Hey guys. I just got my black car's hood painted. Came out pretty well. We baked it in the paint booth for a few hours. Wet sanded it and polished the next day. Shined like a mirror. Very little orange peel. Looked great!

However, after like 2 weeks, the paint looked really dull. It's like it's got terrible orange peel now. The orange peel dots are tiny and very close to each other. The result is a hood that doesn't shine anymore.

Ive attached a few pics about this. They're close ups. Ignore the dust and the insect lol. Honestly to me it just looks like orange peel. But it wasn't there when we wet sanded it. It was shining like a mirror.

I just wanna know why this happens. Thanks.

Looks like maybe solvent pop and shrinkage ?? Hard to tell.

It's just the paint shrinking back. Happens a lot when you force cure(bake). It can easily be remedied by sanding with 2000 and rebuffing. Also happens when you use cheap materials, not saying that you did here, but just giving you some insight.

Also, the process used and time frames can cause this also. This stuff needs time to cure properly(each step) to achieve the show finishes(if thats what you are going for)

Ryan

That is shrinking for sure.

Like mentioned above, 1500/2000 and rebuff. Also will shine a bit more too.

That is what happens when things get rushed.
Primers and top coats need to have the solvents out of them
before proceeding.
Most painters go by mfg's recommended times between sprayings,
problem is, that is a minimal time, the fastest you can do under ideal conditions.
We never paint under "ideal" conditions.
If you want a good quality paint job, allow much longer for primers
and bases to dry before top coating.
I allow 1 hour min. for my base and 2 days for my primer
before painting over. It makes a huge difference that most don't see until
several months later when the paint has set out in the hot summer sun
for a few days. It will shrink later, sometimes much later.

Thanks all for the input guys! I got the hood wet sanded and buffed again, and guess what! It happened again! Its been over 6 months since I got it re buffed. Its looking hazy again.

I got another panel painted by the same guys. They buffed it the next day. I told them not to wax it because thats bad. Panel looked great. Shined like a mirror. Today, 4 months later, its looking awful. Not shiny at all! Last Saturday I took it to a detailing shop and asked them if they could fix it. They said a cut and polish will do the trick, so I asked them to do a small section (to see the quality of the finish). They didn't even wet sand it, just polished with their orbital polisher and it looked brand new again! Shined beautifully! I told them that I'll bring the car in next week to get the whole panel polished. Its been about 4 days since they polished that spot, and its not looking as shiny as it used to be. Its not dull, but I can see that the orange peel is starting to show again.

Please help! I have no idea what to do

Just some random thoughts.... If they were using any type of finishing glaze on the buffer you will see a change as the glaze evaporates over time. Even though most shops don't wax a piece in the cut/buff process many will use a non-sealing machine glaze as a last step before the car goes out the door. The glaze kind of "plumps up/fills in" minor defects and yes, even somewhat fills in orange peel. Another thought here is....was this single stage black urethane? If it was and you've cut it back that means that the UV protection that floats to the surface and protects the paint color may be gone. This would allow a "chalking" of the black color to appear. Guys have already discussed the shrinkage thing with you which is also highly likely and goes on longer than you may think...depends a lot on just how fast steps were pushed through. Trapped solvents can hang around for quite sometime.