stock76

I bought a 1971 coupe from my old high school buddy a year ago. He inherited some money from a distant relative and spent over $50,000 on the engine, drivetrain, suspension and interior but ran out of money at the end. The car currently has a $3,000 paint job. that was done about ten years ago.

From ten feet away the car looks great and I get a lot of nice complements on it. The body is straight and really doesn't need much of any body work at all.

The things that bug me are (1) you can see the fine scratches from use of a palm sander through the base and clear coat. Most noticeable on the rear deck but its all over. Two of the holes where the luggage rack was are visible and were patched with woven mat. (2) there are tiny solvent pops over at least 50% of the body most are on the back half of the car. They are tiny, but you can see them when you get up close.

What I'm wondering is should I block sand the car, re-spray base and clear or, block sand, spray a 2k urethane primer (what type, sandable?), then the base and clear?

The existing paint is sound. Nothing bubbling or flaking, chipping or de-laminating off so I'd prefer not to strip it all the way down. I had to do that with my 76 because it was the original lacquer paint and was crazed, flaking and chipping off.

I'd appreciate any advice and thoughts on the best way to proceed.

Dave Tracy

On a '71 vehicle with paint and body problems, I think I would strip the car and do it right. Where you can see the holes, the paint will have to be removed to facilitate the repairs. You don't know how many repaints there have been. You will then have a great looking car up close.

DUB

I am suspect to what you are calling 'solvent pops'. I might actually be a bit more concerned that these are NOT solvent pops and actually issues with the body UNDER the paint due to I see you are in Florida adn IF this car has been covered with a car cover or anything. Damage to the body structure in regards to trapped moisture that has already occurred and just sanding it down and painting it.....or sanding it down and priming it is NOT going to take acre of these bubbles....regardless on how small they are.

Just because you can and the surface down flat and make these small bubbles go away does not change the fact that what is causing them is still under what you just leveled out in your sanding process...because you have not made it to the point of where you can see the actual bubble exposed. All of the solvents pops I have ever encountered occur rather quickly after the car has been painted generally with 24 hours after it was painted...if not less....and do not show up a long time after it has been painted. As long as it was allowed to cure correctly under normal temperatures.

Now the woven cloth used to fill over luggage rack holes. I can not say with 100% certainty that just sanding over them and painting over them will make them NEVER show up again.

Grinding into the paint adn body to fix them NOW opens up another problem once you do that due to the exposed layers of whatever has been used on the car previously can come back on you and you now have 'rings' of where you feathered out these layers. So stripping the rear clip would be needed to stop this from ever happening.

I would have to get to the bottom of one of these bubbles and see where it is actually starting to develop.

As for the rest of the paint job. sanding it and painting it with your basecoat color is fine and no sealer is needed nor priming. if the panel is good due to that is what is done every day when blending onto painted panels of new cars. Not every panel is covered in a sealer because that would cause for much more work when a blending issue is needed. So a sealer is not always required....BUT proper prep is ALWAYS required.

DUB

stock76

Thanks for the comments.

This is not a Florida car. It has lived its life in upstate New York in the Woodstock area. Because of the seasons up there the car was driven during the mild months and stored in a heated garage during the winters. It was shipped down here about a year ago. It was painted up in New York around 10 years ago,

The solvent pops (or thats what I guessed them to be) look like miniature fisheyes and appear to be in the clear coat only. Other than these little "dots" the paint is sound and looks good from a distance.

I don't think they would show up in a photo unless I had a lens that would capture something up close

I guessed I would have to strip the luggage rack patches down and try to smooth them out better.
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The car's trim tag says it was originally Mulsanne Blue and the re-paint was also done in Mulsanne Blue so I'm hoping there weren't any other paint jobs in between. I cant't find any chips or spots anywhere that show a different color so hopefully there has only been one original color re-paint done.

I know its hard, and sometimes near impossible, to give advice without actually seeing the problem but I appreciate your thoughts and sharing your experience.

Maybe I'll have some better information when I start sanding. I've been waiting for this weather down here to clear up and go int the cooler, drier season. The humidity is really high along the Gulf Coast here at the moment.

There are pictures of the car in my photo gallery here but they don't show the paint defects up close.

DUB

'Fish eyes' are actual dimples like in a golf ball. If the fish eyes are bad enough they can actually create what looks like a crater that could hold B-B..

While 'solvent pop' are actual raised dots or bubbles in the clear you can actually see suspended in the film of clear and feel.

DUB

stock76

OK. So a solvent pop doesn't look like a miniature fish eye with an open center? Or would the center of a solvent pop be opened up from wet sanding and buffing?

