How to Remove Orange Peel - Fresh Paint Job

[67Rocker]

How to Remove Orange Peel - Fresh Paint Job​

Hello Everyone, I am new to the forum, I am looking for some input on a issue I have, I recently painted my truck (1 week ago) with single stage urethane paint, solid red, 3 coats.

Have some orange peel and trash in paint.

Some input I have received is wet sand 1500/2500/3000 , rotary buff with mcguires 105, then polish with da,

Does this sound like a good plan?

Assuming just buffing not aggressive enough, just a daily driver, my first paint job, did not get paint on quite wet enough I guess.

I currently have a dewalt 7" rotary buffer, porter cable 7424xp and Mirka 5.0 pneumatic, I am open to all options, I have several more cars going forward so want to get proficient at this.

Thanks for any help with this issue

Scott

 

[Mike Phillips]

Hi Scott,

I approved your pending account yesterday, thank you for joining the forum.

I can answer your questions when I get off work and I do have some suggestions, but I want to invite you to an upcoming class where we'll be covering

1. Hand wet sanding - using Nikken Finishing Papers.
2. Machine dry sanding - using Eagle Abrasives by KOVAX.
3. Rotary Polishers - Wool pads for the first cutting step.
4. Orbital polishers - for the secondary polishing step.
5. Installing a ceramic coating.

Here's the training car, fresh out of the paint booth.

Sunday Wetsanding Training Cars

1963 Chevy Impala SS
This car is fresh out of the paint booth with 4 solid coats of clearcoat over white basecoat.

Context Shot
This is called a context or frame-up shot. It's a wide shot to show you where on the car I'll be zooming into for the next picture.

Here's a close-up of the same place to show the level of Orange Peel and Surface Texture

Context Shot
This is called a context or frame-up shot. It's a wide shot to show you where on the car I'll be zooming into for the next picture.

Here's a close-up of the same place to show the level of Orange Peel and Surface Texture

Detailometer Readings
In the class, we will be taking before and after reading using the Detailometer.

These numbers don't actually look bad
But your eyes can see the paint is definitely not flat and there's lots of room for improvement. Sanding will flatten out the paint, then buffing will restore gloss and clarity. I expect to see much higher readings for the DOI and the RIQ after you're done sanding, buffing and ceramic coating this 1963 Impala.

The beautiful body lines for the iconic 1963 Chevy Impala

I practice what I preach and teach
I don't know about all the other car detailing instructors on planet Earth, but I actually do the thing I teach. See the 1967 Camaro in the background? I did a full wetsand, cut and buff to this car in November.

Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

Here's a past class sanding car, some really good before and after pictures plus you see the students doing the entire process.

How to Wetsand Cut and Buff - 1949 Chevy Fleetline Streetrod


Saturday Afternoon Session - Removing Orange Peel - Dry Spray - Surface Texture
I can appreciate any person that takes on the huge task of restoring a car, or in this case hotrodding a car and this includes learning how to paint a car for the first time. The paint on this car had a lot of orange peel and dry spray plus surface texture like graininess. I'm so impressed with the class as they completely turned this paint job around and the final results are nothing short of phenomenal.

Extreme Orange Peel

After

And for what it's worth, the majority of people that take these classes are flying here from other states, or other countries.

From the December 1-day class (no sanding)
160 Pictures - December 13th, 2025 1-Day Paint Correction and Ceramic Coating Class in Stuart Florida

Tom flew out form Eugene, Oregon

Kathie flew out from Beaverton, Oregon

From the September class (second day includes sanding)

371 Pictures - 2-Day September 2025 Car Detailing Class - 8 Cars Detailed! - No Chairs! - ALL Hands-on PLUS REVIEWS!

Sean from California

Evan from California

From the November class

278 Pictures - 1-Day November 2025 Car Detailing Class - 3 Cars Detailed! - No Chairs! - ALL Hands-on!

Nelson from Bogota, Colombia

Nicolas from Buenos Aires, Argentina

And the links above are photo-documentation for each class. No chairs. Zero sitting. 100% hands-on. Also no demo hoods and no test panels, I bring in the real-deal.


Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

Some input I have received is wet sand 1500/2500/3000 , rotary buff with mcguires 105, then polish with da,

Does this sound like a good plan?

Scott

What you've listed is a pretty normal and for the most part, safe approach. I would change it up and do this,

• Hand wet sand - 1500 Nikken
• Machine dry sand - K2500 Eagle Abrasives by Kovax

Then compound and polish

And of course, if you feel comfortable with the amount of material you sprayed, you could do a more aggressive sanding process to really get the paint flat.


Mike

 

[67Rocker]

Mike,
Thanks for the reply, I will look into supplies, I assume I should wait a month fir paint to totally cure?
I live in S.D, of you ever get a bit closer I might look into one of your classes, I would really like to attend.
Thanks!

 

[Mike Phillips]

Mike,
Thanks for the reply, I will look into supplies,

Here's where I get Nikken Finishing Papers - Range from $24.00 to $40.00

Here's where I get the E-7200 Sanding Backing Pad - 5-pack $24.00

I don't order the Nikken Finishing Papers off the Meguiar's store on Amazon because the #2000 and #2500 options are BROKE. No matter which one you order, you get #2000.00 I called Customer Care at Meguiar's and as a professional courtesy, let them know it was broke and explained how and my gut feeling is it went in one ear and out the other. LOL

And you get a 5-pack via the Amazon link, and I like to have a few of these around plus I cut them up into smaller chunks to sand tight and/or intricate areas.

I assume I should wait a month fir paint to totally cure?

Yes, in a perfect world, if you have time.

One time while I was working with Wayne Carini, I asked him how long they wait after a custom paint job to sand and buff. He said he likes to wait for around a month to let the paint SHIFT. I loved this term and have used it ever since.


Paint Shifting
The microscopic movements paint makes as it cures and hardens over time factoring in changes in temperature from cold to hot where the body panels will either expand or shrink. At some point, the paint, which starts out as a flexible membrane finds its happy place and fully dries and cures. Full hardness make take a few months, depending upon the paint/reducer/hardener mix and ambient room temperatures.

Collision shops of course are much different than restoration shops as they tend to need to sand and buff in a day or so in order to return the car back to the owner in a time-efficient manner. Plus, a busy shop as a good flow of work and they need cars to come in and then leave, not sit around taking up space and potentially getting things like paint overspray on them as it's pretty common to get paint overspray at a body shop.

I live in S.D, of you ever get a bit closer I might look into one of your classes, I would really like to attend.
Thanks!

Maybe, I did a LOT of Roadshow Detailing Classes for Meguiar's and Autogeek and as great of an idea they are on paper, the logistics and expense to ship all the tools and supplies I need to hold a real hands-on class simply is a losing business model. Plus, everything I need to teach a real class is here.


Text me a picture of your current project and I'll add here to your thread.


Cell: 760-515-0444

Also - if you need help getting into machine dry sanding, I can help.


Mike