when i look at the reflections on the paint, it looks as if there's a bumpiness to the shine. basically, it's not a flat finish. does it have to be this way, or will polishing smooth out the paint?

 

try clay bar to remove surface contaminants before polishing

 

its called orange peel because it looks like the skin on an orange, and almost all production cars have it. the only way to truly get rid of it is to wet sand the whole car. Which probably wouldnt be possible with a thin clear coat.

 

yea we just have to live with it or get it repainted

 

I have heard that the orange peal affect is intentional . So that it makes it easier to hide imperfections in the paint over time . I guess this is true from a certain stand point . I mean if you had a perfectly flat body with a perfectly smooth finish to it (mirror like) it would show everything like paint probs and so forth . dunno just what I have heard dont know if its true

 

Well, I read somewhere the orange peel is caused by not enough clear coat to spray on the body. The coat is too thin to spread out evenly and that's why it has orange peel. IMO, I think it is the manufactuerer's way to save on paint cost as clear coat is the thickest coat of of the three (primer, color, clear) on an affordable car like this. Some said rubbing compound can fix this but I don't to try to take off another layer of already thin coat. Well, we guess just have to live with it.

 

Sorry to say but you will see orange peel on pretty much any production car out there, affordable or not. Thinking of it I've seen some nasty orange peel on a lot pricey cars. It's really hard to say if the orange peel is in the clear or the paint layer, so trying to get rid of it could be a huge mess. I wouldn't stress over it seeing how it's normal on pretty much all cars. About the only car’s you won’t see this on are ones with custom paint jobs that have been colored sanded as they were painted and cleared, not cheep to have perfectly done.

 

Agree!

Since I am new to the paint maintenance game, I have been paying a lot of attention to others cars. This past weekend, I was in the city and I watch many cars closely. To my surprise, a S600 benz's paint job is not even better than ours. I can spot the orange peel from about two car lenght away. Honda Accord has a very bad orange peel problem on almost every one that I observed. Even BMW, Toyota, Ford, Chrysler and Dodge are not much better, I could still easily see the problem when it stopped right next to me. I watched a Porshe Cayenne Turbo and even though the paint job is much better, still it's not perfect, the peel just less visible. Surprisingly, Nissan/Infinity has above average paint job, especially late model Altima and Maxima. Glossy and wet look.

Now that I know most cars, exotic or not, are plauqed with this problem, I can sleep better now.