Title
Beginner's Guide to Fixing Orange Peel Paint

Author
Beachernaut

Published
Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Over the last few years, I've improved my painting skills, but still always have at least some orange peel in my paint. Using the tutorials, and reading through the forums, I've come up with a system that I use to improve the finished paint on my models.

Please note that this tutorial is only for dealing with orange peel, more serious paint problems will require more serious steps to correct.

Here are the supplies you'll need.

1. Assorted polishing cloths from 3500 grit to at least 6000 grit.
2. A container to hold water.
3. At least 2 micro-fiber towels, or other soft cloths (an old cotton T shirt will work).
4. An absorbent cloth to soak up the water from the body; I use toilet paper. Be sure that this cloth is soft and will not scratch the paint.
5. Polishing compound; I use Meguires ScratchX.
6. A drop cloth to work on; I use an old cotton pillowcase.

For this tutorial, I will be working on half of a tailgate that I sprayed extra thick.



Let me say now that it's best to practice on scrap pieces, or a scrap body. Wet sanding can give excellent results, or can ruin a paint job. More practice is better.

If you are able to do your wet sanding under running water, please do. I don't have anywhere to sand under running water, so I use a bowl to dip my cloths in. The water is used to lubricate and suspend the particles while sanding, so more is better (also why running water is best). I dip my cloth in water and also dribble some on the area of the body that I'm working on, then start sanding. When sanding be very careful of not using too much pressure. Sand lightly, letting the cloth do the work. If you're not sanding under running water stop often to rinse off the body and your cloth. I use toilet paper to wipe off the water from the body before rinsing it.

Selecting the cloth to start with is crucial. Too fine and you'll be at it forever, too coarse and you'll burn through the paint. It's always best to err on the safe side. I started with 4000 grit, although I could have started with 3500 grit. After you start you'll soon know if you should go to a more coarse grit.



When you start it won't take long to see where the high spots are, and how much work it needs. In the picture below, you can see that the dull parts are the high spots. The idea is to sand down the high spots until the piece is almost uniformly dull, but not quite.



After sanding with the 4000 grit for a while, I've got most of the high spots sanded down. You can see in the picture that there are still some shiny low spots, but this is the point where I need to go to a finer cloth. From now on, the object is to use the finer cloth to sand out the scratches of the previous cloth. Keep in mind that you're still removing paint, so those shinny low spots will disappear as you go.



I only sanded through 6000 grit on this piece. However, keep in mind that if you're patient and use cloths up through 8000 and 12000 grit, your paint will have more depth and shine. Also keep in mind, the more you wet sand, the more chance you have of burning through the paint. The picture below shows a spot that I sanded a bit too much, and you can see that the paint gets lighter as it gets thinner. Also note that there are still some scratches in this paint. I will admit that I'm cheap and have been avoiding replacing my polishing kit. As a result, my cloths are worn out and introducing scratches.



When you've gone as far as you want (or are comfortable) with the polishing cloths, it's time to use the polishing compound. I've had excellent results using Meguires ScratchX, but have also seen excellent results with other compounds. Take one of your micro-fiber towels (or T shirt pieces), dab some compound on it, and start rubbing on the paint. Keep in mind that you're still removing paint. The polishing compound will help remove the scratches from the last polishing cloth, and will really start to bring out the depth and shine in your paint.



Here you can see the difference between the original paint and the wet sanded/polished paint.



Wet sanding and polishing can make an okay paint job into a good (or even great) paint job. However, I recommend a lot of practice to gain experience before doing this on an important model.