I have painted several cars in the past using acrylic enamel with excellent results. I never had an orange peel problem.
I have never used a base coat clear coat system.
I am repairing a clear coat problem on my motor home. It has minor flaking.
My question is, why do you have to buff out clear coat? is it not possible to spray it without orange peel?
Interested in all comments.

creede

Okay, there is nothing written in rock that says you "have" to buff out a clear in a base/clear system. Depends on how well you lay down your coating, how much factory "peel" is already there, and well, just a bunch of variables. But....you do have to remember that unlike a solid surface coating the base/clear acts kind of like a magnifying glass over it's color which can definitely highlight the fact that you did not get your process down orange peel free. Hmmm..... you also said minor flaking right? That is flaking of the clear? If so, are you sure it's not your base coat failing allowing the clear to fail as well???

The clear coat provides UV protection for the base coat. If that protection is gone the base coat fails and the clear begins flaking off.

creede wrote:I have painted several cars in the past using acrylic enamel with excellent results. I never had an orange peel problem.

That's because acrylic is a low solids paint which is much thinner than the urethane based clears and acrylic is applied in multiple thin coats.

My question is, why do you have to buff out clear coat? is it not possible to spray it without orange peel?

As above, you don't have to. Most of the jobs that I do go out "off the gun", but this does include some peel. Hopefully I've matched the peel on the rest of the car and there is no difference in the look of the surface.

It is possible to spray urethane clears without (or at least with minimal) peel. Experience helps as does thinning the clear and increasing pressure. A good gun is almost essential - you won't be able to achieve a really flat finish with a cheap HVLP gun. I use a Devilbiss ProLite with T110 aircap. Changing the aircap to TE10 or TE20 will give more peel. A quality clear is also important. For show car finishes I use Cromax 696S which is an acrylic 2K, medium solids clear that gives outstanding gloss and buffs easily.

creede wrote:My question is, why do you have to buff out clear coat? is it not possible to spray it without orange peel?
creede

to add what others have said, i hope you understand buffing doesnt remove OP. color/wet sanding does. then buff back up to a purdy shine.

Like Chris said, it can be done but it takes some experience and practice.
These pictures are clear as sprayed with no cut or buff. You may notice the reflection is clear but not perfectly detailed as when cut and buffed (last photo).

Blue
3 coats of non-reduced clear followed by a coat with 30% reduction:


Black
4 coats of non-reduced clear using a very slow activator:


Spruce Pearl
This is the clear as sprayed followed by a picture after being cut and buffed:


Notice the improved clarity:

NFT5 wrote:

creede wrote:I have painted several cars in the past using acrylic enamel with excellent results. I never had an orange peel problem.

That's because acrylic is a low solids paint which is much thinner than the urethane based clears and acrylic is applied in multiple thin coats.

My question is, why do you have to buff out clear coat? is it not possible to spray it without orange peel?

As above, you don't have to. Most of the jobs that I do go out "off the gun", but this does include some peel. Hopefully I've matched the peel on the rest of the car and there is no difference in the look of the surface.

It is possible to spray urethane clears without (or at least with minimal) peel. Experience helps as does thinning the clear and increasing pressure. A good gun is almost essential - you won't be able to achieve a really flat finish with a cheap HVLP gun. I use a Devilbiss ProLite with T110 aircap. Changing the aircap to TE10 or TE20 will give more peel. A quality clear is also important. For show car finishes I use Cromax 696S which is an acrylic 2K, medium solids clear that gives outstanding gloss and buffs easily.

lots of variables, experience and talent also help
Jay D.

Just want to point out something, too......68 takes darn good pictures so you can see this....they call the "cut" process on the clear "color sanding." You can easily see why with these pictures. Because of the "flatness" of the coating achieved by changing the surface profile the color does shift. The blue is not only sharper but is more "blue." Soooo....it's not just all about orange peel/texture........

Thanks to all. Very interesting and helpful discussion.
Creede