2009 Dodge Ram 1500: Orange Peel

That looks like water stain that wipes off...
Are you sure that doesn't rub off?

Is that some sort of dappling in the clear-coat?

Ahhh.....finally! Since the Ram has been such a good truck there must have been some effort to make it look bad........all this time and just now this has been noticed?

@ false_cause - basically. I believe it is caused by the paint being baked on at too high a temperature.

"Orange Peel" was common, say 20 years ago. I thought we had left that behind us.
The OP on the Ram looks terrible-- so glaring that I wonder if billt9 might be right.

My 2004 Accord, which was dark blue, had terrible color gradations on the hood. Unfortunately I hadn't noticed it until I owned the car for sometime, but what can you do.

This looks less like orange peel and more like a blemish.

That looks pretty abnormal. I would say that that is not typical. I have had very good paint on recent Chrysler products.

I've seen orange peel that was far less noticeable than that....I assume that's either some weird pattern that's dried on (because you should've seen it before) or a really weird paint blemish.

As for orange-peel being common 20 years ago. Perhaps. But it's not too uncommon nowadays on many american and japanese products with what I'll call "low-end roots"....i.e. even though many models go for 35k, they have some base models in the low 20k or teens....

I don't think manufacturers of such vehicles have yet mastered some of the newer environmentally safer paints.

Subaru and Honda, right now for example, don't have many problems with orange peel but their paint is ridiculously thin.

""Orange Peel" was common, say 20 years ago."

I agree.......although I think it has made a comeback of sorts. It seems like something that should only be a bad memory but I have noticed it on some new cars in the last couple of years. My theory is that it has to do with the newer enviro-friendly paints. In this case though, since it is just in a couple of spots it sounds like a flawed application.

I've seen orange peel on new cars consistently every year. The only way to completely avoid it is to do what Aston does- put it on thick and polish it down to perfection.

Looks more like a hard water stain to me...

I have a work colleague who has a previous generation Ram, that thing is peeling paint everywhere. The roof is the worst, but the A and D pillars are getting bad too. He has considered getting it repainted but at this point that would cost more than the truck is worth. Apparently the dealer was telling him that unfortunately that isn't all that uncommon for Rams, for whatever reason. What's sad is that the truck is in fantastic mechanical shape and the interior still looks great, but it looks about 20 years old from the outside.

Maybe this has something to do with it?:
http://blogs.insideline.com/roadtests/2009/12/2009-dodge-ram-1500-body-damage-repaired.html
How soon we forget...

Oh my, I meant C pillar. Clearly I haven't had enough coffee yet today. :)

@charlesncharge-
This is the opposite side of the truck, I doubt they are related issues.

Charles,

Wrong side, no?

It took 23k miles to notice this, can't be too bad. I had some paint issues on my '95 Dodge Ram but that was at 90k miles and it was parked in the sun and snow for the last 4 years I owned it to make room for another car. My '03 Dodge Ram had perfect paint but I only owned it for 3 years.

Wow, and to think that Inferno Red is a $225 option on every Dodge vehicle. But on the other hand, it IS a fine looking color.

After a few years of reading Inside Line, I'm pretty well convinced that "orange peel" is *extremely* common, and shared by a wide variety of automakers.

I bet that's just wayward clearcoat overspray. They probably didn't spray enough of that "anti-overspray- spray" they use in bodyshops on the opposite side of the truck and the clearcoat found its way over there before it settled. Take it back to the dealer and they can remove it with clearcoat polishing compound.

I agree with joefrompa and rick8365. Orange peel does seem to be making a comeback, probably due to new paint materials. However, the example here looks unusual. On most new cars that I have seen orange peel on, it has to be looked at with the right lighting at the proper angle and even then probably wouldn't show up in a picture.

It may be a $40,000 truck, but it gets painted right along with the $20,000 fleet special.

""Orange Peel" was common, say 20 years ago."

Orange peel is standard on most trucks. Look on the lower part of the doors/bed/chassis.
It doesn't bother me as it's standard on most paint jobs on the lower parts of any truck.

As some others have mention, pretty common these days as far as I know. More so on Japanese and American cars, I don't recall seeing any significant orange peel on European cars. My dad's 2000 Honda Accord had orange peel right off the showroom floor, it was pretty bad. I would suspect it has something to do with how they paint cars these days to be more environmentally friendly. Maybe cost cutting as well since a little wet sanding would correct the issue in most cases.

"I don't recall seeing any significant orange peel on European cars"

BMWs have orange peel, it's due to modern water-based environmentally friendly paints.