Autobacs

I was watching this AMMO You Tube and right at about 14:45 of this video below he talks about Porsche intentionally paints with the intention of putting some orange peel on the final paint job to help in blending scratches that will inevitably occur. He said polishing to a smooth finish may later show scratches more. This makes me not want to polish to a complete smooth finish. Never really occurred to me. I just assumed that I'd eventually get the paint buffed to a smooth finish but now I'm having my doubts. Interested in whether you guys have thought about this and whether this impacted your decision to get paint correction particularly right when you picked up the car.

mksz51

You can do a "show car" finish (if the car has adequate clear coat thickness) with a show car level cut and buff. It'll be gorgeous but an absolute bear to maintain in that state AND if you continue to try to correct the paint you'll eventually go through the clear and have a real mess on your hands. The factory paint job is pretty good - good enough, in my mind, to live with as is. Minor paint correction prior to ceramic or other coating is not nearly as aggressive as a true cut and buff. Most show car paint jobs have many coats of clear built up to a greater thickness - this is done because the plan is to remove a substantial amount of that clear after painting with color sanding and subsequent cutting / buffing.

drcollie

It’s not exactly like that. There is orange peel in every factory paint job from every maker until you get into the realm of Aston Martin, Bentley, Rolls….because in those brands they are wet-sanding the paint using microfiber sandpapers to get to the absolute best finishes. You can polish or buff your Porsche until your hands wear out and are not going to get a wet sanded finish. You have to sand the color coats underneath the clears, it would be a major project best left to a Pro painter to get the orange peel out of your car, and effectively it’s a whole new paint job. This is also why custom hot rods look so good, most have an extensive wet sanded paint job on them.

Autobacs

Thanks for explaining that. I'm satisfied with the factory paint truth be told. I just use Griot's hand wax constantly and it looks great. At first I was curious about the ever so slight wavyness in the paint but then grew to tolerate it. I don't think I have the time or skill to maintain a custom hot rod finish anyway.

ipse dixit

The side rocker panels have orange, intentionally.

They are there for a reason -- road rash.

mksz51

Consider doing a ceramic coating on your paint - I finally did and am glad I did. If you are good with stuff like this you CAN do it yourself and get amazing results. It takes a bit of time but all doable yourself - you'll get that personal satisfaction of a job well done and save some $$.

Staffie Guy

In the old car market they use the term "looks good at 10 or 5 feet" With a new car I use 1 ft as the parameter. I think getting rid of the orange peel and all that special treatment is if you want it looking good at 4 inches. (A little tongue in cheek)

Darkhorse

My clean, 44k mile 997.2 C4S Cabriolet was wet-sanded and the paint was polished smooth some time ago. It is being repainted as part of its restoration/ updating/ modifcation project. It's a high-end paint job.

The new finish will have light OEM orange peel that replicates the factory finish.

eclou

I'd leave Aston off that exclusive list. Their "60 hours of hand paint finish" is more like 60 hours of your cat running around tangled in a HVLP sprayer. My buddy owns a shop that does all the paint work for Star Aston Martin in Houston. The quality of Aston finishes range from decent to abysmal. Runs, peel, overspray, contaminants.

kaylie

Ferrari worse

drcollie

My Aston Martin Vantage had the most gorgeous paint job I have ever seen come out of a factory-produced car. None of my Porsches I have owned in the past or even currently even come close. Here was just a parking lot photo, uncorrected.

svkarl

That is a gorgeous car and, you’re right the paint looks killer!

eclou

Looks great! I had a 2007 V8 Vantage on order until I saw a batch that came in with not enough resin on the composite rear lids. You could see the weave in the mesh and my friends shop was tasked with completely refinishing the lids prior to customer delivery and undisclosed. He told me the paint depth on Aston panels on new cars would be inconsistent and all over the map. I cancelled my order

Wilder

Correct. A completely flat finish looks amazing on a museum piece but for cars that see all kinds of conditions and get washed often, manufacturers leave a small amount of orange peel to diminish the appearance of spider webbing.

dudeoverthere

I don't know about automotive paint so this topic is new to me. Just today at a car show the original owner of a 1968 mustang had a placard on his car that mentioned factory finish with orange peel. Apparently has repainted it once on original color with orange peel per manufacturer spec. So it's been a thing for a long time.