I want to spray my car body with gloss for the decal applications (and protect the body coat), but I want the final finish to be matte. I know people spray matte over gloss and it supposedly disappears (never actually tried it).
My question is: will the orange peel disppear automatically with the matte? Or will I have to sand/polish the glossy car body first before applying the matte?
Let me know. Any and all help appreciated. 
In my experience (50+ yrs) orange peel never just ‘disappears,’ since it’s a texture in the finish itself. Unless that texturing is in a layer (such as acrylic over enamel) that can be removed chemically, sanding and polishing is likely to be your only option.
A matte finish in particular might make it slightly less visible…but only from certain angles.
Sorry.
Depends on the size of the orange peel. If it is too large a grain, it will not, but if the peel is fine, like 150 grit or so, it will make it far less noticable.
If you spray gloss enamel and get orange peel, you can simply carefully rub Novus#2 with an old cotton shirt over the cured clear gloss enamel and you will get a glass smooth finish. I have done 3 Blue Angel Hornets as commissions and the gloss was smooth as glass after polishing. Then you can shoot your semi gloss coat on.
Hi;
If you have Orange Peel and you can feel it, a matte coat isn’t going to hide it! You will have to do some wet sanding to smooth it out BEFORE you proceed. Orange Peel is a funny beast. If it is real fine, In other words, you can see it but not really feel it.The Matte coat may hide it depending on how a heavy a coat of Matte you put on. Be careful with the Matte though. You could get a second result you don’t want, RUNS and SAGS in the paint!
Thanks all for the heads up! Will go ahead and see what happens, but I like to get some idea of what to expect from the forums first. [Y]