Thread: THIS LOOKS SO GOOD YOU'LL WANT TO SLAP YO MAMA! ... THE SNAKE - PERFECTED!

ORANGE PEEL AAAAAGGGGHHH!!! Hate it. Looks awful!

Most of the high-end vehicle manufactures wet sand their vehicles to smooth the finish. This Ford obviously was not!

My mission was to sand the factory clear coat in order to level it making it much more appealing to the eye.

Here are a few pic of the disaster that Ford is passing off as acceptable.








In my arsenal I has everything I needed to take this OEM finish to a much higher level. I have Meguiars sanding papers and disks of various grits that I will use by hand and with various sanding machines to "level" the paint. I also will be using Meguiars W5000 wool polishing pad and the new Microfiber D.A. correction system to polish the finish to a SUPERIOR SHINE.

Superior Shine has had the privilege to be "in" on the development of Meguiars Dual Action Microfiber Correction System. I know the system well and I love to brag about how well the system works!!

The first order of business is to wash and then mask off the trim. Masking the trim will protect it from being damaged if a sanding disk or polishing pad were to bump up against it.

When I masked off the vehicle I made certain that I taped over the gap between the trim and the body panel. This will keep sanding slurry out of the gap and facilitate clean up.





After the vehicle was masked it was time to sand. I started by wet sanding the panels with 1500 grit sanding disks on an air dual action sander.








Some areas had the orange peel texture so bad that I block sanded them by hand with 1500 grit to get it extra flat.

The 3 inch dual action sander that is included in Meguiars headlight restoration kit made quick work of sanding smaller hard to reach area such as around this cobra badge.





These following photos I will demonstrate how I use masking tape to protect raised body lines.

I first tape up the areas that would be prone to getting damages by a machine sander.



Then I will proceed to machine sand.



I then remove the masking tape and sand the raised areas by hand.



The result is a perfectly sanded panel.



This pic will give you an idea how deep the "peel" is. I lightly sanded this area. I just nipped off the peaks of the high part of the orange peel.



I will continue to sand until the panel is completely hazed with no shiny paint remaining. Here are what properly sanded panels look like.

When I completed sanding with 1500 grit I went over the vehicle again with 2000 grit sanding paper and discs to make polishing easier.

The entire process removes about .1 to .2 mils from the vehicles finish. OEM recommends no more that .3 to .5 of clear be removed. We fall well under the max.

Here is what the orange peel is now, clear coat sanding slurry on the ground.



The sanded finish can easily be polished with the microfiber system but I found it a little faster to polish it with a rotary first.

Here I use the 3 inch MF cutting pad on an air tool to polish a test spot.





I proceeded to polish the larger panels with one of my classic rotary polishers. This one happens to be from the late 40s.






I had my trusty assistant follow me with a microfiber cutting pad and Meguiars #105 to further refine the finish and to bring it up to and incredible shine.






Here I am using the 3 inch cutting pad to polish out small and hard to shine areas.

Here I am perfecting the bumper in a "dark room" environment.





After a bath to wash off the polishing dust and sanding slurry we see the results of over 40 hours of sanding and polishing, a smooth defect free finish.











Here is a reflection of my over head florescent light ...

BEFORE-



AFTER -

She is all sweetness now!!! This is the results of 40 hours of work. Aint she a beauty!!

Notice the next patient in the back ground waiting her turn under the "wheel" for a flawless Superior Shine. She is an Alpina B7 and a write up on her will be posted soon.

A pleasure to see a finely cared for automobile.

Question: although your work looks exceptionally smooth, if the paint is itself rough with orange peel before clear is applied, won't that compromise the apparent finish even if the clear is leveled?

I was waiting for you to finish to say nice job! So "orange peel" is removable? My 335i has it bad but I am scared to have it buffed out.

Originally Posted by adanmtxt1

A pleasure to see a finely cared for automobile.

Question: although your work looks exceptionally smooth, if the paint is itself rough with orange peel before clear is applied, won't that compromise the apparent finish even if the clear is leveled?

Base coat has a very thin consistency and plays very little if any role on how "peely" the clear coat is or isn't.

Originally Posted by Aimee

I was waiting for you to finish to say nice job! So "orange peel" is removable? My 335i has it bad but I am scared to have it buffed out.

Yes orange peel can be removed. Here are somethings to thing about though; when you have the finish sanded your removing material from your finish. Your clear coat will be thinner than what was applied by the factory. A thin clear coat leaves you with less material (if any) to do further correction if you were to receive a defect in your finish. Clear coat is about as thick as a sheet of note book paper. Most vehicle manufacturers recommend no more than a third be removed to correct a defect or the integrity of the the clear coat to hold up comes into play when it is subjected to the elements of daily use. The GT500 in this post is and always will be a garage queen. Looks won over anything else so I went very aggressive with it.

So for a show car or weekend driver I'd recommend a wet sand. For a daily driver I would not. A compromise would be to very lightly sand your finish to improve it by removing some of the orange peel.

Awesome work. I love the grabber blue on the new Mustang's.