Ive started wet sanding and buffing my titan. Its lots of work but the results are unreal. Its amazing the clarity of the paint after the orange peel is gone. Then on top of that adding Zaino really sets it off. Ill post pics as soon as i can.

Man, that would make me all kinds of nervous! I wet sanded a car once, but it was 1973 Olds Delta 88. And I wet sanded it after I spray painted it. I couldn't bring myself to put sandpaper on my Titan.

What about clay barring it? I've never done that, but I've heard guys on here say how much of a difference it makes.

Search for clay bar or detailing there are some good posts on how to and benefits. I'd go clay bar if you aren't a body work ace, I'm not for sure.

Wet sanding is the extreme in paint restoration. I would try everything else before resulting to that. Why did you already have orange peel on a 3 year old vehicle? Did it sit in the sun all day and never get waxed? I know the paint on Titans is kind of crappy but it should be more durable than that.

"Orange peel" refers to the dimply surface of paint. It's not something that occurs over time.

"Orange peel" happens when they shoot the clear coat over the basecoat. It occurs for a couple reasons but the main reason is because of a slight reaction between coats due to timing (between coats) or dry time (the clear flashes to quickly. Either way, every production vehicle made (short of your mega dollar exotic) will have orange peel on it somewhere. It stands out more on darker colors but if you look carefully at the right angle, in the right light, you will see it on your truck too. Check a couple areas of your truck. It won't be everywhere. If your vehicle is shiny, it will stand out more. It's just the nature of mass produced vehicles and their mass produced paint jobs.

The fix is wet sanding. Yes, it sounds extreme if you have never painted or done this before, but it's really not all that bad. Owners of $100,000 hot rods pay thousands of dollars to detailers to have done before they show their new paint job at the first car show. It is time consuming and requires attention to detail, patience and some skill.

We are not taking about getting out your belt sander with 150 grit here... This is slow tedious work, in small areas at a time, using 2000 grit wet/dry sand paper, a backing block to avoid finger marks, loads of water for lubricant, and Zen like patience.

A clay bar won't even touch orange peel. It's sort of like trying to sand your fence with play-doe. Clay bars are great for cleaning the paint surface and picking up the contaminants (I use them all the time), but as far as cutting the surface of the clear coat you will need shoulder surgery before you even notice a change in the clear coat.

For some info on wet sanding check out:
http://www.mobileworks.com/auto_paint_wet_sanding.html (http://www.mobileworks.com/auto_paint_wet_sanding.html)

I wet sanded an area of my Acura MDX (it was Midnight Blue Pearl) because I felt it had too much orange peel. I'm certain my wet sanding in and of itself was good, but my buffer is garbage. It's a dual orbital Craftsman...........I'd have been better off with a directional one I assume. The area, although free of orange peel, never quite shined the way I thought it should have.

Yeah, the Titan paint jobs are terrible. Nearly everyone I've looked at has the orangepeel effect. To be fair though, I have noticed it on Fords and Chevy's too. It just seems that there is more of this among the Titans. Smoke seems to be the worst. I'm looking to buy a new Titan, and that's the first thing I notice when looking through the lots. I saw one new '08 and the drivers side was so bad, there was no reflection of myself off of the paint - completly fogged. There's no way that truck will sell without a repaint. I can't believe Nissan puts out such crappy paint on an otherwise great truck. I guess if people will pay, what do they care.

"Orange peel" happens when they shoot the clear coat over the basecoat. It occurs for a couple reasons but the main reason is because of a slight reaction between coats due to timing (between coats) or dry time (the clear flashes to quickly. Either way, every production vehicle made (short of your mega dollar exotic) will have orange peel on it somewhere. It stands out more on darker colors but if you look carefully at the right angle, in the right light, you will see it on your truck too. Check a couple areas of your truck. It won't be everywhere. If your vehicle is shiny, it will stand out more. It's just the nature of mass produced vehicles and their mass produced paint jobs.

The fix is wet sanding. Yes, it sounds extreme if you have never painted or done this before, but it's really not all that bad. Owners of $100,000 hot rods pay thousands of dollars to detailers to have done before they show their new paint job at the first car show. It is time consuming and requires attention to detail, patience and some skill.

