Orange peel paint

[K9wrangler]

Wondering if anyone else gas noticed this. I bought a 2021 Bighorn with Delmonico Red paint off the showroom floor. If I look at the paint in the sun it looks rippled (orange peel texture). I’m used to my other vehicles which have glass like paint jobs. Is this an issue with other folks? I’m surmising it’s more obvious on darker colors.

 

[SpeedyV]

This has been a topic off and on since mid-2018

 

[mikeru82]

Some are definitely worse than others, but all of us suffer from at least a little orange peel. It's something I always look for now when buying. It's a shame that a truck which costs as much as or more than some luxury cars can have this bad of paint issues.

 

[Buffchief52]

My 2020 Laramie Quad cab Max Steel blue looks like crap in the sun. Clear coat looks like waves on a lake. Looks great in the shade or on a cloudy day though, oh looks good at night too. My wife has a Japan made Mazda CX-5. Paint as smooth as a babys butt! Oh well, I use my Ram like a truck, so its dirty alot. Im not too upset, but sure could be better.

 

[jdmartin]

I've had a lot of new cars and never had one that didn't have some orange peel somewhere. I've never noticed it on my truck but since it's a truck I don't think I've ever really looked that close. Luckily for me I don't plan on taking it to the Saturday car show any time soon, unless it's pulling something else on a trailer

 

[kdoublep]

Mine is awful

 

[Rlaf75]

My 11 blue pearl Bighorn was just "ok" and my new 21 Spitfire orange BTS is better but not perfect. It amazes me that with the money they get for these trucks they should be close to perfect. On going water leaks and paint finish issues should still not be happening. Dont get me wrong, I still love my Ram but all of this stuff should've been taken care of years ago

 

[cevans6318]

My 11 blue pearl Bighorn was just "ok" and my new 21 Spitfire orange BTS is better but not perfect. It amazes me that with the money they get for these trucks they should be close to perfect. On going water leaks and paint finish issues should still not be happening. Dont get me wrong, I still love my Ram but all of this stuff should've been taken care of years ago

vehicles today coming out of the factory, its more about quantity than quality. Plus the use of cheaper parts, its garbage. I would of not gotten the ram had I had read some of this stuff before I was going to buy it.

 

[Whoa_Ram]

My Patriot Blue is awful as well.

 

[Rlaf75]

vehicles today coming out of the factory, its more about quantity than quality. Plus the use of cheaper parts, its garbage. I would of not gotten the ram had I had read some of this stuff before I was going to buy it.

I agree but every brand has their good and bad

 

[jdmartin]

vehicles today coming out of the factory, its more about quantity than quality. Plus the use of cheaper parts, its garbage. I would of not gotten the ram had I had read some of this stuff before I was going to buy it.

You wouldn't have gotten anything better from another brand. And the good old days weren't so good - if you think quality control is bad now you should have seen quality control from the late 60's through the early 90's on American cars. Guys would find beer cans behind quarter panel trim, electric wires not hooked up, fenders with 2 bolts instead of 6, etc. The Japanese came in and started eating our lunch and the competition made *everyone* better. I will tell you that the last 4 or 5 new vehicles I've owned have been far better than the first 4 or 5, despite the fact that there's so many more features and things that could go wrong because of the complexity.

As far as parts quality, definitely some parts have gotten worse, especially non-cosmetic places where plastic has replaced metal for cost and weight purposes. And there's more outsourcing than ever before on vehicle parts, so maintaining quality standards on the front end is a lot more difficult.

Bottom line on the paint thing, though, is that it's unreasonable to expect show car paint jobs coming from assembly lines that produce a million vehicles. Paints have become thinner and air standards have changed flash times and solvents, and no one is going to do the prep and finish work to make thinner, cheaper paints look like the solid enamels of the past. Yes, trucks are expensive, but frankly I'm always surprised they don't cost more than what they do given the level of features and constant changes. The only reason they can even be sold for $40k is because they make a million of them, fast. The tooling, engineering, design work, assembly line computerization, etc costs eye-popping numbers, before you even hire the first guy to run the robots or buy the first part to put in the vehicle.

