chuckchung

my dad's rx330 was involved in a hit and run accident and we just got the car back from the shop. The whole right side was basically repainted, but i noticed the orange peel effect on the car where it was repainted. I know it is hard to remove orange peel from cars, but i was wondering if it is common to find it on a car that has been recently repainted. The shop had many great recommendations, both from friends and the lexus dealership. They specialize in exotic and luxary cars. Any info anyone can provide me will be great, thanks in advance.

Guitarman

Well, it's a sign that the painter wasn't as good as he should be really. With today's HVLP guns and the chemistry and techniques of today's body shops behind it, an experienced painter can spray paint almost completely flat. And even if there is orange peel like that it's not difficult to remove.

They need to "block" the paint flatter by wetsanding and then buff it out. They should have done that to match the existing paint texture on the adjacent panels. That's what a good shop does- not just match color but match texture too.
I would HIGHLY recommend he take the car back and have them knock down the orange peel so it matches the rest of the car, not difficult for them to do. It's basic stuff for a body shop.

Good luck.

chuckchung

My dad just told me that the guy at the shop said something about how the paint originally had a slight orange peel texture to it, so they matched it... I'm going to bring the car back to talk to the guy next week
Here's a few pics of the orange peel:



Here's a pic of the other side of the car w/ the original paint...


Sry the pictures don't show the car at the same color, i took the pics as the sun was setting and well the angel+ sunlight caused the pictures to turn out differently...

What u guys think?

Guitarman

Well, that's the important part; If they "matched" the orange peel to the existing paint (most oem paint has orange peel, save Ferrari etc.) then that's what you want right? If their new paint has some more than the existing paint, that's another story and they should block sand it to match the rest.

I really can't tell much in the way of paint texture from those pics, the lighting just isn't quite right to bring it out enough for me to see.