[DanHarman]

Hey everybody,

I just picked up a 335i coupe in Jet Black. It's an awesome car, but the paint job is terrible. It has very noticable orange peel everywhere.

Is this normal? I figured on a 50k car that they would wet sand it at the factory... maybe they are just all like this?

[for those that aren't familiar with the term, orange peel is a rough surface that occurs after a car is painted from high/low spots. It can be removed by sanding down the high spots through a process called wet sanding.]

Thanks,

Dan

[Joe Bimmer]

Originally Posted by DanHarman

Hey everybody,

I just picked up a 335i coupe in Jet Black. It's an awesome car, but the paint job is terrible. It has very noticable orange peel everywhere.

Is this normal? I figured on a 50k car that they would wet sand it at the factory... maybe they are just all like this?

[for those that aren't familiar with the term, orange peel is a rough surface that occurs after a car is painted from high/low spots. It can be removed by sanding down the high spots through a process called wet sanding.]

Thanks,

Dan

I'm sure 99% of people on here know what wet sanding is ....and I'm also 99% sure that every dark-colored BMW from the factory has orange peel. My SG car is covered in it.

[BM2006i]

normal.. i think all new cars from different manufacturers have orange peels.. They don't wet sand new paint. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[OVRSTR]

Jet black...same thing.

[STE92VE]

I noticed the orange peel on a TiAg E92 on the showroom floor. I think I read on this forum that due to environmental considerations, manufacturers have to use solvents that create the orange peel effect.

[mds82]

ALL cars come with orange peal. BMW has less then some other companies, but you will always get it.

[harry335]

My sparkling graphite 335 has it - and so has every other 335 i've seen in various dealers locally in the UK although it is more noticeable on darker colours

[Ado]

orange peel?? any pics of this?

[Russellnyc]

Yep, my space gray has it, but oddly (as with many cars I've seen) only on the side panels, most noticeably the rear quarter. The hood, roof, and decklid, for example, don't show this.

[hotrod2448]

I can live with some orange peel. What really irritates me is on my rear passenger side door you can see there is some trash in the paint right on the character line so, it stands out like a sore thumb once you've noticed it.

I'm not sure if I should just live with it or get them to repaint it. I hate that the paint isn't perfect but, I also hate having paint work on a brand new car.

[Russellnyc]

Can't you just have the car agressively detailed to smooth this out?

[13307]

Jet Black E92 here, same thing terrible orange peel for a 50K car. It is the worst I've seen regardless of cost, my G35 was better, my old 99 M3 was better, they just are not as concerned as they used to be, but hey otherwise it's a great car and I'm sure if I didn't want it because of that the dealer would have been willing to sell it to the next guy in line. Sucks to be in that position!

[Ado]

Even the space grays have it damn.

[RichP]

BMWs have for YEARS been painted in the same way, with the same amount of orange peel.

Hood, Roof, Trunk Top have essentially none.

Amount of orange peel increases as you go down the side of the car.

Its for durability more than anything else. If the sides and skirts were completely smooth, one imperfection from road debris would make itself visually apparent.

Then everyone would complain the paint isnt durable enough...

[F32Fleet]

Originally Posted by RichP

BMWs have for YEARS been painted in the same way, with the same amount of orange peel.

Hood, Roof, Trunk Top have essentially none.

Amount of orange peel increases as you go down the side of the car.

Its for durability more than anything else. If the sides and skirts were completely smooth, one imperfection from road debris would make itself visually apparent.

Then everyone would complain the paint isnt durable enough...

+1



One reason why even older BMW's still look good. Hard to say that about many Asian/US cars. BMW also uses a non-VOCs (ie, enviro-friendly) painting process.

[DanHarman]

Wow, that's a lot of responses. Thanks guys.

Jet black is certainly the hardest color to get right (the whole black mirror effect going on). I can't say I'm pleased, but at least it's not just my car.

I guess I'll get it wet sanded one of these days then...

Best Regards,

Dan

[rjm]

I asked about the orange peel paint job on my 2007 Metallic Titanium Silver E-92 when I picked it up. The salesman said they all have it and the paint is actually harder and better than that on top-of-the-line Japanese cars and that the orange peel is a result. Every new one I looked at exhibited some orange peel...I think it is just a sign of the times.

[Brunotheboxer]

check out this thread: http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40873

[MAZNG]

Originally Posted by RichP

BMWs have for YEARS been painted in the same way, with the same amount of orange peel.

Hood, Roof, Trunk Top have essentially none.

Amount of orange peel increases as you go down the side of the car.

Its for durability more than anything else. If the sides and skirts were completely smooth, one imperfection from road debris would make itself visually apparent.
Then everyone would complain the paint isnt durable enough...

+2

[Zeroday]

mine has tons of orange peel.

ferraris don't have orange peel.

[DrDomer]

Originally Posted by Zeroday

mine has tons of orange peel.

ferraris don't have orange peel.

+3 or +4 (I lost count)... Mine's Jet Black too. I'll be honest though... only owners (or car enthusiasts, detailers, etc) really notice it. I had to point it out to my friends, and they thought I was nuts. People are "wowed" by the car in general, and don't seem to notice like I do. Not sure I want to pay to have it wetsanded, etc. The car is great anyways.

[picus]

Orange peel has nothing to do with durability. The reason almost all mass produced cars have orange peel now is that the chemicals manufacturers can use in paint have changed significantly in the last 10 years - this causes more sag after the paint is applied and before it is baked. Combine that with a more automated process and the top layer of clear will almost always have high and low spots, thus orange peel. Very few cars are color sanded any more either (Lexus LS is, most exotics are).

An interesting thing to note, notice how the orange peel is almost always at the furthest point from where the machine would be spraying, in particular above the body line on the vertical surfaces, under the mirrors, etc. The paint has further to travel from the sprayer, you get more high and low spots and more orange peel.

I've detailed 14 e92 335i/328's now and all of them have had significant orange peel, unfortunately that's just life with a mass produced car.

Cars like Ferrari's have their own paint issues too; while they tend to have less orange peel due to color sanding, they will often have overspray, be terribly soft, or have huge variances in paint depth.

Not to go off topic, but some random info on BMW paint in general.

- It is not harder than "top of the line" Japanese paint. Toyota/Lexus paint is harder, BMW paint is about as "hard" as Honda/Acura paint. Nissan/Infiniti is generally softer. Orange peel has nothing to do with paint hardness. Mercedes and Audi paint is generally much harder. Interestingly, the BMWs produced in the USA (Z's, X's) have harder paint than the ones made in Germany.

Now, a note on the thread Bruno linked, and this has nothing to do with orange peel. e92 jet black (not e90, just e92, just jet black) is, in my experience, painfully soft. I would hazard anyone who is even considering a color-sand on black to test a very small area first. It is incredibly difficult to polish jet black e92's and finish smooth, so to polish out sanding marks would be a nightmare.

- In general BMW's orange peel is "average".

- You can remove orange peel on a factory job by color-sanding, but not by buffing only. The issue here is that factory paint runs between 12-16 microns, give or take; and if you remove more than ~3-5 microns you're almost guaranteed to have clear coat failure. Even light color-sanding will remove a micron or two. This is the same reason when you get an aftermarket paint job they will spray upwards of 30 microns of paint, because they know they will be color sanding. A quality color-sand will run you a couple thousand dollars anyway.