Seems almost every car I see has some sort of orange peel or is very thin layered paint. It fades, chips, peels in some part of the car or another.


Then I go look down the street and see some mid 80's MB diseal with paint still in tact and it is parked outside daily no wash.

What gives?

Who makes good paint anymore?

 

Maybe environmental regulations require that automotive paints be crappy?

 

Zee Germans still do, I think.

 

The companies that care still have great paint jobs.. Porsche, Jag, AM, etc. You are right that many low end cars have some pretty poor paint jobs including Hondas.

 

Can somebody define how "orange peel" forms?

 

Orange peel occurs when the paint is sprayed. In a pro job at a body shop, they do what is called "Colour Sanding" before the clear goes on to remove the orange peel.

 

I'm fairly certain the paint on German cars is still of excellent quality. I can say with certainty that Honda has paint on the lower end of the spectrum. If you look at it wrong, you get a scratch...

 

Environmental regulations stipulate ending the use solvent based paints for cars. Now they're water based, and as such, not quite as durable.

However, new techniques have been built to "paint" cars, such as using an electric shock at Mercedes-Benz, which is sent through the vehicles body to attract paint particles.

 

[QUOTE=cutes2k,Apr 27 2006, 07:24 AM] Orange peel occurs when the paint is sprayed.

 

bmw has awesome paint, theres a show on speed about bmw designing the new 6 series and how its painted, they have a very good clear coat that when sprayed on is white but when baked to a certain temp it becomes clear and leaves a very strong finish.