USA/Canada Delivery Thread

A topic for another thread… but the point I was trying to make is that polishing down orange peel, scratches and even swirl marks makes the clear coat thinner and thinner, until it is eventually gone. Removing orange peel would likely remove most of the clear coat.
This is my understanding also. Ironically I noticed orange peel a lot more on German cars like BMWs and Mercedes than japanese cars like Honda and Toyota. No joke, I thought orange peel was a feature until someone told me otherwise.
 
Oy the orange peel thing again....It honestly scares me that I'm still reading that orange peel needs to be removed.

You never EVER remove orange peel on factory paint. Clear coat is as thick as a piece of paper. What happens when you thin it down too much? It fails and then you're repainting. And a repaint is never as good as Factory. It's just a different technique entirely.

The only cars one would ever remove orange peel on is a show car OR a car that's been repainted and has multiple layers of clear.

Also, when judging a classic car, one way to tell if a panel has been repainted is how orange peel matches from panel to panel. Repainted panels have a different texture.
 
Quick update RE Lotus of Dallas -- got a hold of Tony who is my salesperson, and he said that the only fee required is the dealer prep fee of $1600, which includes a full paint prep before delivery. To me that's reasonable alongside all the other things they do. Pricey for just a paint prep but no other required fees. Ceramic/PPF is optional.
Prep fee of $1600 & Doc fee $289.75 🤣🤬 Sorry that is $$$ for the dealer. Unfortunately, some are worse than others. I guess one way to look at it is Inflation, everything is expensive, interest rates, waiters want a 20% to 25% tip now, look at home prices my values keep going up.
 
Oy the orange peel thing again....It honestly scares me that I'm still reading that orange peel needs to be removed.

You never EVER remove orange peel on factory paint. Clear coat is as thick as a piece of paper. What happens when you thin it down too much? It fails and then you're repainting. And a repaint is never as good as Factory. It's just a different technique entirely.

The only cars one would ever remove orange peel on is a show car OR a car that's been repainted and has multiple layers of clear.

Also, when judging a classic car, one way to tell if a panel has been repainted is how orange peel matches from panel to panel. Repainted panels have a different texture.
A friend of mine just did a Lotus Tour at the factory (3-13-24). The tour guide said the paint booth is state of the art and Lotus was able to get the paint down to 50 thickness from the average of 200 with the Evora & GT. I say No way on sanding the clear coat.
 
Huh? You definitely want orange peel removed. Especially before ppf.
There isn't enough paint on a modern car to do that. You'd have to remove the entirety of the clear coat and half the paint.

The primary thing that will lower or eliminate the orange peel effect is actually PPF.
 
The car I saw the other day in Miami had a ton of orange peel. If my car comes that way, I’ll probably live with it, but it was noticeable, so a little concerning.
 
You guys are paying fees?
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Looks like mine. No ADM, no dealer fees, no doc fees, no extra fees of any sort. One of many reasons I like dealing with Gator.
Yea, I was willing to order from them even being in VA, but there was *NO WAY* I was getting a car from them in a reasonable amount of time because of how popular they are. I think their list was already at 200+ by the time I learned about the Emira.

Great dealer.
 

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