Can someone explain to me what has happened to my cars paint? I have a little chevy nova that was involved in a car accident about a year and a half ago. It was mostly just front end damage. Well, while at the body shop I had them fix all the other little imperfections and repaint the entire car. The car looked great! I don't drive the car much, about 200 miles on it since the repaint and body work. The car just sits in the garage and never moves. I have a really nice expensive car cover on it, but didn't start to put it on the car until about six months after the repaint, I was told the paint should be sealed by then. So, on friday I went to take the cover off and look at the car, maybe take it for a drive, and I find bubbled paint every where on the car. Little tiny bubbles all over. Now, I do remember that when I got the car back from the body shop, about a month later I started getting little very tiny crack like things in the paint on the trunk lid only. Almost looked like little dirt specs. Don't know if this makes sence! I didn't do anything about it because I was busy and just plain stupid. My question is and let me know if more information is needed, but did I mess up the paint from using a car cover or was it just a bad paint job? How did I get moisture under the paint? Any help is appreciated. Thanks. -Jeff
Pics would help. Do you know if they stripped the car before applying the new paint job? If not did they paint over the original paint or perhaps another repaint that was done somewhere else down the line? What kind of paint did they use? It kind of sounds like they didn't give you a quality job.
Some times car covers will draw moisture I would pull it out in the sun and see if goes away. I had a car that did the same thing with a cover on the car.
the body shop buffed the car too green...that caused the web looking cracks,then you put the cover on and it sweats..........wallah.....bubbles.
Im going to make a guess here. It was PPG, and the reason for the little bubbles is the wax and grease remover. They should rename the wax and grease remover to (bubble farm). Im just making a guess, but I bet Im right.
Pictures would help a ton. Are they tiny bubbles in the paint, or is the paint bubbling up (paint lifting in a bubble shape)? Most likely its nothing you did wrong. Has to do with paint prep. jw
Little bubbles could be lots of things. Solvent popping, trapped contaminants, etc. But I have seen this from car covers before. It takes a full 3 months for a catalyzed paint job to fully "cure". Cover it sooner, and you could have issues. I'd tell my customers "no wax or car covers for at least 3 months, and park it in the sun!" Funny how the thing that cures paint, UV, also destroys it...pics would help...
true but the only reason the grease and wax remover does this it because of opperator error.... its caused by too much "solvent" being applied and the applier not wiping it off the panel...... now your problem is hard to pin point without further info..... what paint manufacturer was used what do the bubbles look like agin pics speak a thousand words
yes we tell our customers the same thing on our paint jobs.... especially since they all have the same exact question and it is "SO WHEN CAN I WAX IT?" it almost comical and we all take bets on how long it takes the customer to ask it
If a body filler was used that could be the cause . Most bondo type fillers are very porous and can absorb moisture , oils etc . then bleed out later as humidity and temperature change .
Here's the thing- it often takes a paint job a long tome to completely dry. The paint may harden, but solvents from the paint job may penetrate very deep into the substrate, and take awhile to completely evaporate back out. This depends on the amount of material under the paint job (old paint, primer, etc), and upon temperature while it's drying. It's entirely possible that the drying process is at a complete standstill during weather where air temperature doesn't get above 80 degrees or so. if the car is in shade, and never sees heat from sunlight, the metal on the car- insulated from warm air temperature by paint and primer- will never get warm enough continue the drying process. Place your hand on a car inside a garage on a warm day and you'll see what I mean. it feels cool. It goes contrary to what you would think of as being "gentle" on a paint job, but babying a job can actually be bad sometimes. That being said--I'm not sure what the temperatures are consistently like where you live, but 6 months does sound like plenty of time for drying. For a start, I would try having the shop that did the paint job buff the bubbles out. -and not tell them that you had a cover on it unless they ask.
If the issue is solvent penetration- wax and grease remover can't really be the culprit. Pre-cleaner has a very mild solvent- it's designed to be just aggressive enough to break up oil/silicone on the surface, but not disturb the sealer or primer. Common sense should apply here- if it penetrates the sealer/primer before paint, it would "melt" it, and smear it around at the very least (like laquer thinner or enamel/basecoat reducer). Wax and grease remover does it's work strictly on the surface- it even has a bit of an oily consistency to "attract" other similar grease/wax molecules. When wax & grease remover dries- it's done.
I think the majority of the causes have been mentioned here. I find it hard to believe that you're seeing solvent pop 6 mos later but who knows. Pics would help determine it indefinitely.
If I'd painted the car, I'd want to take a razor blade and cut thruogh one of the bubbles to see exactly what layer failed. But that's just me and I give a hoot.
Ive seen solvent pops 6 months after the fact of painting.. but it was due to to much primer build up.. not letting the primer flash between coats.. even though a catalyst is added to hi solids primer.. it still requires proper flash times.. it looks dry at the surface.. but its soft underneath.. as soon as base is applied.. thats where more reaction starts.. the reducers starts softening the primer more.. clear will smother the base and primer.. with a hard quick dry finish.. the trapped solvents will rise the products to the top.. sometimes in sheets instead of bubbles.. humidity does play a role in how products cure also..
Bad or expired paint will come out seedy.. you usually see that on the first pass.. its really hard to clear over.
There is a good chance that there is water under the paint.If the shop does not have a good water separator you will spray paint and water.If you have it all over the car I would lean toward this.If you want chip off one of the bubbles and see if there is water or even a little rust starting.I would go back to the shop and see what they say.Good Luck, Tom
I tried today to take a picture of the paint bubbling and it won't show up on my camera. The car is white so it just glares or doesn't show up. I tried different ways, but everytime you can't see the bubbles. It basically just looks like the car has water drops on it, only they are bubbles. I tried to cut into one of the bubbles and underneath I saw grey primer. What does this mean? Is this still a bad paint job? I am going to take the car back to the shop hopefully next weekend when I am free. Thanks. -Jeff
I am going to have to agree with the primer issue... Too much build too quickly... I can almost "see" the primer seperating between coats. It will look like one of those flakey biscuits, on a smaller scale.... I have seen this before, the spots will get bigger with time, but they will be difficult to "break open". Once "broken" they will be somewhat easy to chip back.
I was finally able to get the bubbles to show up a little. Here are two pictures. These are both shots of my hood. Hopefully they are visable. Thanks for all the help so far guys, it is very much appreciated. Thanks. -Jeff
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