 dollars for a paint job. Now we charge about 2500 here for a full paint because we do all of the body work (straight as an arrow when finished) and all of the finish work (shiny as glass when finished garunteed).

If you are doing black, i would suggest having a body man do the body work only because if it isnt 100% perfect, your not going to be happy. Even when we get a whole car straight and paint it black, we still sometimes find stuff that we need to redo because theres just no telling when the car is grey (primer), and its easy to miss the small things when using hands to feel -

TIP*** when feeling for bodywork, use a soft cloth, not folded, just open (fold will defeat purpose) and run you hand over your surface w/ the towl or paper towl and this is a helpful way to find low spots, dings, high spots, off bodylines, etc...

GOOD LUCK

If i knew how to get a sticky, i would def apply for one
 
Question, I painted my car like 3 weeks ago, burnt orange and added flakes to the clear, 5 coats of clear, wet sanded with 1000, got all of the orange peel out, but its still not shining as I thought it should, do I still need to go over the car with 2000 after all of the orange peel is gone? Im using a lacquer Nason setup, and a 4:1 Nason clear.
 
never used nason - but i can almost garuntee you'll never get ALL of the sand scratches out with your last paper being 1000 - It will not look like sand scratches, but it is, that is why it will not shine like it should - now you never mentioned actually buffing it after you sanded it - Make sure you hit the entire car with 2000 - alot of times when you put the metal into the actual clear, you'll notice it looks great!! at first, but then over a few days it starts to die back a noticable amount, that is when you first sand and buff it, than it should stay shiny i dont know how long, than you'll notice over time maybe 5-8 months you'll need to sand and buff the car once again - ( I know this because my uncle joes harley was my first metalflake-in-clear paintjob I had done, about a year ago, and it took that long for everything to happen, now that I it's been sanded and buffed again it looks great)- luckily you used 5 coats of clear - metal flake definately is harder to maintain until you get it right - but good luck with it - anything i didnt answer ask me - i'll keep checking this thread for everyone -

Pauly Perreca
 
windsor396 said:
Good job on the description Paul.
I will be doing exactly what you suggested for the darker "black" colors on my little baby.
Thanks a million..


Paul

Any time i can be of help, just find this thread and post, or send me a private message because i will be checking on it as much as I can - lots of people want their cars looking good for the summer - and the dark colors are especially hard to "massage" without the know-how so I'm here to help.
Paul Perreca
 
How do I get this to be a sticky? It looks like it would be too many stickys if it became one. But it is very important information and it would be easier for me to respond to people if i didnt have to search for it lol

Paul Perreca
 
ninety1gt said:
paul can u tell me why my blue pearl is'nt that noticable?? we put about 2 1/2 table spoons in each gun full, the brand was horizon "i think"
sorry to jack thread...
ninety1gt-your combo is similar to what I have planned, what times have you ran?
 
Philstang said:
sorry to jack thread...
ninety1gt-your combo is similar to what I have planned, what times have you ran?



still hav'nt ran it, hopfully within a month i go to the track, im hoping for maybe a mid 14, but idk, im running kumho ecsta supras, 245/45/17 and they dont really hook, so i want to get some good tires first
 
Great post. I bought the System 1 kit from Eastwood that came with the compound, 4 pads, and a Dewalt adjustable speed buffer. I used it on the wife's LX that I just restored. Worked excellent. The main thing is to get it color sanded and buffed within 24 hours. Once the clear sets up completely, it takes 10 times longer. I used 1500 grit and wet sanded the whole car till the peel was just about gone, then I wetsanded with 2000 grit. After that the System 1 process starts with a wool pad (1500 rpms on the buffer) and then you switch to a courser foam pad, and then a fine foam pad. All the same compound which makes it nice. Then there's an additional pad for black. Really impressed with how nice this worked. No swirl marks even when the wax wears off the finish.
 
sounds like a good system - we just use 3M but i think some parts of the country don't even have 3M buffing equipment - i dont know lol - neway - i made this post a long time ago, n figured i'd put it in my sig so people could see it, instead of not finding it when they did a search- it is very helpful - and i'm glad ppl have had success -

This blue pearl, is it in the clear coat, and what color is the pearl coat sitting ON TOP of? If it's on top of white, it's easier to notice, but if it's on top of any darker color, they are hard to notice, but trust me, it adds a little special something, that you'll be glad you added it -!!