can small ridges in paint be leveled, pic inside

when detailing cars and looking from a specific angle i can usually see very small "ridges" in the paint( see the pic for an example), now i dont know if this even can be corrected, but couldnt you with a rotary and a pg, take off a very small layer to "smooth" out the paint and get rid of the ridges. can this be done, it always drives me nuts when i see that from certain angles. thanks for the help guys. check to the left of the side marker and turbo badge on the door, and I am using a pic I found on this forum, hope thats ok.

 

I think you are talking about "orange peel". It can definitively be improved with wetsanding, but you are going to remove clearcoat.

 

i think he's referring to the paint build up on the panel edge

which is pretty normal, it can be levelled using wet sanding - alot of bodyshops wet sand panel edges as they always get a paint build up painting by hand

 

now I see it ... well they can be reduced, but the reason they are there is because that is the area were the outer sheetmetal skin and inner sheetmetal skeleton meet. It can't be completely eliminated though.

The actual process that creates this condition is called "hemming". I used to work with hemmers during my hood assembly days at GM. Some manufacturers are better at hemming than others ... it has to do a lot with the steels that actually fold the outer skin around the inner skeleton ... the timing has to be just right.

 

thanks for the posts guys, what i am talking about is the very small highs and lows in the paint as seen in the pic on the door, you can really see them if you look at the reflection of the bottle and the outer garage door in the paint, is that orange peel or hemming. thanks again

 

Thanks for using my picture! You can wetsand the edge so that it is uniform with the rest of the paint, but I personally do no see the point as the edge is a dangerous place to start wetsanding and polishing due to the inconsistent thickness which can be very thick or very thin.

In the grand scheme of things, you have to decide on whether it is worth it because will anyone ever really notice it?

 

That's orange peel. btw ... "hemming" is the process, the area itself it's called a hem.

 

You can, as has been suggested, wet-sand orange peel. But its not something I would recommend to be done on new paint as its usually 'thin'.

If considering going this route, measure it with a PTG and if there is sufficient thickness>

 

thanks for the help guys and do any of you wetsand your clients cars that have orange peel or skip it. if you do notice orange peel on the car that your going to detail do you tell them. thanks for the help guys.

 

Orange peel is on almost every single car, look around. It's most noticeable on darker colored cars where the reflection is clearer. I just live with it, if you wetsand and polish an entire car to remove the orange peel, you're looking at investing at least 40 hours into it.

 

I'm usually only willing to wet sand vehicles that have been repainted but if it's a spot repair, I'll make the exception if the vehicle's clear coat allows me to with some considerable clear coat to play with.

 

i am going to pickup a few panels from the local body shops and try my wetsanding skills, and tips.

 

That's definately the best way to learn without a doubt. Do you get junk panels for free?

 

yep i get them from my cousin who does body work, or just go to a local car salvage yard and you can pickup a real beatup old hood for cheap.