here is my problem. there are tiny bubbles coming out under the paint. if you ever had water in your air lines before this is exactly what it looks like. I can't get it to show up in a picture. now the history.
I stripped it down with a razor blade then sanded the rest to this point.


then I wiped it down with Prep Sol and primed it with some 2K high build primer. I only waited about 20 mins from wipe down to primer application. (could be part of the problem ? ) the primer fisheyed really bad. I waited a few weeks and then block sanded it then added a few more coats of 2K high build. this time I wiped it down with some DX440
again terrible fisheye problem. I had a new air hose and a new filter. after blocking and finishing some minor spots with 2 part putty it was sealed and painted with a tri coat color, all materials were Martin Senour. all was good for a few months and now it is showing small bubbles under the clear. I had a paint rep look at it today and he said the only way to correct it was to media blast it and then gel coat it. needles to say I as not impressed. he said it was either moisture or some contaminate trying to get to the surface (no joke I new that) he thought moisture or whatever might have been absorbed by the fiberglass. the only problem with this theory is it also happened on the metal gass door. I need help on how to fix this and keep it from happening again. I know I will probably be stripping it all the way back down again. sorry for the long post just wanted to put all the facts

 

Go to:

http://www.hotrodders.com

Sign up and post the question on the "Body - Exterior" forum.

Lots of Pros hang out there and you will get a lot of response.

I guarantee you will get hooked on that forum.

 

im assuming you sprayed it yourself?


how CLEAN was your 'booth' ?

did you drain your tank before spraying?

also.. did you just wipe the solvent on and walk away or did you wipe on then wipe off?


if you didnt wipe the excess off, there's your problem, and the solvent was trapped between coats

 

Yep, that's my rule #1..... If you see a fish-eye or some kind of reaction, STOP! and find out what's going on. At my shop, we prime the vehicle, then use a black guide coat and let it sit in the hot sun for at least a week, maybe two. If there are going to be any bubbles or shrinkage, we usually catch them this way......

 

Moisture ? That's one thing I am worried about.... you're in LA, that's not too different from FL humidity.

What about the air that the compressor sucks into the tank ? I actually wanted to start a new thread with this question tonight.... I don't mean to hi-jack, this might be one of your problems...well, maybe it's a stupid question but anyways:

Should I let the air compressor suck "dry" air from inside the air conditioned house or is the humit garage air ok ???

 

you could.. seems like a waste of time to me

just drain the tank before spraying and have a couple of filters on the line and you should be fine

i have a filter right out of the compressor before it touches a line.. and one at the spray gun (small orange one) and I havent had any fish eye problems since

 

Thanks - I know nothing about painting but will attempt to paint next month or so..... (this could be a mistake) ....

I'll buy more than one filter, just to be on the safe side....

 

I believe Prep sol and dx440 are both strong wax and grease removers and are meant to be used to remove contaminents before sanding. They are not meant to be used after sanding. There are special solvents such as Dupont 3939S and 3901S that are to be used before applying paints and primers. The former products contain alot of oily solvent which may have pentrated the bare fiberglass and can lead to delamination of refinish products. That still doesn't explain the same problem on your gas door. If the bubbling there is consistant with the rest of the car I would say the contaminents were in your air lines.

 

I primed it at my shop, I drained the tank and have a water trap and a filter at the gun. I did wipe on and then wipe off the solvent.
it was painted at my friends body shop, he has one of the nicest booths around and a filtered air system,

 

The more common causes for fish-eyes are airborne contaminants like silicone or oil (like WD-40). Did you do any work on the Vette when it was bare (before primer) involving oil or spray lubricant?

 

possibly, but shouldn't the cleaning with solvent get rid of those? espescially the DX440?

 

the bubbling is consistent on body and the gas door. the car has not been in the sun since it was painted, but my shop is metal and gets very hot. we put the gas door on the dashboard of a black truck in the sun and within a few hours the bubbles were increasing in number

 

I bought my compressor with the house. The man I bight it from restored old cars for a hobby. The way he delt with it was to run a long piece of copper tubing from the compressor through a bucket of water and back to the tank. This cools the air and allows the water to separate out before reaching the tank. Pumping hot air into the tank leaves the water in a gaseous form inside the tank and will be drawn out the top into the air lines. The cooler the air is entering the tank, the dryer the air will be in the tank. This works very well here in this humid environment and I get very little water in my filters.

 

You don't detail cars anywhere close do you? Armor all will travel a long way. Silicone is a painter's worst enemy. Dx440 is a good cleaner for tough jobs. This does not leave any residue. Just make sure to wipe it dry. I would then blow on the car with an air hose just to make sure it's dry down in any pores.

 

to my knowledge no silicones were sprayed. the vette is the only thing in this shop. i sprayed the frame with rustoleum and many small parts including dying the dash and never had a fish eye problem in the same shop. when the paint rep said media blasting and gel coat, I sorta wondered exactly how much he new about painting fiberglass.

 

Just to be on the safe side I'll let the compressor suck cool, dry air from inside the house. A 30' section of pvc plumbing should do the trick

 

BTW Did you pick a color yet?

 

The same can be said for water traps -- the cooler the air going into the trap, the more affective it is. Warm air holds moisture better. I've seen similar setups where people have the air going through copper coils sitting in a bucket of ice water between the tank and the water trap for the sole purpose of preventing "fish eyes" in their paint.

 

Isn't rustoleum an oil based product? Any chance there was any of that on the car before you starting priming and painting?

 

maybe, they were in the same shop. is there anyway to tell what it is that caused this? because it is done already. I just need to make sure it won't happen again. I need to strip it down and do whatever I need to stop this. nothing else will be sprayed in my shop