The only fish eyes I have experienced were more on the order of ones big enough to hold that BB, not these small pin holes on this car. I'm going to take a loupe out and look at them under some magnification. It doesn't look like anything in the base coat, just a clear coat problem.

Thanks Dub. I don't know how you can work on these cars all day and still have the energy to help us. Whats your secret, drinking two cases of Red Bull a day?

stock76

I looked at the dots with a 10X photographers loop. Under magnification they look like tiny pinhead white dots. I took a straight pin and carefully scraped the "white dot." The white is powdery and I believe it to be car wax that filled the voids. After it is removed just a pin hole is left. It looks like solvent may have bubbled to the surface and some bubbles were not opened up till the wet sand/buff. I could see what looked like some bubbles still trapped in the clear that didn't make it to the top.

With this issue do you think I should plan on taking the clear all the way off? If I do that, you can see fine sanding scratches from a DA or palm sander all over the car through the basecoat. Should I spray a 2k primer and block sand before respraying base and clear just to be safe? I'm retired, time is not the issue nor is a gallon of primer.

Thanks for your input

DUB

Actually I leave enough gas in my tank to help out on the forum every day if possible. So I do not drink Red Bull or anything to keep me going. Au natural.

YES...from your investigating these dots,. I have to AGREE that is was solvent pops that when sanded on...opened up the air bubble and now car polish or wax has filled them in. Or at least that has been my experiences with them in the past.

The POTENTIAL problem with attempting to sand the surface that has these solvent pops in them is actually how thick is the clear. Knowing that these solvents pops are more than likely on horizontal surfaces and not on the sides of the car as much. You could CAREFULLY sand the clear to try to get them out or at least clean out what has filled them in.

I have used Pine-Sol to get the wax out of areas like this with much success if my fear of sanding through the clearcoat is a concern.

I am the type that prefers NOT to sand through the clearcoat layer down to the basecoat IFAT ALL POSSIBLE due to the potential problems that can occur in the future of 'ring-out' happening due to breaking through the layer of clear. Now this 'ring-out' can be handles in different ways but depending on the job. So my fear of breaking through the clear is warranted due to the process I have chosen lends for more work if I do break through the clear. This another product needs to be sprayed on the car which can still offer a potential problem in the future. On some jobs it does not matter....on some jobs it does matter if I break through.

I would test a small area and sand it and see if you can sand them out. There is no need to remove all of the clear if you can get these dots out. I, myself would wet sand that area with 500 grit wet so IF I was lucky and can and them out an not expose the basecoat color I have the surface already prepped so I can apply whatever I need to spray on it.

If you get them ALMOST all the way out and using your 10X magnifying lens and see that they are really relay small You could shoot a little bit of your basecoat on a small test area and then look to see if the basecoat has filled these super small areas in. Sometimes when I do this I may over thin my basecoat to make it a bit more like water so the basecoat can flow into these small areas. But that is because the basecoat I use is generally not as thin as water when I reduce it. And IF you over thin or reduce your basecoat you should have no worries if you allow it to flash off well due to having much more reducer/thinner in it. And once you get these areas filled in...you can then reduce your basecoat normally of you feel that over reducing/thinning out the basecoat is causing the paint to change how it looks.

I know the color of your car but I did not look up the paint formula to see if it is a metallic or solid blue....that is why I said what I did due to over thinning a metallic color can make the metallic lay out differently and can make the color actually go lighter.

DUB

stock76

Dub, I'm going to follow your advice and do a test area. I have a feeling based on what I saw under magnification that your advice is going to work out to where I won't have to strip the clear down to the basecoat.

The GM Mulsanne Blue is a metallic.

I'll "borrow" my wife's bottle of Pine So too. Thanks for that tip.

Again, I appreciate your sharing your knowledge.

Garyl

DUB

Hopefully my suggestions will help you in this because I am aware that this is a serious task you are taking on. Precision sanding at its best is what is needed here. Just try not to break though the clear if you can.

I do have another 'trick' and it works but it is also time consuming but can make it so you do not break through the clear. Get back to this thread IF you see you cannot take out these solvent pops. Because even though the 'trick' I can advise you to use will take some serious time...in my opinion it is worth it...in the long run for the paint job. Because as like I have mentioned I prefer NOT breaking through the clearcoat. Also it also depends if you can get the viscosity of what you are shooting to filling any minor bad areas or not. This 'trick' I use is only when I know I have to re-apply clear and no color. So it may not mater at all.

DUB

stock76

Thanks. Will do. I plan on hand sanding only and going slow.