I read a post about someone who said their paint job had an "orange peel" effect to it. Today I drove by a dealer and I looked at an '08 Accent, and when I looked at my reflection on the hood, it did have that orange peel effect: my reflection was "bumpy" as if I was looking at my reflection in an orange peel.

There was a Honda Fit on the lot too, and I looked at my reflection in the Fit's hood and it too had that orange peel effect.

So, is this a bad thing? What other cars paint jobs do this? Maybe we can make a list. From a distance the cars look good. I am assuming that the paint on the Accents doesn't flake off or anything, so why is this a problem?

--G

the effect is sometimes difficult to replicate by a body shop, should u ever need paint work done... some people prefer a nice mirror-like, smooth-as-glass finish to their paint job, some people prefer the "orange-peel" look, character or something like that... personally, if it doesnt rust or flake off and stays looking nice and new for a few years, im happy!

Orange peel was once considered a paint defect by many people simply because it doesn't have that smooth-as-glass finish. It doesn't really hurt the durability that I know of, it just looks not as good as a smooth finish.

I notice that on today's cars, by my causal observation, orange peel has become more prevalent. I don't know if it's because of modern painting processes or the manufacturer not having as strict quality control for that type of thing as they used to, or a combination of both. I've seen it on everything from my entry-level Hyundai model all the way up the food chain to things like Acuras, Cadillacs, Hummers, etc... This one lady at work has a black H2 that it seems every inch of paint on it has orange peel, my cheapo Hyundai overall has a better paint job than that thing. :460:

i hear its the new enviro paint materials that they use. i dont know if hyundai is using it yet, but water paint is becoming the new industry standard

I prefer the smooth as glass finish but I have the orange peel one lol

You cant tell unless you observe it.

OK, I did a Google search on "car orange peel paint" and it seems common on all car makes, except the higher-end brands. Some guy in a Honda forum was saying that his 08 Accord coupe has the orange peel effect. Another guy said his Cadillac STS suffers from this too.

The paint of the Accent that I looked at wasn't severely orange peeled or anything; I had to look closely to see it. So, basically, it won't let it bother me. As long as it stays on the car, I'll be happy.

-G

My charcoal gray Accent has pretty bad orange peel effect. Orange peel is very dependent on the color sprayed as well as if the paint has metal fleck or pearl effect.

You will probably never see a white car will orange peel, but pearl white can be hard to lay down smoothly. Darker colors can be hard to lay down without orange peel as well.

To get rid of orange peel, you need to do a lot of finishing work, like wet sanding between coats. Also, giving proper curing time between coats can make a difference in the finish. In a more expensive car, the manufacturer will take the time to do that... but in less expensive cars, they just won't spend the money to make the paint 100% right.

Unfortunately, it is really hard to fix orange peel in a factory paint job. Takes a lot of wet sanding and buffing to get rid of it... and even then the results might not be 100%.

mine looks pretty smooth, space silver...

the orange peel effect is caused by the production process in the paint booths of the manufacturing plants. It is removed by wet sanding of the primer and base coat and then clear coat. Problem is, when you wet sand the surfaces of each stage of the paint process, you remove teh durabitlity of the particular coat. Because it of course removes a small amount of the primer/base/clearcoat each time. (depending on which layer you are sanding) Orange peel isn't bad and it doesn't hurt anything it is the result of mass production. Look at the paint on a Benz/BMW/Aston Martin..., etc. The high-end sales take the time to wet sand the paint before the car is deemed "finished."

It's amazing what you can learn in school when you pay attention and don't sleep. :)

I wish that I never read the post about the orange peel effect, because I never would have paid attention to this if I had not read about it. Now I see it everywhere :P I saw a late-model Toyota Tercel with really bad orange peel paint today. Oh well!

-G