Edward Yemm
Member
- Messages
- 469
- Location
- Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England
This is a visual guide for anyone who is unfortunate enough to encounter excessive orange peel. It is designed to show the novice painter, such as myself, what will and what won’t cut out. When to put more coats of clear on, in a bid to cut back imperfections or when to sand back and start the clear all over again. What is and what isn’t salvageable.
Photo 1:
Moderate orange peel. 1k ready for use lacquer. Gun moved at right speed. No runs.
Photo 2:
Severe orange peel. 1k ready for use lacquer. Gun swept across panel way too fast. Paint doesn’t have chance to flow out flat as it is sprayed. In most cases this will never cut out. See further photos.
Photos 3 and 4.
This is what severe orange peel looks like. Lots of deep pitting. Sure to hold dust in future and give the panel a dull appearance. In this case, all the way down to the surface. Did not cut out without cutting into basecoat underneath. Requires respray.
Cause of these were too fast a gun speed and using a fast thinner and extra fast hardener with 2K clear coat on a 27+ degree day. 23 degrees in the garage.
Photo 5.
Same paint and mixture as above. Moderate orange peel can be seen top and bottom. Severe pitting from severe orange peel in the centre. Directly above this is the basecoat which has been cut into whilst attempting to flatten.
Photo 6.
Moderate orange peel. Gun speed was not quite slow enough. Also the gun was running low on material, which was noticed in the next pass down. Fast thinner and extra fast hardener with 2K clear was being used on a 27+ degree day. 23 degrees in the garage. Too fast for the conditions, but workable with slower gun speeds.
Photo 7.
Gun was spraying 2K clear mixed as above. Too fast for the conditions but a finish to match that of factory orange peel (as noticed when flattening panels prior to re painting) was achievable with a slow pass.
There are many factors which contribute to orange peel. What worked for me won’t necessarily work in every situation. This is a visual guide as to what will and what won’t cut out. It is designed to save people time and misery of realising that the paint isn’t ever going to cut flat. I would advise always starting with trying to cut the worst looking orange peel out first. Then you will waste less time if it won’t cut out.
Whilst spraying I could see that the paint was spotting like crazy if I moved the gun fast. When passing at the right speed with 75% overlap I could see a nice wet edge and I was basically spraying a mirror that my reflection bounced back off.
Photo 1:
Moderate orange peel. 1k ready for use lacquer. Gun moved at right speed. No runs.
Photo 2:
Severe orange peel. 1k ready for use lacquer. Gun swept across panel way too fast. Paint doesn’t have chance to flow out flat as it is sprayed. In most cases this will never cut out. See further photos.
Photos 3 and 4.
This is what severe orange peel looks like. Lots of deep pitting. Sure to hold dust in future and give the panel a dull appearance. In this case, all the way down to the surface. Did not cut out without cutting into basecoat underneath. Requires respray.
Cause of these were too fast a gun speed and using a fast thinner and extra fast hardener with 2K clear coat on a 27+ degree day. 23 degrees in the garage.
Photo 5.
Same paint and mixture as above. Moderate orange peel can be seen top and bottom. Severe pitting from severe orange peel in the centre. Directly above this is the basecoat which has been cut into whilst attempting to flatten.
Photo 6.
Moderate orange peel. Gun speed was not quite slow enough. Also the gun was running low on material, which was noticed in the next pass down. Fast thinner and extra fast hardener with 2K clear was being used on a 27+ degree day. 23 degrees in the garage. Too fast for the conditions, but workable with slower gun speeds.
Photo 7.
Gun was spraying 2K clear mixed as above. Too fast for the conditions but a finish to match that of factory orange peel (as noticed when flattening panels prior to re painting) was achievable with a slow pass.
There are many factors which contribute to orange peel. What worked for me won’t necessarily work in every situation. This is a visual guide as to what will and what won’t cut out. It is designed to save people time and misery of realising that the paint isn’t ever going to cut flat. I would advise always starting with trying to cut the worst looking orange peel out first. Then you will waste less time if it won’t cut out.
Whilst spraying I could see that the paint was spotting like crazy if I moved the gun fast. When passing at the right speed with 75% overlap I could see a nice wet edge and I was basically spraying a mirror that my reflection bounced back off.
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