justabout

I just clay barred and polished my 2014 Panamera hoping to remove the dullness from the clear
coat. The polish was relatively mild chemical guys V36. Thought I had decent results until I compared it to a silver SUV parked next to it in my garage. The SUV had a shine that made the Panamera look dull. The SUV was just painted about 14 months ago, no wax applied but was somewhat dirty.

Cleaned and polished

Excessive texturing?


I noticed the Panamera paint texturing is heavier than the SUV. Could the texturing interfere with the shine? Or is it just simply, 9 year old clear coat has dulled over time.

PHX

Is your paint, non-metallic paint? I only ask because metallics appear to be "shinier" than non-metallic paints outside.

The excessive texturing you're referring to won't necessarily make it look less shiny, however don't forget, shiny is just a perception in the eye of the beholder.

If you properly decontaminated your paint with wash, clay barred it, then polished it (assuming that improved the finish of the paint) did you put any wax or ceramic coating on it at all? That also would increase your perception of shiny and maybe help.

I have and dearly love non-metallic white paints, however they are the most difficult to get to look deep, waxy, or shiny as compared to darker colors and metallic paint. Just a gee whiz observation from me, nothing scientific.

Your Panamera actually looks fairly good in the pictures, although pictures are hard to actually tell what is really going on. For 9 years old and I'm guessing driven a fair amount of miles, looks good to me.

justabout

It’s non metallic so it’s at a disadvantage compared to the silver SUV. My wife says it looks good as is but I'm not satisfied. I will try different waxes or ceramic coating or a more aggressive correction. Comment’s appreciated.

Esoteric_Detail

With modern paints and paint systems, you will typically get what is referred to as orange peel. It is an uneven surface that resembles the skin of an orange (hence “orange peel”). This unevenness distorts reflections, and when it’s bad enough, it simply makes the paint look poor quality. Now texture is something completely different, and it is what really prevents the clarity from coming out in a finish. It is much finer than the orange peel and all of that fine texture and grain clouds the surface and dulls the finish.

Owners of cars that have a lot of orange peel in it want to ask a simple question: can you remove orange peel? Well, the answer isn’t as simple since it is both yes and no. Yes, it can be removed, but no, it shouldn’t be removed. Manufacturers are finding ways to significantly reduce the amount of paint and clearcoat they put on cars they’re building…less paint means less cost…simple economics. And with thinner paint, it means there’s even less material for detailers to work with. In order to flatten a surface and remove orange peel, you need to remove a significant amount of clearcoat…more than is recommended by the manufacturer over the life of the car! So when you take a vehicle with original factory paint, and remove that much material, you expose yourself to potential clearcoat failure, cracking, peeling, fading, etc. The clearcoat loses its UV protection with that much material removed, thus becoming unstable.

If you’re having a car re-painted, you can apply enough material to where you can safely sand it down to achieve a flat finish, and then polish it out without the same kind of risks that you’d experience with OEM painted finishes. So the moral of the story here is this…it is NOT advisable to sand down your OEM paint to get rid of orange peel. There are way too many risks, and the manufacturer will not issue any kinds of warranties on your paint if you do so and have problems down the road. If somebody offers to sand down your OEM finish to remove orange peel…say “no thank you”!! The question with repaints is DID they apply enough extra material so that it may be safely leveled?

Texture is much finer than orange peel, and given that, we’re able to safely remove it to restore a significant amount of clarity. On some paints, this process also slightly reduces orange peel, but (a) that’s not our main objective, and (b) the reduction will vary from vehicle to vehicle.

In the end, while it's best to leave orange peel alone on OEM paints, you can painstakingly removing (safely) all of the fine texture in the paint to reveal the true clarity in the finish through a variety of compounding and polishing steps.

Hope this helps explain things a bit!

If you are interested in protection, customization or paint restoration strategies, please feel free to reach out to discuss the options. While we are located in Central, OH we regularly have cars shipped to us from all corners of the United States and can help arrange transport if needed!