kenmo

My '60 Vette was painted about 14 or 15 years ago.... About 5 years ago some small blisters started to appear mostly under the front headlights... But there are a few blisters on the driver's door (near door handle)...

Any ideas what could cause these blisters? How can I patch up these blisters? A few car friends I asked believe I may have to re-paint the whole car... A few others voiced red is a hard color to match even if I do have the paint code number (which I do)....

Cheers

Ken

1snake

I had the exact blisters form on my 1960 about 30 years ago. They were caused by having a waterproof cover on the car and it got moisture trapped underneath it. There were hundreds of blisters and they were only on horizontal surfaces. I had to strip it down to bare glass.

Jim

kenmo

Yikes... I do keep a dust cover on the car but it's breathable and not water proof....

Did you paint the complete car or just touch up the spots?

Thanks kindly for the reply....

1snake

I had to paint the whole car. That's who the body off restoration started. I got carried away with the "while I'm at it" syndrome.

I don't think a dust cover would cause what happened to mine. My car was parked under a carport and had one of those silver, waterproof covers that trapped moisture and I think the blisters formed when the sun hit it with the cover still on. I've seen the same thing happen on cars that have bras on the front of them.

Jim

tjstarduster

same thing happened to a '65 coupe i owned several years ago, although the bubbles were smaller they were numerous. they were concentrated around the hood opening. an experienced paint and body man said oil or solvent had probobly soaked into the fiberglass over the years and it is very difficult to clean it completely off. about 7 years after i painted my car they began to appear and looked like small "pimples". good luck, tjs

Kensmith

Well, they won't go away but I would think after 15 years if you had more hiding they would have surfaced now. A good painter can fix it without a complete re-paint but with the age of the paint, it won't be perfect. I would wait until I am ready for a re-paint, strip it down and pay particular attention to the areas that had bubbles to make sure you solve where they came from so it doesn't happen again.

kenmo

By that time oil paints will be banned and I'll be getting the car water painted.... LOL

Kensmith

Nothing wrong with water-born paints! Good for the environment and your car!

joec

Friend of mine just had his 62 done with water based paints.. Looks awesome........

toddalin

Had them on my '64 except fewer and bigger. They just keep getting bigger then eventually break open exposing the primer/glass. A new $14K paint job (with media blasting) solved it, at least for now.

I had always heard that it was either from use of a chemical stripper (degassing/leaching), improper preparation, or a reaction between the paint and primer.

I think it's like cancer. You need to get rid of it all or it will just continue to plague you. Spot fixing is not the answer.

365GTB4

Toddalin, your blister problem sounds like a classic osmotic blister formation. We would expect failure at the fiberglass primer interface. Question, was there any salt, powder or liquid in the blister?

MiguelsC2

Most if not all new cars use a water based color coat. Here in Houston, all body shops will be required to use it sometime next year.

kenmo

But why didn't these blisters appear earlier? It was about 15 years ago I got the Vette painted... I was hoping it would be the last paint job for a long while... After all it does spend most of it's time in a garage...

toddalin

No, not that I could tell, just a separation of the paint layer.

toddalin

I've had my '64 for ~26 years and had no blisters for the first ~10+ years. Then they started and gradually got worse.

Prior owners had painted the car a few times before I got it, but the paint was very nice when I got it, so must have been a recent repaint at the time.

Ron Miller

You'd think they'd show up before now, but not necessarily. I've noticed within the past couple of years that I've got similar blisters on the driver's side top fender, limited to the upper fender back of the front wheelwell opening. My paint job is a good 20 years old, Dupont base coat/clear coat, and still looks terrific (well, except for a few blisters ).

I've wondered if they may have been caused by contamination by brake fluid since it's in that area, but no way of knowing, I'd suspect. I haven't broken one open since they're small, about 1/8" diameter, but fairly numerous. They actually look like small water droplets unless you look closely.

My other car was painted at the same time, same top coat, but with a different primer (I sprayed the primer on the second car), but don't remember any specifics about the primer on either vehicle. I might have the info in my folders, haven't checked yet.

They are difficult to spot paint, but not impossible with a good painter. I've opted to live with mine, at least unless it gets much worse. My cars have never had more than a fabric car cover over it either, and have been garaged since painting.

Go Figure!!

kenmo

I wonder if water based paint will have this blistering problem?

365GTB4

Water based paints also blister. The problem is the pressure from some gas or liquid builds up between the layer/interface. The top layer is impenetrable to the gas or liquid but the sub surface layer is. As the paint ages/weathers if begins to lose structural properties, like adhesion, cohesion, flexibility, tensile strength. The cause of the loss of physical properties is UV breakdown and oxidation of the polymers. This explains why paint fails years latter. Pigments can and do have a big impact on the durability of the paint. Some pigments act as catalysts generating free radicals that in turn break down the polymers and cause interesting chemical reactions. Water is a big culprit here because the free radicals are soluble in the water. These reactions can cause gas formation and salt by products.

kenmo

So every 15-20 years we gotta re-paint our Vettes?

A friend of mine has a 1963 1/2 Ford Galaxy 500 with original paint...

No need for a touch up yet...

365GTB4

Nice Ford Galaxie. They were painted with enamels which didn't have much gloss and lots of orange peel, but were very durable. Think the paint on a refrigerator and you get the idea. Fiberglas being a porous material (steel is not porous) will be more susceptible to water, solvents, migrating materials, UV and oxygen. This means the film can be attacked from both sides and adhesion will suffer when compared to steel. My preference for fiberglass is either a two part epoxy primer or a vinyl ester gel coat or both. The gel coat and epoxy create a great barrier from the back side while having the best adhesion to fiberglass/polyester systems. To complete the system the color top coat must be a UV barrier to protect the epoxy and vinyl ester form degradation.