Fireplace

I have learnt a new term..."Orange Peel" when I sent my car for some re-painting work done to the rear wheel arch panel. The dealer's spray painted the panel and to my horror, the texture was much rougher and uneven compared to the original paint work next to it. I took the car back and the CSA recognized the presence of more than usual Orange Peel formation, and offered to sand down and repolish to smoothen out the Orange Peel texture.

Since this incident, I began to compare the so called "Orange Peel" texture on other make, and found BMW to be quite bad vs other premium marque. I wonder why Orange Peel is more on BMW. Is it the quality of paint itself?

In fact, I wasn't sure if I like the idea of them repolishing vs repainting the car. Anyone has indepth knowledge in paint work? and what is the correct way to get rid of excessive Orange Peel effect when painting the car? Any advice would be much appreciated. CHeers!

Ricracing

The Orange Peel is not a new term.

Actually, if you look at the most expose colours of them all - the Jet Black - you'll find it on all BMW's.

Since a decade ago the oil based paint was forbidden, the colours are now wather based, which means
that the paint job cannot resist any scratches nor "stone bites" no more.

These new wather colours get their shine from the clear coat level, not from the colour itself.

I.e. M-B has tried a mircoparticle clear coat that shoud protect the paint, but what I have heard about
Helsinki taxi cars, a lot of them has been repainted (we have really, really though contitions there in the winter).

Look hard at this 3 week old E60 beauty and you can see the O P coating.

Freewilly

What color has the worst Orange Peel look? My e60 color is silver grey, orange peel doesn't show as much as black.

ImolaRedM

Maybe BMW does this for the same reasons golf balls have dimples.

http://www.mustangfaqs.com/FAQ/General/Aut...rodynamics_101/ look half way down this page where they start to talk about laminar vs turbulent flow. But I have to say I know next to nothing as to the real reason why the paint is the way it is on the BMW or about aerodynamics. I just know that most German cars I've owned have been like this as far back as I can remember.

Westcoast M5

My car also has an unsatisfactory amount of orange peel. For the most part, the texture results from the paint process as opposed to the material itself. When paint or clear is applied to a car it needs to "flow out" on the surface to level itself, but not flow so much as to run or sag off the body lines. The amount of material being applied, the pressure, the distance of the nozzle from the work, and the temperature all impact whether it will "flow" to a virtually glass like surface or end up as orange peel (or many other unsatisfactory conditions).

As long as there is enough clear coat over the paint, it can be wet sanded and poished to perfectly smooth finish, but break through the clear and you have a problem (ie: do not try this yourself). Most show cars with those super deep, super flat finishes are sanded/polished in this way but they also put on lots of clear knowing they intend to sand. Professional painters can also spray a panel with virtually no orange peel, unlike the robots at Dingofing apparently.

(PS: I used to be a profesional painter)

Ricracing

Light colors are much less sensitive.

Grey, silver and white are the best in this sense.

znod

Neither of my cars have orange peel. But, I tend buy off the lot so I can see exactly what I am getting. Usually, doing so is not a problem for me. On the polishing/smoothing issue. I don't think that doing so could be accomplished satisfactorily unless your dealer intends to reclear the area. Even then, I am not sure the paint could be "refinished" satisfactorily. In this regard, I think you would lose a great deal of clear coat using your dealer's suggested procedure--unless the area is recleared (which can produce its own problems, but which also usually is unavoidable). I would get them to repaint and reclear from scratch. But, note what the pro above says. Maybe there is enough clear to do the job, but I'd bet $1 not. He's the pro though and should know paint for show and go slow or not.

Fireplace

Westcoast, thanks for the pro opinion. I will have to rely on the painter to advise if the clear coat is thick enough to be re-polished. And even if so, would there be another problem of getting an evenly finished coat along the body panel? E.g., if the pressure of the polisher is inconsistent, wont it cause uneven reflection instead?

Not sure if a repaint and recoat is a safer and a surer bet to improve the poorly finished paint work, which resulted in uglier orange peel formation.

BMW#7

You can see the orange peel effect in the pic of my car below.
Fortunately it is only visible at specific angles and under certain lighting conditions.

By the way, I saw a program on Discovery about the making of the 6 Series, and in the same plant they were producing E60's and the painting was being done by humans, not robots.

Can anyone confirm?

Ricracing

All E60's sold in Europe and US are made in the BMW Dingolfing Plant in Germany.
They also manufacture the M5, M6, 6-series and the 7-series there.

The cars are for sure panted by robots!

See more here under Production.

Actually all BMW's have the Orange Peel feature, just look at paintwork
under heavy light.