We are not taking about getting out your belt sander with 150 grit here... This is slow tedious work, in small areas at a time, using 2000 grit wet/dry sand paper, a backing block to avoid finger marks, loads of water for lubricant, and Zen like patience.

A clay bar won't even touch orange peel. It's sort of like trying to sand your fence with play-doe. Clay bars are great for cleaning the paint surface and picking up the contaminants (I use them all the time), but as far as cutting the surface of the clear coat you will need shoulder surgery before you even notice a change in the clear coat.

For some info on wet sanding check out:
http://www.mobileworks.com/auto_paint_wet_sanding.html (http://www.mobileworks.com/auto_paint_wet_sanding.html)

Actually, orange peel is a result of how heavily the paint is applied. Another reason for orange peel is using the wrong hardner for the room temp causing the paint to dry/cure before its had a chance to lay down/even out. There is no "slight reaction" in a base coat/clear coat(if you have reaction it will be in the form of "fish eyes" or the "paint lifting" leaving a cracking effect in the surface coat). Orange peel is more common in your enamel type paints(your clear coats) then in the old acrylic laquer finishes of the '60s which went on like primer, dried like primer(in minutes), then you color sanded & buffed to a shine. Enamels dry shiny which is why base coat/clear coat jobs are preferred and they require little or no buffing.

king is correct when you spray the paint to dry or it dries too fast you get orange peel the flip side is a run or a sag it is hard to spray a perfectly flat finish with no peel at all unless you have a mega dollar down draft booth with bake so you can spray it wet then flash it to keep it from sagging. for mass produced jobs the orangepeel is more acceptable than a run. when wet sanding i have always used 1500 grit by hand untill defects are gone then hit it with 3000 on a da with a padded backer pad. when you have the 1500 scratches gone with the 3000 the surface shines already then it is a breeze to buff to a deeeeeep shine.

Yeah, like "king" said, orange peel is related to viscosity, dilatency/ thixotropy of the coating (and temperature, humidity, skill of the operator, etc).
Long, long ago , when there was lacquer (GM) or enamel (everybody else), and no such thing as clear coat; the enamels had orange peel , unless you polished it out. A friend of mine who had a body shop, would use a final spray of laquer thinner and get an orange peel free finish on lacquer.

Really would like to see good before and after pics.

Dave

Where's those pics????:)

Wet sanding and buffing is what separates a factory paint job from a custom aftermarket one.All production vehicles have orange peel to a greater or lesser degree pretty much all over. Only a robot can spray clear consistently enough to make a nice looking clear coat paint job affordable enough for the general public. (BTW - The QX56 gets a double coat of clear.) If the robots are performing correctly the orange peel should be very subtle on your more obvious surfaces. I've never seen a part (I work in fascia paint) that didn't have at least a very slight orange peel. The only way to get a perfectly smooth clear coat is to wet sand and buff it. This is cost prohibitive. It takes to much time and you risk burning through the clear.
IF I were bothered by this I'd do the same thing to my truck (although the effect would be much more noticeable on a darker color). I would, however, make sure I had some clear on hand to touch up "burns" :damn: in the clear. If a burn is slight it will look like tiny pits in the clear. If it's worse it will reveal your base coat. Don't be too alarmed when the base coat is a lot lighter than what it appears to be with clear on it. The colors appear considerably different without clear. You will have to go back and wet sand touch ups and sand/buff them out as well.

(In fascia we sand out defects and buff them out. If we "burn" one we don't touch it up we repaint it or if it has been repainted before we scrap it.)

P.S. We wet sand with 3m 466LA Trizact on a Dynabrade sander. We use a two step buffing process with 3M Perfect-it 3000 (gets the sand mark out) followed by 3m Finesse-it Final Finish (gets the haze out left by buffing the sand mark out). The buffers we use are 3m and Dynabrade random orbitals with foam pads. Of coarse all of our tools are air tools.

Props to you for taking the time to wet sand out the orange peel. I'd be afraid the clear was too thin and I'd burn through.

Props to you for taking the time to wet sand out the orange peel. I'd be afraid the clear was too thin and I'd burn through.

I agree. I do my other cars(I painted my other cars) but, I wouldn't touch the Titan cause I'm not sure how much clear is there.