How is the TL paint for orange peel? From the pix I have seen it looks not bad .. but I have learned that just because a car is a bit "upscale" doesn't mean it has good paint.

 

I have been selling Acuras for about 3 years and have had to opportunity to see
many TLs.

I can't recall ever noticing any "orange peel" effect on a TL. In general, it has a
very good paint job, although not quite to the level of an RL. If you do notice
orange peel, it is possible the vehicle has had paint work.

The big problem we have here in New England is the acid rain damage. The TL
( or the RL ) paint is like every other car in that you want to get it protected
as soon as possible.

 

If you haven't seen orange peel on a TL, then you don't know what orange peel is. You have to look closely, but its there.

 

Agreed. Look closely, and you will see the slight orange-peel effect.

 

agree alsow, every acura and most car have today orange peels paint.

You can see it more on dark colors, with a good light (sun or over). Look as if you wanted to see the reflect, as if you want to look ''behind'' the paint and move a bit and you'll see the reflection won't be smooth.

For not having orange peels the manufacturer sould polish there car at the factory and only luxury brand and luxury car tale the time to do it

 

Yea the dealer added on $100 for the orange peel effect option. I tried to get em to waive that charge but they refused.

 

I have very little orange peel on my '04TL. Also, I can attest to the "acid rain" issue. I had a 2002 NBP TL. It was usually garaged, but one summer it was outside during a hot July afternoon. It started to rain, then the sun came out and burned spots into the paint. The paint was ruined IMHO. The dealer offered to wet sand the areas with damage, but I declined. They gave me a set of Comptec Exhaust pipes to keep my happy. I was still unhappy with the paint, so I sold it to purchase a '04 TL...but this time around I picked Anthracite not BLACK! Black paint+rain+sun=acid rain damage. BTW...the paint had many many coats of good wax...which I believe made the situation worse by causing the water to form little beads..kinda like small lenses that made the sun burn the paint.

 

Orange peel isn't bad on the TL. I find the quality of the paint job to be pretty good, the paint itself is pretty brittle though. Expect rock chips to form fairly easily.

 

I stand corrected. The paint on a TL is somewhat wavy. I was referring to more
obvious orange peel ( what you would tend to find when panels and bumpers get
repainted, etc ). The "peel" effect does differ by color though. We have a Blue
TL in the showroom and it is somewhat easy to see the effect when looking at
paint from an angle. The silver RL ( next to it ) shows much less effect as does the
Deep Green Pearl paint on the new 2006 TSX.

According to Acura, all the models ( with the exception of the RSX ) have the
primer hand wet-sanded before the color coat is applied, but I do not know what
they do to the finish coats before applying the clear.

 

I would suspect its the painting process (ie 1-2 thick coats vs 3-4 thin coats) for time's sake, they probably put on thicker coats of paint, which causes a slight orange peel effect.

 

just to clarify..., is orange peel something people want? i might have misunderstood when people said they don't want orange peel, however upon reading this post, i get a feeling that people do want orange peel...
can someone clarify that for me..., thanks

 

No typically you DO NOT want orange peel...what they are saying is that it is very common and pointing out some of the causes of this condition and that it is becoming more common these days with many brands. Being of a body/paint background in the past...orange peel is this.....when the paint is not smooth - tends to take a texture (very minor effect) of an orange feel....a rough look to it....not baby but smooth....you might not even be able to "feel it" but can see it. If you can picture an orange peel....it is not smooth....there is gloss to it....but it has got a texture to it.....paint can come out looking much the same. The effect or the badness of the orange peel can very widely; some are absolutely terrible and very obvious to the eye....but most come out showing up mainly when you view the car from angles or in certain light conditions. Often the effect of orange peel can be lessened by buffing the car out if it is a very minor case....but anyway....NO! ORANGE PEEL IS NOT SOMETHING YOU WANT!

 

Here is an example of little to no orange peel .. the surface is virtually flat and very reflective.