 

[Hemidakota]

Yeah my black limited is bad and I have told Ram about it. It's so bad that you can feel it above the taillight on the driver side. A rep did actually call me back but I missed the call and now I can't get a hold of them

 

[Biga]

My 2019 Black Diamond does not have much orange peel, now my 2014 was black Ram was pretty bad.

 

[JBV]

i've owned my PB Ram for about 6 hours. took delivery in the pouring rain. it's something i'm looking for and i did a close inspection as far as i could in the rain and not bad. yes, a few minor spots, but the paint job looks reasonable and the PB has a nice depth to it. it's beauty eh. when it goes in for paint treatment and PPF next week we'll have a better look at the whole vehicle. what a truck though, OMG.

 

[J-Cooz]

My 2020 black limited had pretty good paint from the factory. My detailer who works on tons of high end cars said it was pretty good for OEM.

A good detailer can get rid of orange peel or make it significantly better.

Sent from my SM-G781W using Tapatalk

 

[cevans6318]

Bottom line on the paint thing, though, is that it's unreasonable to expect show car paint jobs coming from assembly lines that produce a million vehicles. Paints have become thinner and air standards have changed flash times and solvents, and no one is going to do the prep and finish work to make thinner, cheaper paints look like the solid enamels of the past. Yes, trucks are expensive, but frankly I'm always surprised they don't cost more than what they do given the level of features and constant changes. The only reason they can even be sold for $40k is because they make a million of them, fast. The tooling, engineering, design work, assembly line computerization, etc costs eye-popping numbers, before you even hire the first guy to run the robots or buy the first part to put in the vehicle.

I don't think its unreasonable at all to expect show car paint jobs when they have the technology at the factory to make it happen. Plus for the price we are paying, I expect better and so does everyone else.

 

[OldMarine]

show car paint requires WAY too much cutting & buffing for mass production, not to mention multiple layers of clear coat and base....no way the factory can do that on each truck.

 

[Rlaf75]

Show car quality? Absolutely not BUT, the paint on a $60k vehicle should be way better than what it is. Christ, my old 1985 Mercury Capri had a better factory paint job than most of these trucks

 

[BowDown]

I don't think its unreasonable at all to expect show car paint jobs when they have the technology at the factory to make it happen. Plus for the price we are paying, I expect better and so does everyone else.

Then you've never done a show car quality paint job. I have, 80+ hours easy just in paint. Show quality paint starts before paint comes from the gun and continues with wet sanding with 1500-5000 grit sandpaper after each coat of paint then the same with each layer of clear to achieve a true flat as glass finish. The there's the buffing out of that paint and minor corrections.

A show car quality paint job can easily cost 10K+ but here's the thing, are you going to maintain it or is it going to look show quality for a week?
These vehicles will have rock chips and off road paint damage on them within months and the general populous certainly doesn't have the skill or desire to maintain them, how many vehicles do you think run through an auto carwash? What's an auto carwash to to paint, and you want show quality for that?

My Diamond Black looks good, could it look better? Yes. Do I expect better from the OEM? No.
I can wet sand my truck and may well do that in a few years and slick the paint then bring it back out, I have the tools, knowledge and the compounds for that but I think most peoples expectations of OEM paint are very unrealistic especially when you consider the fact the most cars are probably run through an auto car wash which will destroy any paint job.

Unless you're willing to wash the vehicle at home using the 2 or 3 bucket method, having show quality paint wont make a difference as it wont look show quality long

 

[BowDown]

Show car quality? Absolutely not BUT, the paint on a $60k vehicle should be way better than what it is. Christ, my old 1985 Mercury Capri had a better factory paint job than most of these trucks

No it shouldn't and no it didn't .
I painted cars all through the 90's up to the 2000's. Unless you had a high end luxury car, paint has looked pretty much the same. It has gotten better every year since the 90's but its certainly not worse.