Why does there appear to be "Orange Peel" blemishes on the paint jobs of new Corvettes?

Question

Does Chevrolet plan on fixing this problem any time soon? What causes this?

Answer 1

GM vehicles have had orange peel for years. Sometimes they come out pretty good and other times they have horrible orange peel. It is considerably better than it was 10 years ago, but I doubt that they will ever fix it completely. It's caused by laying the clear on too thick or overly quick evaporation of the reducer. Since the introduction of "bake booths" at factories, they never have gotten it quite right. The paint cures too fast and the reducer evaporates out before the clear can cure while it's still smooth. No matter how expensive they may be, Corvette's are still production line vehicles, and they are going to have finish blemishes. It's just the nature of the beast. High end cars, Ferrari, Porsche, etc. are wet sanded and buffed before they ever leave the factory. If GM ever really wants the Corvette to compete with those cars, which they say they do, they are going to have to start implementing some changes.

Answer 2

Orange peel is caused when a car is painted "the quick way, not the right way" and the paint is not allowed sufficient time to dry between coats.

Back in the early 80s, 83 or 84 I think, many new Corvette owners had their cars repainted 2, sometimes 3 times by Chevrolet because they just couldn't get it right for some reason!

As for why, the same reason as all of Chevrolet's problems - they just don't care anymore.

Answer 3

Ive been working on the new corvettes that come to my dealership for the last 19 years.I have not found any orange peel on any vetts ive worked on.Maybe the problem is with the selling dealer.Not all clean up crews know the proper way to clean the new cars.There are more to cleaning new cars than you think.Best of luck.

Answer 4

almost all vehicle,s are painted with acrylic enamel.....orange peel is inheritantant to that type of paint.....year,s ago there was enamel or lacquer....enamel was a harder,more resilient paint but showed orange peel or egg shell appearance...lacquer could be polished to a mirror reflection...but was much harder to paint.....now with acrylic paint,s....enamel is much better...but still has a slight egg shell appearance.....but is still a better paint...not better finish..& is less expensive.....acrylic laquer is available but not from chevrolet.....& a slight pebble hit & it could shatter into a spider web effect.....try extensive polishing on the enamel...but don,t rub through the paint!

Answer 5

Just about all Makes have orange peel unless you go extremly high dollar like bmw, lexus, or mer. benz. If you have it resprayed it should be taken care of but it isn't really visible unless looked on at an angle.

Answer 6

If the orange peel you see is toward the bottom or the car, then it is there on purpose to protect the paint from road tar and grime. It is stronger paint that resists scratching.

Answer 7

All new cars could stand being wet sanded with 1000 grit sand paper and professionally buffed. This will get rid of it.