I had another post about repair work done on my 2012 Ram that asked about PDR on a freshly painted hood. I went back to the shop and the owner said that he would bring in a PDR "master artist" to take out the slight "wave" that can still be seen. The shop owner does most of the PDR work at his shop. He's the boss but is still a hands-on guy. Guess he knows his limits too. 
OK about the "micro" orange peel. In checking out the "wave", I noticed that the whole hood and the fender which had a minor repair has orange peel like I have never seen before. It's almost like a peach without the fuzz. It doesn't appear to be "blushing" or "wrinkling" I only noticed it under the very good lighting. (My Ram is white and imperfections are not all that noticeable.) The orange peel (or whatever) covers the hood and the fender. From a distance and under normal lighting it is not at all noticeable. The finish appears to have good gloss.
I pointed this out to the shop owner and he said that of course they would correct it. He said that it could be corrected by wet sanding and/or compounding and then polishing. I have no problem with that.
In making the repairs to the hood and fender, only the area of the repairs were primed and base coated with a blend into the total panels. That was done quite well. Then both whole hood and whole fender were clear coated. The base coat was waterborne paint and the clear coat was solvent based. Because both the area that received base coat and the area that was only clear coated show this slight peel, I assume the problem is only in the clear coat.
As far application with this particular paint system (Spies Hecker) both base coat and clear coat are applied using a coat and a half technique. (The first coat is quite heavy, the half coat is a lighter coat.) The shop owner assured me that there is ample clear coat for correction and that the problem probably was the result of temperature and/or humidity.
After this long, round about post..... My questions.... Has anyone else ever come across something like this "micro" orange peel. I've had vehicles in and out of body shops for almost 50 years and have never run across it? How common is it to have to have wet sanding/compounding/polishing done on today's hi-tech repaints? Back in the days of acrylic lacquer, it was standard operating procedure.
OK about the "micro" orange peel. In checking out the "wave", I noticed that the whole hood and the fender which had a minor repair has orange peel like I have never seen before. It's almost like a peach without the fuzz. It doesn't appear to be "blushing" or "wrinkling" I only noticed it under the very good lighting. (My Ram is white and imperfections are not all that noticeable.) The orange peel (or whatever) covers the hood and the fender. From a distance and under normal lighting it is not at all noticeable. The finish appears to have good gloss.
I pointed this out to the shop owner and he said that of course they would correct it. He said that it could be corrected by wet sanding and/or compounding and then polishing. I have no problem with that.
In making the repairs to the hood and fender, only the area of the repairs were primed and base coated with a blend into the total panels. That was done quite well. Then both whole hood and whole fender were clear coated. The base coat was waterborne paint and the clear coat was solvent based. Because both the area that received base coat and the area that was only clear coated show this slight peel, I assume the problem is only in the clear coat.
As far application with this particular paint system (Spies Hecker) both base coat and clear coat are applied using a coat and a half technique. (The first coat is quite heavy, the half coat is a lighter coat.) The shop owner assured me that there is ample clear coat for correction and that the problem probably was the result of temperature and/or humidity.
After this long, round about post..... My questions.... Has anyone else ever come across something like this "micro" orange peel. I've had vehicles in and out of body shops for almost 50 years and have never run across it? How common is it to have to have wet sanding/compounding/polishing done on today's hi-tech repaints? Back in the days of acrylic lacquer, it was standard operating procedure.
