First of all thanks for the advice you gave me earlier. I have a friend that owns a body shop, so I asked him to look at my truck to see what was keeping my truck from shining the way I thought it could. He told me that my truck had what he called Orange peel on it and the only way to get this off was to sand the vehicle. Is this true, if so how much should this cost, and will it help that much. Once again thanks for your help.

 

ok... hmmm trying to think of a car that comes from the factory without orange peel. I mean, even BMWs come from the factory with orange peel.

Orange peel won't prevent it from having a super shine. Orange peel just prevents it from having a shine where the reflection has sharp edges. Go look at your reflection in your truck and you'll see how the edges around the reflection are not smooth but kinda rough. Kinda looks like the surface of an orange.

If you look at a show car the reflection is perfect and mirror like. You could shave in it if you wanted to.

You can't really sand orange peel out of a factory coat because the orange peel could be in the base coat. It is actually probably on the base coat and the clear coat so there really is no way to get rid of it. It is caused when a layer of paint is laid down too thick.

The way to get rid of orange peel is the sand the surface of the paint and polish it back out. This is known as colorsanding. It depends where you take it but the person could charge between $20 and $30 an hour for colorsanding. Maybe even higher if he is a very good bodyshop worker. Will probably take 8 hours to do a truck.

I would just live with it... Wait, I already live with the orange peel on my truck.

I plan on sanding my hood and I'll see if that gets rid of the orange peel. I'll try to do that this week.

 

Orange peel is actually used by car manufacturers to mask flaws in the metal. Orange peel amount is determined by the diluents (thinners) used which either flash quickly or slowly. Spray booths in the assembly plants are temp controlled but if you happen to get a car that was painted with a fast solvent on a cool day, and the air-make up system isn't up to snuff, then you are gonna get more orange peel.
Orange peel is usually in the clearcoat but I have seen a rough base coat cause it to be worse. Sanding any at all is gonna cut through some of the clearcoat and reduce the shine somewhat.

If you want to go through the trouble of sanding, then you will probably have to recoat with a new clear coat. Just make sure the shop knows their stuff with weather and solvents.......

 

DonnyD, I've never heard that about using orange peel to mask flaws in the meat but I'm sure it can be true. I know the main reason of orange peel is manufacturers want the paint to dry quickly so they add extra accelerators to the paint. Fast drying paint causes mass orange peel.

Thinners flashing off too quickly, air pressure too low or high in the paint gun, to thick of a layer put down, bad paintgun settings, laying down successive coats too quickly, spraying paint on a semi-dry surface will all cause orange peel.

I don't think you can remove the orange peel on your truck without having clear resprayed. The UV protection is highest in only the top .3mils of the clearcoat. You'll sand through that protection pretty quickly if you're not careful. Learn to live with it and don't worry, most new cars have orange peel!

 

I would add that I have an 01 XLT Sport its silver and like every Ford I have seen it has orange peel. I use Zaino, but Intel can recommend other polishes and waxes. My truck shines awesome, not necessarly because of Zaino, but keeping the paint in good condition.

Not to be disrespectful to your friend, but in my opinion he dont really know what he is talking about with the exception he'd like to make some money off you. I think like Intel and others have said and I will myself, I have never seen a car without the orange peel affect except show cars.

 

I just found out another cause of Orange peel.

The Panels being baked too long or at too high of a temp.