paint starting to bubble!!!!!!help

[440valiant]

I just got my car painted about 6 months ago. I spent 4 months on bodywork and i didn't cover up any rust and primed the car 3 times before i painted it.

Are these rust bubbles or what??I dont want to have to re-paint it

[Jim_Lusk]

Pics?

[440valiant]

i will get some for tomarrow

[bOb shingler]

it's probably water or oil from the compressor.

[sunsetdart]

Did you use the same company for primer and paint, like Dupont primer and Dupont top coats?(just an example) If not that may be the culprit. Mixing different primers and topcoats MAY and I say may , not always, can cause problems especially after the car sits in the sun at a show.

[440valiant]

would color sanding get rid on these bubbles if it was water from the compressor??

[eldubb440]

if its coming up from underneath,there is no cure..... if its on the surface it may sand and buff

[rjsjea]

Several possible reasons and solutions depending on what you/they used to paint the car, how it was prepped, equipment etc.....

[440valiant]

when we got the car we

1) primed areas with rust then patch the rust holes
2)bodywork
3)prime
4)more bodywork
5)prime
6)more touch up bodywork
7)prime
8)paint

[Crazy68Dart]

Are the bubbles located where rust was previously?  If so, I think you may have your answer...  Either way, that stinks.

[Duster440]

You still haven't indicated where the bubbles are located. If you did rust repair, for example, and have a pinhole in a weld on the backside where moisture can enter, it can potentially get into the filler and blister the paint from the inside. You may have rust pinholes as well. Or, as mentioned, contamination.

[440valiant]

i dont think its rust thought because these bubbles are appearing all over the car. like the roof, hood, doors all over, not really in specific areas.

[rjsjea]

Pics may help out on this, but contaminants (oil/water in lines) may be the prob.  Brand names/types of paint did you use???  Single stage or base/clear??

[eldubb440]

there are so many variables in paint work, it may be impossible to figure out exactly what went wrong.

[440valiant]

i used a base/clear product. i think it was nason, i cant remmeber what kind on primer but it wasn't nason

[flyboy01]

  Sorry to hear about your nightmare. If they are all over then car, then you will have to strip and paint again.  I would take a razor blade to one of the bubblesand see where it is seperating. On one of my cars, the bubbles were coming from below the primer, but above the filler, it was from wax/dirt/oil contamination that was not cleaned off well before the car was painted. No cure, especially if they are all over, total re-do. On another, my Dakota, it got a nice black PPG base clear, about a year later, I got bubbles that started showing up above  the rear wheels, it turned out to be rust that ate its way through from the backside, since there was no rust when we painted it. Since it was a solid color, I fixed the sports, then blended the paint in, it was not perfect, but you could not tell from a few feet away.

[75Dart440]

Sounds like you may have "Solvent Pop".  This is where the solvents that are in the under coats (Primer coats, sealers, base coat, etc) were not given enough time to dry before the topcoat was applied.  You can also get this if you lay down the base coat too wet or too soon between coats, or improper heat range for your reducers.  The solvent is still trying to escape from beneath your base/clear coat and causes the clear coat to soften from beneath and bubble up, rupture and allow the solvent gases out.

Do these bubbles have open tops on them like volcanoes?  If so, this is your problem.  The only way to cure it is let it finish drying out for a couple of months, or bake the finish with infra-red drying lamps (body shop type) to speed up the process, then wet sand until smooth and as long as you don't go through the primer coats, you can just lay down a couple of coats of basecoat and then clear again.  Otherwise, if it is too bad of shape, stripping and refinishing is in order.

I have always been able to just sand it out and refinish with too much trouble.