I don't know if what you had there was truly an 'orange peel' type effect. To my eyes it looked more like a 'repel' type effect where the sub surface was not thoroughly preped or given a final wipe down with a clean cloth dampened with mineral spirits. As you may know ( but I will repeat it for everyones sake ) the key purpose of the mineral spirit dampened cloth wipe down is to remove any foreign debris or residue that might still be on the surface prior to applying the coat of paint.

In particular we are hoping to remove any oil or wax molecules that may somehow be clinging to the prepared surface.

Some folks aren't aware that sanding of a surface containing wax or oil residue will not necessarily remove it. It may break it down a bit and make it into smaller bits... but the sanding process may embed those oil or wax particlues into the sanded surface. That is why we want that wipe down with the mineral spirit dampened cloth to remove that potential problem source.

Imagine someone went and took a spritzer and sprayed a mist of oil or wax on to your prepared surface. You then apply a thin layer of paint. What will happen is that the wax or oil on the subsurface has a 'higher tension' value then the paint. So the paint attracts itself to the other paint surface ( to maintain its surface tension ) and would repel from the wax or oil spots.

That is what my eyes are seeing in your picture. The paint surface tension has not been able to hold its surface tension on those spots and has left what appear like little moon craters or vacancies in the paint surface.

To remedy that situation ( if that is what it is ) I would hit the entire surface with a quick 320 or 400 grit wet sanding. Wash it down with water and a drop or two of dish detergent. Rinse it thoroughly. Let it dry. Then give the entire surface a wipe down with a clean cloth dampened with mineral spirits. Let it dry. Then apply the next layer of paint. Let that layer dry thoroughly ( 24 hours ). Then use a tack cloth to wipe down the entire surface ( to remove any dust or bugs that may have landed on it overnight ). Then add a second coat of paint.

At that point the moon craters should be on their way to disappearing and you should be starting to noticing how each layer of paint adds more coverage and the overall paint color is starting to take hold.

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Last edited by Marq; 07/20/07 09:50 AM.