Original paint orange peel

[718RSK]

If you do not care for authenticity you better turn away now as this is going to be anal.

We are getting ready to paint my car. I like things to be as authentic as possible so am doing some research on the level of original peel. I have an un-restored 356 coupe which was meticulously maintained and not over polished during ownership and there are clear signs of light orange peel. I think these cars were polished by the factory after paint and not completely wet sanded to a glass smooth surface and subsequently polished as is often done on restorations these days.

I am curious to hear what other out here have observed on original 9-series cars. I would imagine them to be in line with my observations on 356's.

Thanks,

JK

[LiveFromNY]

I own several original paint cars... 1968, 1970, 1971, 1974, and I've seen many more. I have to say, I've seen varying levels of orange peel ranging from almost non-existent to, well to whatever the opposite of almost non-existent is.

I'll be interested to hear the opinions of others.

[ejboyd5]

If you had purchased a new Porsche in the '60s or '70s and it exhibited orange peel in the paint, you would performed a color sanding to remove the imperfections and make the car look as good as possible. Following this line of reasoning I can't understand doing less than your level best when applying paint, even to the point of intentionally introducing flaws, simply because some cars may have left the factory with less than perfect paint. Given Porsche's commitment to excellence, it was certainly not their intention to produce a flawed vehicle, ergo there is no reason now to imitate and celebrate the few that may have slipped past final quality control.

[patrick911]

but we know they weren't perfect, so your reasoning falls flat; we know there's overspray areas in certain places and items that were done less than perfect.
(maybe because the company was growing too fast, maybe because their tools weren't great, who knows 50 years on)
but if you then apply modern standards and processes to this, or just do it too perfect, you're doing it wrong. There's already too many over-restored cars out there imo.
I love these sort of questions as it shows people are still trying to understand why and how these cars were built and trying to get as close as possible to as how they left the factory (warts and all). But as JK said, not everyone will understand.

[72targa]

I always liked the factory paint drips in the 700 mile car.

[mobius911]

Bruce Canepa says his painter has perfected the technique to apply what he believes is the "correct" original level of orange peel, so he thinks there was some back in the day.

Interestingly, the new Porsches I've looked at in dealer showrooms also exhibit a noticeable orange peel.

[moito]

Bruce Canepa says his painter has perfected the technique to apply what he believes is the "correct" original level of orange peel, so he thinks there was some back in the day.

Interestingly, the new Porsches I've looked at in dealer showrooms also exhibit a noticeable orange peel.

not only orange peel ...went to my local porsche dealer recently and whilst waiting for the parts guy i inspected some cars( there orange peel appealed me)...i asked if those vehicles had a respray ..nope they did not....i could not believe what i saw next...grinding marks

btw mercedes for example went away from glass finish paint(a bit to far imho) since its hard to maintain this look ...and a one year old glass car looks older than a 3 year old light pole garage orange peel car.
same with mazda ..i think it was the xedos 6 or 9 that was rotated during baking the clearcoat to get a perfect surface...they also dont do this anymore for the same reason

[bob joyce]

the early 70 911 paint jobs were the best in the industry. Some dealerships even buffed them out more. they were awesome made Mercedes and Cadillac look like cow dung. It is easy to reproduce the original orange peel..... If you want flat as glass you color sand starting with 500 finishing at 3000. then the other side of the spectrum would be to color sand with 1200 and finish with 3000. in other words the taller the orang peel you want the finer the paper to cut it. pretty simple if you think about it. I would say starting with 1200 and finishing with 3000 would get you there. may be 1000/3000 depending on how well it lays down. 1500/3000 gets you a later model car orang peel look.

[bob joyce]

moito…. Just because they said it was not resprayed means that it was not..... your talking to car dealer people... cars are always damaged in transport and they have select body shops to do the best they can to hide the work. yet I can believe that you saw grinder marks.... Porsche does not do the quality paint that they once did.

[moito]

moito…. Just because they said it was not resprayed means that it was not..... your talking to car dealer people... cars are always damaged in transport and they have select body shops to do the best they can to hide the work. yet I can believe that you saw grinder marks.... Porsche does not do the quality paint that they once did.

moito….BOB
Just because they said it was not resprayed means that it was not.....TRUST ME THEY DON`T LIE TO ME THEY EVEN CONFIRMED THE PROBLEM WITH FACTORY PAINT
your talking to car dealer people...YES BUT IM NOT A POTENTIAL TARGET
cars are always damaged in transport ..RIGHT
and they have select body shops...OVER HERE THEY HAVE THERE OWN BODY AND PAINT SHOP...
to do the best they can to hide the work...BROBABLY YES BUT WHEN THERE IS LACK OF SKILLS ....
yet I can believe that you saw grinder marks....GLAD I WAS NOT HALLUCINATING
Porsche does not do the quality paint that they once did....THATS WHAT I`M SAYING

https://www.porschealpenstrasse.at/