<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Webb70:
Every car company allows a certain amount of orange peel. It is measured with a Profilometer or with OP panels. Each plant has an exceptable number eg. Cadallac is(don't quote me) 9 (very glass like)minimum I believe. Pontiac is minimum 5, I'm not sure what HUMMER is. When I first got mine I measured it and mine is a 7 (very smooth). Mine was delivered the beginning of June and with all launches, the standards start off high and then they are brought back a little to help increase quotas. Being a Process Engineer in the paint department for GM, i was able to do many tests to mine to check for repainted panels, gloss, doi(destinction of image) and orange peel. I was VERY happy with all my results. Most of the results are better than I thought they would be, after looking at H1's in the showroom.
If you are not happy with the finish take it to the dealer and ask about having it buffed and polished. This will take out the orange peel effect, but if not done properly they could leave swirl marks or possibly damage the paint. If you know what you are doing you could claybar it as a friend of mine did with his H1 and the finish is now like glass.
* sorry about the bad spelling, I'm used to spellcheck. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
The only way to remove orange peel is to wetsand and buff the paint. No amount of claybarring will remove orange peel.
My suggestion (coming from someone who has been in the bodyshop business for over 22 years) is to deal with it.
The reason being, if you wetsand and buff the paint, yes, it will be slick but in order to do so, you're literally "shaving" off some clear. The less clear, the less protection you will have from UV rays, etc.
Not to mention a slicked out paintjob is harder to keep swirl-less.
Our paintjobs for show cars are usually about 10-12K. Even the lesser ones (5-6K) are wetsanded and buffed.
I guess I'm just a purist about leaving stock paintjobs, stock. Even on my corvette (which is RIDICULOUSLY loaded with orange peel) I didn't wetsand and buff it.
Hope that helps,
Mark
PS. Just for the record, if you do decide to get your truck wetsanded and buffed, be prepared to take it to a bodyshop, not a detail shop and spend 500-800 bucks.
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