My buddy painted his car at his house and it's loaded with orange peel. He used a single stage acrylic urethane. The paint is real shiny but rough. What are the steps required when working with single stage? :confused:

How do you get rid of orange peel?

Some folks use a peeler, but most just start by using their thumb and fore-finger to make a small hole in the orange, then the peeling can be remove with little force. If it your first time, you better remember your goggles. Those things sting if you get it in your eye.

:chop: (I couldn't help myself....sorry)

[I][B]Some folks use a peeler, but most just start by using their thumb and fore-finger to make a small hole in the orange, then the peeling can be remove with little force. If it your first time, you better remember your goggles. Those things sting if you get it in your eye.
:chop: (I couldn't help myself....sorry)

that works on hemorrhoids as well, if you dont like to use your teeth

Are we really talking about "peel"? or are you refering to "dry spots"? This is very likely with first-time painters. Can you see tracks where he sprayed? (gun lines)

Like skii said, if there is enough film thickness in the paint, it can be saved (again assuming solid color) The problem with "dry" is that there is usually very little material there to work with.

A little more info may be helpful.

Longhair- it's actually orange peel. Every square inch. The paint looks great from 30 feet but man it's loaded with peel when you get up to it. It's solid red with no metallic in it. I told him to try spraying a clear coat over it to smooth out these spots rather than spending the time to sand/buff the peel, plus it's already still taped up. Is that reasonable?

If there is not enough color thickness, rough it, either spray more color or several coats of clear, then wet sand it until it's smooth.

If your gun is not set up to atomize your paint well enough, orange peel can result.

This is pretty common when you have too much gun and not enough CFM on your air compressor.

if there an additive to reduce orange peel? there is an additive to reduce fish eyes,,,

if you shot clear over and sanded, wouldn't you end up with holes through the clear?

my recommendation (I've done this!) is wet sand it down, cut and buff. likely to still see the imperfections and its a lot of work.

so orange peel comes from an under powered (CFM's) spray gun, can quality of paint cause orange peel? or can even the most crappy paint be laid down straight if done right?

Mike...

I've seen orange peel result from not having enough reducer to flow out the paint properly. It happened on my last truck.

There are a lot of things that may cause "orange peel". Basically, it is a term used to describe the resultant appearance when a fluid dries in "clumps" instead of smooth.

Improper reducer mixture, wrong reducer, applying too heavy, incorrect gun set-up, etc... can cause the paint to set up before it has "leveled". Aside from prevention, the only cure is to somehow level/smooth the existing rough surface or apply a new thick surface that will allow you to level it without sanding through to the original surface.

It sounds like your best option IMHO is to rough the existing surface w/ a fine grit "scotch-brite" type pad, apply several coats of clear (how many depends on how thick the orange peel is), and then smooth out the orange peel that will appear in your new clear.

orange peal is common on tons of vehicals, i have seen it on cars straight off the dealership that are electromagnetically dipped not sprayed, it happens, if your a good enough painter you can get away with none and sometimes the whole car. it really depends on alot of things, that is the problem wiht single stage it doesn't offer you much room for error like orange peel. but if you have the clear go ahead and shoot over it, it will make it more glossy then it was before, but make sure you do the whole car becuase sometimes depending on the color you will be able to see the difference in natural light. just my two cents

sanding and spraying with clear is all well and good if the paint doesn't react with the clear. but if you don't find what the cause of the orange peel was there's a great chance that you'll just go thru alot of work and end up with an orange peeled clearcoat
i'd suggest some practice on scrap until you can get effective results. gun adjustment,thinning paint,air pressure,tip size all effect the final product