tiny bubble under paint

[tee]

Hi guys I have a 60's buick spent most of its life in the sun or indoors, only been out here and there in the wet and very tiny bubbles have appeared under the paint, have to look really close to see, can feel them when you run your hand over.

Would there be any way of getting rid of these without respraying whole car? ie light rub down and re-lacquer or something... any help appreciated

[ejenner]

depends on if it's cellulose paint or not. If it is original factory paint there's a good chance it's cellulose based and can be very easily refinished. The only risk with refinishing cellulose is that you could burn through the paint completely.

You also have to work out whether or not it has a clear coat. Is it metallic or just a flat colour?

If it's original paint in a flat colour you can buy some paint restorer for cellulose paint and use according to instructions.

[lord13]

I think the issue with these possibly will require a respray of the affected panel at least. What you have sounds like micro-blistering, which is, in effect, contaminants under one of the layers of paint, possibly from either a badly prepared panel or fine water droplets in the air line when the panel was sprayed. This can also occur when a car is covered with a tarp or car cover, as condensation can form between the layers of paint and the panel, but again only if the panel was badly prepared and/or painted in the first place.
I'm afraid the panel will have to rubbed down and repainted properly to avoid continued micro blistering in the future.

[Deleted]

It will be irrelevant of the type of paint that is on the vehicle - Pics would help form an opinion but I appreciate things like this are difficult to photograph in the first place - do they look anything like this in the pics below

[ejenner]

not really irrelevant. Cellulose can be melted with the right compound polish and almost any imperfection can be polished out if tackled carefully. It can refill scratches with paint from the surrounding area for instance. Can't really do the same thing with much tougher modern 2-pack paints and I only mentioned it because it's a 60s car and cellulose isn't unlikely. It's also better than repainting the panel if it can be avoided.

[Deleted]

Jan 4, 2020 9:09:18 GMT ejenner said:

not really irrelevant. Cellulose can be melted with the right compound polish and almost any imperfection can be polished out if tackled carefully. It can refill scratches with paint from the surrounding area for instance. Can't really do the same thing with much tougher modern 2-pack paints and I only mentioned it because it's a 60s car and cellulose isn't unlikely. It's also better than repainting the panel if it can be avoided.

Its completely irrelevant to the paint type has if this is micro blistering the fault lies under final finish of the paint - i.e. between the primer and the final finish, between the panel and the primer or quite possibly between all paint surfaces if undertaken within the same environment conditions or with the same standards of preparation - NO amount of flatting or polishing will remove micro blistering - it will however remove the paint finish from them only to expose the blistering further

[tee]

Thanks guys yes it’s almost exactly like that grumpynortherner and spreading around most of the car now, think it has been resprayed at some point but shines up real nice and no rust.
Shame I’ll have to re-spray :/

[Deleted]

Jan 9, 2020 19:18:25 GMT tee said:

Thanks guys yes it’s almost exactly like that grumpynortherner and spreading around most of the car now, think it has been resprayed at some point but shines up real nice and no rust.
Shame I’ll have to re-spray :/

Unfortunately there is only way to sort it and that is has you say repaint the car but you need to take care that all the existing paint that is effected by the micro blistering is flatted back off prior to the new paint being applied - otherwise your blistering will simply reappear under the fresh paint