[arpad_m]

Originally Posted by CamaroRSOnt

I picked up a 2023 in May, the paint is gorgeous on it, Radiant Red. My previous Camaro was white, paint was fine with it. I had a 2014 C7, that car had lots of orange peel but the consensus was those panels are harder to get right than traditional steel body panels.

I approve your color choice, not that you should care , but it's looking amazing. Seems that for this very last model year GM are inching back towards their best ever Camaro colors, garnet red and hyper blue (with radiant red and riptide blue, respectively).

[FH-ZL1]

I don't know if this true or not, but back in my Dealership days I had a Warranty rep tell me GM was proud of the fact that they could lay the thinnest layer of paint in the world. Certainly starting at least back in the 80's, the paint has gotten less durable as it became more environmentally "friendly". Who doesn't remember seeing all the silver cars back in the 80's and 90's with the paint peeling back off almost as soon as the car left the lot.

[Supr4n3]

Originally Posted by SnakeEyeSS

My Orange Peel is ok, and the metal flake is even. But dust nibs(maybe a small splinter size metal flake), gah

YES! Just had PPF and ceramic put on my 24 vert. Shop called me and let me know the amount of nibs, fish eyes and the like was the most they have seen on a new car in a long time.

[Plasar]

If you check out the paint job of Rolls Royce and Bentley, you will marvel at the lack of orange peel and depth of the color. It comes from hand finishing:

“Hand finishing is key to the Rolls-Royce ethos and quality standard; each car is sanded and polished for at least four hours by four ‘associates’, starting with 1500 and 3000 grit paper and moving on through various cutting and polishing compounds. This is facilitated by the high build, as Wilkes confirms: “With the two clearcoats, we are getting a build in the 120-150 micron range, with a typical basecoat of 30 microns.” The roof and bonnet are generally not sanded or polished as their horizontal surfaces get fully ‘wetted out’ by the paint application and do not suffer from any ‘orange peel’ or similar problems”

The pursuit of paint perfection

[arpad_m]

Originally Posted by Plasar

If you check out the paint job of Rolls Royce and Bentley, you will marvel at the lack of orange peel and depth of the color. It comes from hand finishing:

“Hand finishing is key to the Rolls-Royce ethos and quality standard; each car is sanded and polished for at least four hours by four ‘associates’, starting with 1500 and 3000 grit paper and moving on through various cutting and polishing compounds. This is facilitated by the high build, as Wilkes confirms: “With the two clearcoats, we are getting a build in the 120-150 micron range, with a typical basecoat of 30 microns.” The roof and bonnet are generally not sanded or polished as their horizontal surfaces get fully ‘wetted out’ by the paint application and do not suffer from any ‘orange peel’ or similar problems”

The pursuit of paint perfection

Thank you for this very interesting article, Plasar.

One would think sanding and polishing is one of the more easily automatable jobs, as it's purely mechanical in nature and does not require any unpredictable decision making. You simply apply a rotating and wobbling disc to the paint until its smoothness reaches a certain threshold, also considering temperatures and any other range variables during the process.

I fully understand why a luxury automaker would want to sell hand sanded and polished cars, but a mass manufacturer could also easily add an optional "paint enhancement" pipeline stage and charge, say a grand or two per vehicle. The question, of course, is how much demand there would be for such an offering, but if I was in charge of this, I'd definitely give it the green light at least for my high end brands/models.

[WhiteMale]

ON the flip side of the EPA changing paint types and GM making it as thin as possible, is the segment that is overly and unduly harsh about a mass produced car. They want to seem edgy by using terms like paint correction, fish eyes, and orange peel.

As if the work that they produce is zero defect.

[Plasar]

Thx for the kudos Arpad. Yes, I would be very tempted by an option to pay a few thousand dollars to be assured of an excellent paint finish.

I LOVE the fact that Porsche offers exclusive paint colors and even paint-to-sample. But I’ve seen some high end 911s with mediocre paint jobs - ex. orange peel. BMW has some Individual colors too.

The worst example I remember was a $150,000 AMG GT with horrendous orange peel.

One of the best non-Rolls/Bentley paint jobs was on an Alfa Romeo 8C that I saw in Germany - the dark red color was amazing too, almost 3D! (The woven leather accents on the carbon fiber seats are epic too!)

[22SS1LE]

Originally Posted by Plasar

If you check out the paint job of Rolls Royce and Bentley, you will marvel at the lack of orange peel and depth of the color. It comes from hand finishing:

“Hand finishing is key to the Rolls-Royce ethos and quality standard; each car is sanded and polished for at least four hours by four ‘associates’, starting with 1500 and 3000 grit paper and moving on through various cutting and polishing compounds. This is facilitated by the high build, as Wilkes confirms: “With the two clearcoats, we are getting a build in the 120-150 micron range, with a typical basecoat of 30 microns.” The roof and bonnet are generally not sanded or polished as their horizontal surfaces get fully ‘wetted out’ by the paint application and do not suffer from any ‘orange peel’ or similar problems”

The pursuit of paint perfection

Comparing a mass produce car that is in the 40-50k price to a car that is 200-300k and hand built

[FactoryMatt]

mine had pools of dried clear coat on the a pillar and underneath the trunklid. never seen in my life. makes me want to rip the stupid Union Proud sticker off the door...

[Plasar]

Shitty finish on a $500K Ferrari… maybe OP doesn’t feel so bad… this Ammo guy is awesome.

https://youtu.be/iuDLyquXWHg?si=87ZsPl6Ao07_t-V_

[MT-SS1LE]

Originally Posted by Plasar

Shitty finish on a $500K Ferrari… maybe OP doesn’t feel so bad… this Ammo guy is awesome.

https://youtu.be/iuDLyquXWHg?si=87ZsPl6Ao07_t-V_

Wow, that is absolute shit workmanship. I wouldn't accept that on a $50K car, never mind one that costs 10X that. Not surprising for Italian cars though. They are typically horrible quality, no matter what you pay for them.