This photo below is from my Cobra project I painted. I noticed yesterday a small (about 3 x 6 inch) area that looks like it is speckled or has very fine pits. Can anyone venture a guess what is going on?

http://s125.photobucket.com/albums/p...t=IMG_1648.jpg

The car is painted with PPG single stage

It was painted last December, color sanded in Jan/Feb and initially buffed in Mar/Apr. I put off final buffing and polishing until after I get the car assembeld. It's isolated to a small area on top of the front fender near the windshield.

I haven't worked on the car much in the last couple of months due to the heat and some other projects. The pitting wasn't there a few months ago. For that reason I'm pretty sure it's not something like solvent popping. Probably some sort of shrink-back or something.

I looked back at my bodywork pictues and there was a thin glaze of Rage Gold in part of this area but not all of it. I used SlickSand over that and a PPG sealer.

I have 6 coats of single stage so I'm not worried about being able to lightly sand and compound it out again - just wonder if it's only starting to do something and may continue. Since it's at the juncture of the cowl and the fender, my paint pattern overlapped that area so the paint is probably thicker than normal for even six coats. Maybe that has something to do with it.

The car has been uncovered the last couple months but I don't believe anything has gotten on it. I have undercoated the wheel wells with Dupont bedliner material but I doubt it wcould bleed through.

Thanks

Dan

 

Look at the imperfections with as much magnification as you have available to you. Do they look like dents, where the pit edges are smooth, or at least not torn/shattered? If so that is damage from the surface. If the pits look like little bomb craters where the edges are all jagged or have a raised lip like a lava cone you are probably looking at solvent pop.

 

I'll see if I can find a magnifying glass. They have only appeared sometime in the last month or so. I put 4 coats on this car and then found a couple thin areas at the front fender lips. That caused me to sand the whole car, feather in a couple coats on the fender lips and then apply 2 additional coats over the whole car. Possibly I had some solvent pop in the first 4 coats I didn't notice and the upper coats have just shrank back or something.

 

Heck - I need to learn to investigate a little more before I post. I looked at it under a magnifying glass and it didn't look to be pits. I wiped the car down the other day with detailer spray and when I noticed this area afterwards assumed the detailer spray wouldn't touch it. I just tried a dab of compound and it was just on the surface. Now I suspect it was detailer spray I failed to completely dry off. Dumb, dumb, dumb - and I'm not even blond. What a waste of foum space.

 

The pic almost looked like compound splatter. Good new that you got it off!

What products are you planning on using for your final buffing?

Nothing better then single stage black polished out perfectly!!!