How to a sort out orange peel ( aerosol paint job)

[retromadness123]

Hello just been painting my rear quarter with aerosols and applied the clear coat on top, when feeling the paint it's smooth but the shine is still not fully there and also can see orange peel, can anyone point me in the right direction to get a better finish and also whats products to use to achieve this, all the help is greatly appreciated thank you

[Vintage75]

Wet sand the paint with gradually finer wet and dry paper and then machine polish it to get back to a good shine.

YouTube will have lots of how to videos.

[retromadness123]

Thanks , do you know what grades of paper are used and will any polish do the trick or anything pacifically

[Vintage75]

I'm no expert but when I did it I think I used 1500 and then 2500 followed with a machine polish, you will need a abrasive/cutting compound/polish.
As I said I'm no expert and there are lots of different compounds out there I borrowed some from a friend who does bodywork and I can't remember what it was but it was a fine grade paste.

Have a look at www.theultimatefinish.co.uk
There's a lot to choose from and unless someone else with better knowledge than me comments with some more helpful advice then you can give them a ring and they will recommend the best product for what you are planning to do.

[retromadness123]

Thanks I appreciate all the help so will look in to the website, and hopefully get it looking better, plus spraying with aerosols is not the best but it what I only have available to me at the moment and the car was looking a state so a improvement is better than what is was when I started lol

[Stiff]

If you've got access to a machine polisher it will save you a lot of elbow grease.
I usually take it down with 1200 (wet) and hit it with the buffer. 1500 takes less polishing. Anything finer will work but takes much longer to get the peel flat.
'Fast Cut Plus' is what I use mostly to buff it up and it's pretty good although some people use Farecla G3, it's just personal choice really.

[retromadness123]

Thanks stiff, I found some g3 premium cut / polish, so will hopefully use that, would this be better to use with the white pad or the yellow one ? Sorry to sound silly just first time in dealing with orange peel as I usually just leave it lol

[droopsnoot]

I've had a similar issue on my project car, and the main thing I'd say is spend as much time as you can in the flatting. The moment the paper clogs, clean it or replace it. I've got rid of virtually all my orange peel, but in most places I've replaced it with fine scratches that I'm struggling to compound out, and some deeper scratches where the paper clogged and I didn't notice quickly enough.

I've used 1200 and 1500, I did try some finer grades but they just clogged up straight away, though maybe they'd work better a year after it was painted. I have a couple of machine polishers, also managed to borrow a Rupes "Bigfoot" unit a few weeks ago, and while I can get a great shine with all of them, none of them magically remove the scratches.

For my own polishers, I use a G3 compound. That says on the back of the bottle which pads to use in which order, it's the harder pad first to hopefully reduce scratches, then the softer one to bring up a shine. The Bigfoot had four different grades - blue, green, yellow, white - and matching compounds for each one. The G3 seems to be happy with two grades of pad and at different speeds. I don't know, though, whether a "proper" Farecla yellow pad is the same grade as a generic one.

Cover everything you don't want to get compound spots on.

[Stiff]

May 11, 2018 9:07:10 GMT retromadness123 said:

would this be better to use with the white pad or the yellow one ?

I use a white 'spongey' pad with the compound.

May 11, 2018 9:37:11 GMT droopsnoot said:

but in most places I've replaced it with fine scratches that I'm struggling to compound out, and some deeper scratches where the paper clogged and I didn't notice quickly enough.

It should be hard enough to attack again by now so I'd try flatting the scratches out with 1200 or 1500 then buffing again. The only thing to worry about is that you don't flat too much away as you might break through to the primer (or whatever was originally underneath)
A general rule of thumb from years ago was that whatever amount you flat down needs roughly the same amount of polishing to bring it up again. Worth bearing in mind whilst flatting. :-)

[retromadness123]

Thanks, when polishing will it be better to use a rotary or a DA, what will be safer as i ain't done this before as mentioned thanks

[Stiff]

I usually do it by hand with a block if it's a smallish area (or just by hand if there are any curves) but if it's a large flat area I use a 1200 disc on a DA. In either case, use it wet with some soapy water and keep drying it off to see if there's any imperfections left - and listen for any bits of dirt/dust scratching as you rub. If it does, wash the area down with soapy water and check the w+d for any bits.
You can do it dry but the disc/paper clogs pretty quick. Also make sure you keep the DA flat to the panel and not on an angle.
Once your happy that it's flat enough (you'll see a shine where there are any low marks in the peel left or silicone pits etc) then you're ready for the buffer.

[Vintage75]

DA polisher is by far the safest for a novice.

[retromadness123]

Thanks guys got my wet n dry today so will try that and will use my da polisher to buff it up and be using the g3, so hopefully get some good results , thanks again guys for all the help and advice its always greatly appreciated

[ChasR]

Fast Cut Plus is well worth buying with the matching head over G3. It uses no water and is less messy.

[kevstarlet]

1200 is far too rough, you'd use that if you had 3-4 coats of 2 pack lacquer and gradually work your way up finer. Personally I'd advise a light rub of 1500, go over that with 2000 and then finish with 2500. Scholl have some excellent compounds on the market now that I'd highly recommend.