Hello everyone! Hope everyone had a great Xmas. So I am painting a Camaro for a friend and I am having a horrible time with orange peel. I am adding pictures of gun and product being used hoping someone might have a tip on how to cut down on the orange peel. I'm using the Duplicolor paint shop primer paint and clear. Unfortunately this was what was in his budget and I have painted 2 black hoods that came out great with this paint system and was using a $14 harbor freight gun at the time. The pic of the orange peel was after a coat of paint. Fender set for 48 hrs and I did a light wet sand with 1500 just to see if I was still getting orange peel. I had thinned the paint and added some air pressure and didn't seem to help. Am I being overly concerned here? Thanks for any suggestions.

That's lacquer paint.
It's probably drying to fast to flow out to a smooth surface.
You need a better thinner than most of todays lacquer thinners
sold at most stores.
Most is reconstituted junk and won't let your lacquer flow and will cause
exactly what you're experiencing.
If you do find a high quality thinner, they are really expensive.
I used to spray a lot of lacquer for wood cabinets and was told by a
paint chemist to use urethane reducer instead of thinner for lacquer
because it's a higher quality thinner and will flow out better.
It worked great and reducer is all I use now.
You can get it in a slower grade which works really well with lacquer.
You can also add a "retarder" for those really hot days when it dries to fast.

Does your compressor put out 14 CFM or more?

That gun requires 11.8 CFM and 35 PSI.

HeathW wrote:this was what was in his budget

30+ years ago we were all painting with acrylic and then 2K paints hit the market. Even though much more expensive, the 2K systems took over very quickly because of the high labour cost component of acrylic, especially post painting. Wetsanding and buffing would take up to 6 hours/panel where 2K could go out the door with nothing more than a quick denib.

So, if you're charging for this, which you should be, make sure you include all the labour necessary to get the finish that he wants, but doesn't want to pay for. That said, outstanding results can be achieved with acrylic, truly glass flat and smooth with gloss levels that win at car shows.

But.....as JC points out, half the problem is the crappy cheap paint that has the cheapest fast thinner available premixed into a ready to spray tin. Also, don't forget that if you're going to be wet sanding and buffing an acrylic you'd better have put on 7-8 coats of clear or solid topcoat. Acrylic is low solids paint, so when the thinner dries off, there is precious little left, sometimes less than 20% of the RTS volume. And you wondered why it was so cheap?

If you're going to paint in acrylic (and it's a dying art) then switch to a decent brand and use the best quality thinners you can buy. IMHO PPG Dulon and Cromax L400 and the two best acrylic systems but there are others. Most important is the thinner. I've always used Dulon AAA but in the Covid induced shortages a while ago it became impossible to get. I actually put the question to the technical guys at Axalta as to whether I should use, as I've seen recommended before, a slow 2K reducer. They just about went into apoplectic shock. The advice was use nothing less than a good quality lacquer thinner with retarder if necessary. Funny thing was that they concurred that the PPG AAA thinner was/is the best on the market, much better than the Cromax one.

If all you've done is give that a quick hit with P1500, the peel in that photo doesn't look that bad. I've always used P1200 for the first cut and have known lots of guys that go down to P800

I have been painting for custom cabinet company for 16 years using lacquer paint only and duplicolor paint is like water compared to paint at work not to mention it is suggested to use acetone to thin. Now that it is being suggested it is drying to fast putting acetone in going to make it worse concidering acetone is even hotter than lacquer thinner. The black layed on so nice I just assumed this color would do the same. Guys I really appreciate you taking the time to give me this info! Looks like it's time to have a heart to heart with my buddy about spending the money on a good paint product! Thought I would toss in pics of the two hoods. First and second projects I had done in automotive. Thanks again ps yes my compressor is sufficient to run that gun. The chevy hood was first one I did and yes there is some orange peel this was before I understood the correct way of cutting and buffing.

Back in the 70's when I used lacquer exclusively,
We sanded it with 600 and buffed it out from there.
Can't do that with todays urethanes.

JCCLARK wrote:Back in the 70's when I used lacquer exclusively,
We sanded it with 600 and buffed it out from there.
Can't do that with todays urethanes.

I never painted with lacquer but I remember that the guys I knew used to put a lot of coats on. Not like today where a high quality base will cover with 2-3 coats.

One friend had a Chevelle SS with like 12 coats of black lacquer paint on it, buffed and shining.

And thinners, oh, my..... my chemcial rep. for my restoration company said that processing of used solvents is at an all time high. Most of industries used chemcials are picked up "all together" and brought to the plant for that "processing." He said they are just looking for combining any one of over 250 individual chemicals that they can run through simple sand filters to remove debris. They don't alter any chemistry, they just purify it enough to be clear in the can and thats about it. You can be getting incredibly hot solvents (yes, hotter than acetone) which may not even allow a lacquer coating to dry properly as well as the fast flash problem you seem to have here.
Car lacquers are just done..... urethane is king now, just be safe with it.....

The cabinet company I work for recycles lacquer thinner. We use a cooking process and yes it is way hotter than it was originally! It works great for us because we don't have to thin our paint. Thinner is used for cleaning only we have reducers for product if needed. I reduced heat in my shop and paint seems to lay down much better. So question for you experienced guys and gals. There is now a shortage of this Hugger Orange lacquer so either way going to have to make a switch. When I do can the parts I've already completed be wet sanded and repainted with non lacquer based product? I know all paints are not compatible so wasn't sure what steps I have to take to make the switch.

When I read JCCLARKS comment it brought back a lot of memories. I learned to paint with acrylic and synthetic enamel. Back then, at least in my area, 600 grit was as fine as you could get in sand paper. I painted acrylic clear all night on a 69 el camino and trust me you can get a serious high after 7-8 hrs of that stuff. We didn't have much in the way of respirators back then. My how things have changed, thankfully.