INHOCJP

lexuslover - nice A4. A close friend of mine just got a A4 on steroids...the RS4. What a beast

Anyhow, you are right. That orange peel is pretty apparent. It is much worse than what I have on my GS. But in any event, your car still looks nice

SGT

Wow, I don't think my orange peel is that bad, but it's noticeable if you're looking for it up close. Perhaps after I do a full detail (wash, clay, wash, polish, wax, seal) it'll diminish.

Nice A4 btw. Good thing is, you can't see the orange peel from far away in your pics.

lexuslover

thanks guys! i am trying to enjoy the car as much as possible without nitpicking, but i gotta say i can't wait much longer to detail it. (lucky for me i'm still trying to master stick shift so i'm more obsessed w/ driving than admiring, thank goodness)

i'm thinking within a week or 2 i will have my detailer go at it - the "works". he had our SC looking awesome each time, so i hope the results will be pretty good. i'll post up a before and after of that same body panel when it's all done.

toyemp

No amount of waxing or polishing is going to correct orange peel. wetsanding is the only option. Would recommend leaving the wetsanding to a pro. Even then, would not recommend sanding a daily driver. Sanding removes paint and on a daily driver, you need all the protection you can get. I would recommend you just learn to live with it.

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

The orange peel on my 04 RX330 isn't too bad, but definately noticable. In fact, when I got into a little fender bender my body shop painter had to mimmick the orange peel effect on the repaired part so it matched the factory orange peel. If he sprayed it like he normally does it would have been too smooth and obvious. Over all it came out to be a pretty good match, but I do wish Lexus had better paint to begin with.

2thfixr

My suggestion would be to live with it for a while. Your car is straight black and you will get some swirl marks no matter how careful you are. Wait till you get some swirl marks and you are ready for a detail. Then take it in to get color sanded. Kill 2 birds with one stone and forget about the orange peel for now. IMO, it's the type of thing that nobody will notice and you will only see it when you really look for it anyways. FWIW, the car looks hot and I don't see any orange peel at all.

AudiMan

I also have brilliant black on my Audi, and my orange peel isn't as bad but its close to what he posted. But then again, my car is about 5 years older than his so maybe all the washes and waxes could have altered it.

anwar1337

Well I never knew that this was a paint defect... Our LS has the same effect while reflecting images also... I dont know if this was before or after detailing, could/would lexus even do anything about it after having a car for 9 months?

toyemp

Almost every mass-produced car on the market today will have orange peel to some extend, regardless of manufacturer. Some are just worse than others. It's not considered a "defect" so to speak so no manufacturer or dealer that I am aware of will help you on this. Only on the low-volume, hand-painted cars like Rolls Royce, Bentley, etc will you see zero orange peel and that's because they hand-paint the cars and take the time to sand everything smooth and make sure it's perfect. Thats one of the reasons that the cars cost so much more. On the mass produced cars where machines do the majority of the painting, orange peel is one of the side effects that you just have to live with.

Nauticalx

CORRECT, orange peel is perfectly NORMAL. It is simply a byproduct of having thousands of vaporised paint particles being sprayed on a surface. Some spots will get more particles and some less. Its a factor of the distance, temperature, viscosity of the paint, underlying surface smoothness, etc. To correct it would require wetsanding to completely remove the orangepeel is a major and delicate operation. Show cars usually are the only ones that get this treatment. Thus the wet finish look due to absolutely no orangepeel. These cars weren't sprayed without orangepeel, they just had their orangepeel removed through a costly process of wetsanding and polishing. Remember the orangepeel you see is in the clearcoat, the clearcoat is sitting on the basecoat which was also sprayed on so the clear is sitting on an uneven (orangepeel) surface. The best showroom paintjobs colorsand the basecoat smooth then spray on the clear because there's only so much you can do to the clear to make it perfectly smooth when it's sitting on uneven base itself. Hope this helps!

SGT

Thanks, toyemp and Nauticalx, great explanations.

IS_250

iTrader: (2)

funny that this topic came up. i was just talking with my bodyshop guy (who is on the forums also) about the factory paint on my 06 IS. he has a very critical eye when it comes to paint and hes probably one of the best in my area. i had to bring my car in for some body work and he noticed that it looked as if my basecoat had uneven spots in it. i bascially had to stare at it for about 10 minutes to understand what he was talking about. but since my color has a pearl it made it extremely hard to see. i had to have a couple parts repainted and he had to match the factory "orange peel" so the repainted areas were not smoother than the rest of the car. i bascially came to the conclusion that factory paint will never be 100% perfect since its painted by a robot.

IS_250

iTrader: (2)

i agree with this as well... when you wetsand you're taking some of the clear coat off. i wouldnt want to have my factory paint wetsanded unless it was absolutely needed.

Rockville

at the bottom of the door and rocker panels. This paint is resistant to damage from tire kick up and can have a mottled finish that at first glance looks like a paint defect. The paint in those areas will feel different also when you put a little pressure on it. I believe the effect is most evident on a Black car like the S4 of Lexuslover. It is probably just the way it was intended and not defective. As far as a getting a mirror finish in a paint job on a car such as a showcar this would take many painting and wetsanding steps which are not possible in a factory of any volume production. The new Obisidian Black on the 2007's is darker and looks wet right from the factory. That being said it can show a mark if you stare at one spot too long....

Rock