The other day, after I was dusting and cleaning up the '67 for a drive, I noticed a very disturbing "bubble" that had formed under the paint on the right front nose. I have had the car many years, and the car was painted, high quality lacquer job, about 7 years ago, and this bubble was not seen until yesterday. It is about the size of a silver dollar, see picture, and is pliable, you can push it down gently but it pops back up, like air is under it. The question is, what to do about it. Should I puncture it with a pin, fill a hypodermic needle with crazy glue and inject under it or just leave it alone. Any ideas? All are welcome, thanks.
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Big Tanks In the High Mountains of New Mexico -
Re: Tricky paint bubble issue, need advice.
Well, you have a lot of options and you just named most of them.
I would want to leave this alone until I had to do something, i.e. fix it when it cracks. But if it were mine that would drive me nuts. If you follow your glue repair you would want to pierce the bubble in several places and use a flat weight to chase the air out from behind it, or else it will be wavey. The bubble looks too big to fill, sand and buff so if nothing else works you're stuck with the "correct" fix of sanding it out to a taper and re-spraying and buffing.
Lacquer paint on a fiberglass car doesn't stay perfect for all that long. -
Re: Tricky paint bubble issue, need advice.
Michael,
I would get in touch with John Ballard, you should be able to find him here. We had a similar instance happen in 2010 at the Florida meet in Kissimmee. Our car was painted with lacquer back in 1986 and never showed any signs of bubbling until it rained one evening in Kissimmee. We had the car on the show field and heavy storm came though and dumped a ton of rain Thursday night, when we removed the cover Friday morning we were greeted with what looked like pimples all over the car. They eventually receded after sitting in the sun and we have never seen this happen since then. The explanation that I remember being discussed was that the solvents in the paint never really flash off completely and for whatever reason they decided to flash off that day. Now I don't know if your situation is the same but I thought it might be beneficial to share with you what we saw that day in Florida.
I hope you are able to get to the bottom of this, good luck.
ChuckComment
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Re: Tricky paint bubble issue, need advice.
I have the same problem with my 1960. Lacquer paint about 30 years old. The bubble appeared on the hood last year. I was also told it was from solvents. Any repair suggestions would be appreciated.Comment
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Re: Tricky paint bubble issue, need advice.
While this bubble does not look like what I am about to describe, I think it is worth mentioning -- if you have air conditioning on your Corvette a small amount of system gas mixed with AC system oil continually escapes from the front compressor seal. Over time this can coat the underside of the hood. This oil will eventually soak through the fiberglass and cause the paint (regardless of what kind of paint it is) to bubble -- usually in the straight line pattern one would expect from oil being slung from the compressor pulley. I am aware of no solvent treatment that will remove that oil from the fiberglass, and even stripping and repainting will result in bubbles in the future. Replacing the plastic is your only effective cure AFAIK. Prevention is the best course of action and a sheet metal shield that attaches to the front compressor mounting bolts is the pre-emergent solution. One used to be commonly available for the A6 compressor, and the last post on here on that subject had someone who is making them as a cottage industry.TerryComment
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Re: Tricky paint bubble issue, need advice.
Thanks for the tips, and Terry, my '67 is a no option type L71, no power anything and no A/C, so that issue won't apply to mine. Although the solvent flash-off thing could be possible. Before I saw the bubble, it had sat outside in the hot sun for a while, unlike what I have ever done with it before, I usually don't have it sitting out without the cover on. Guess I will let it alone for a while and see what happens, I'm not anxious to mess around with it since it is not cracked and might recede.Big Tanks In the High Mountains of New MexicoComment
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Re: Tricky paint bubble issue, need advice.
Michael,
I had exactly the same thing happen to my 67 back in 1972.
The first rain that it saw while leaving it out of the garage gave it the pimples you described. Further inspection showed me the larger bubbles.
The paint was also laquer and after repeted patching I gave up and took it all off with a straight edge razor blade.
I brought the removed paint bubble in where I bought the paint and it was determined that the primer and paint had a reaction that seemed to create powder between the laquer and primer.
It broke my heart as I was the one that painted it and I jumped thru hoops to make it perfect.
In the past I have had my say here on the forum about not ever using laquer again and that was why.
Some here have had good luck with laquer but I for one switched after loosing 2 of 5 on my cars.
I did my 67 over in BC/CC.
I hope your problem is isolated and the out come different than mine.
DOMComment
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Re: Tricky paint bubble issue, need advice.
The bubbles that appear after a rain are caused by moisture being trapped under a wet car cover or plastic . It can also happen if you leave a wet cover on your car.Paint needs to breath and moisture will wick up from the ground or a concrete floor through the fiberglass and paint .It there are layers of plastic or wet car covers bubbles can show. Thats why all good car covers are breathable . You should not have any solvents left in a lacquer job after six months or a year at the most if you kept the car inside. Your bubble is the result of a air bubble in the fiberglass or in filler that the sun pulled up. If so it might go back down . The second thing I would check is for excessive oil or grease coming from the headlight motor area or heat from the motor . The last thing is if the steel header bar that the headlights mount on has ever been replaced ? If they used alum. rivits that could be a problem (like the 70 type stingrays).BillComment
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Re: Tricky paint bubble issue, need advice.
Thanks, more good items to think about. But since my headlights have not been on or rotated for over a year, that's probably not it. I need to use them, see if they still work, that may be my next question.....
Big Tanks In the High Mountains of New MexicoComment
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Re: Tricky paint bubble issue, need advice.
Mike, I was at the judging retreat in Texas and the subject came up about paint and solvent popping, The warmer climates such as Texas will bring out the worst on paint jobs, leaving a car in the direct sun light for to long a period of time.The solvents that may be stuck under the paint tend to surface to the top.And the only real fix is to strip the paint and re- gel coat the area.New England chapter member, 63 Convert. 327/340- Chapter/Regional/national Top Flight, 72 coupe- chapter and regional Top Flight.Comment
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Re: Tricky paint bubble issue, need advice.
Not going to be many solvents trapped in there after 7+ years. I would bet money, there is Featherfill, Eliminator, Slick Sand or a similar product under there. Or Maybe one of the old SMC replacement panels. Whatever, It has lifted, and you have little choice but to either leave it alone, or remove it and start over. Frankly, I would leave it alone and see what happens. If it gets to the point that it cracks or you just cant stand it any more, you MIGHT try the glue injection fix.Comment
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Re: Tricky paint bubble issue, need advice.
Solvent pop is caused by to much paint being put on at one time ,When the last coats dry before the first or middle coats trapping solvents .This usually happens the same day its painted , but could happen up to 60 days latter . It is more likely to happen with urethane . One last thing the large bubble could have been caused by stripper soaking into the fibers and being drawn out by the sun .Comment
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Re: Tricky paint bubble issue, need advice.
I've only been painting cars 40+ years but have found that solvent pop is an application error that shows itself almost right away. Certainly not after an extended period of time.Comment
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Re: Tricky paint bubble issue, need advice.
Wayne,
You struck a memory when you said Eliminator. If it's that 2 part primer we used to use way back, they confessed to the problem of paint bubbles.
I contacted them after the above problem and they said (bad catalyst).
If we are talking about the same Eliminator (primer/sealer) they said to shake the plastic bottle of catalyst and see if it turned milky in color. If it did it
had exceded shelf life and the primer only air dried, not chemically cured.
DOMComment
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