fishingfooltim

My father just purchased a 1979 Corvette that my grandfather bought brand new in late 1978. It went from my grandfather to my uncle and now to my dad and someday hopefully to me. The car is 100% original with the only things that have been replaced on it are the tires and the battery. I know for a fact that when my uncle got it from my grandfather the paint was in great shape but now there is a spot with an issue in the paint on the hood. It looks to me like something was spilled on the hood that caused the paint to blister. My dad is thinking he might try to rub it out and I said that he should leave it alone and will probably have to have the hood repainted in order to fix it. My question is what is everybody's opinion? My second question is if he does have the hood repainted do you think that a reputable paint shop should be able to match the paint perfectly? The car has always been garage kept. I am fairly sure that it doesn't have a clear coat finish on it since I don't believe that they used a clear coat in 1979. I apologize if this has already been covered but I did look thru this paint section and I didn't see anything that matched my question. Thanks for any advice.

DUB

It 'kinda looks' like something got on it....but also be aware that bubbles like this can be due to moisture or a contaminant that has gotten on the backside of the panel and is now being drawn into the fibers of the body and causing the paint to blister.

IF this car has had plastic sheeting on it and it was outside and got wet...that can cause for blisters.

AS for getting the paint to match PERFECTLY.....that will take a painter who have a very good eye for color and tint the color and shoot test panels to make sure the color is correct. That alone in itself can be quite expensive to get it PERFECT

DUB

fishingfooltim

DUB thanks for the response. I and pretty sure that it is not moisture coming from the back side but as far a another contaminant I will have to look at the underside of the hood and see if there is anything that would point to that. I am assuming that if it is a contaminant coming from the backside that would mean that the hood would have to be replaced would you agree?

As for the perfectly matched I guess I didn't choose the right words. What I really would be looking for is for the average person not to be able to tell that the hood had been repainted. This car is not going to be a show car or judged. It is going to be a driver. For example my son got in an accident with our 2012 Impala which I took to the dealership to have repaired. The hood, front fascia and left fender were repainted. In the right light I can tell that the new paint is off just a little bit. Now this car does have a metallic paint and I do know that matching metallic paint can be difficult so I might be comparing apples to oranges since the Corvette doesn't have metallic paint.

I don't know a whole lot about painting a car but I have read many of your posts on the website DUB and have learned a little bit. I do know that the older paints are much different than the paints used by the factory today and I just don't know how a lot about the differences and such. So I am not sure how difficult it is to do a decent paint match with the older paints.

DUB

Due to the photo you posted of these blisters/bubbles. I cannot tell actually where on the hood this damage is at because...it does make a difference in how I can comment.

Regardless of that....new paint, aged paint...it does not matter. Getting a color to match can oftentimes require shooting test panels and tinting the color and the amount of time it takes to do that is unknown and the person doing the tinting should know how to alter the color to get it where it needs to be.

NOW...the actual location of these blisters DOES make a difference on IF the hood can be blended and that is all that need to be painted or IF the adjacent panel ALSO needs to be painted in order to 'trick the eye' and make it so you cannot tell it was painted.

DUB

fishingfooltim

Thanks again DUB. I don't have a picture that shows the whole hood where you can see the location. I can tell you that the spot on the hood is located directly above the AC compressor. I looked under the hood and it doesn't look like there is any contamination under the spot. I will have to do some asking around to find a good paint shop and see what say.

DUB

I will BET that oil from the A/C compressor is causing this due to IF the paint is removed....you will CLEARLY see a dark outline on where the oil has stained the SMC fiberglass in the exact same area of the blisters/bubbles.

IF it is contaminated...then a vast majority of this contaminated SMC will need to be ground out and fresh material laminated in its place. Simply priming over it will not stop jack squat. This is because I have over the years have repaired this same issue of oil form an A/C compressor before and many of those repairs have been on the road for well over a decade or two with no probelms of the blisters/bubbles reappearing.

DUB

fishingfooltim

You probably are correct DUB. I bet if I look at AC compressor there is oil on it. I guess means there is a very good chance the AC doesn't work which we haven't tried yet. I think for this year we will probably leave it since it sounds like it is more than just a repaint. Thanks for your help DUB.

TPIShark

Here's what it looked liked on a '71 I worked on.
Above is a '71 with the exact same problem. The dead giveaway was not only the oil, but the car having a replacement compressor. As DUB implies, this happens a lot.

fishingfooltim

TPIShark did you have to replace the hood to fix it?

Double-O

I have a similar problem but on bath sides of the hood and over a larger area. My car has no AC, and a super clean engine compartment. First photo shows a couple of blisters/bubbles that flaked off and another layer of paint shows below below indication the hood was repainted. I'm wondering if my situation was just bad prep (my guess) or environmental contamination, or application mistakes.

Left side of hood, mid-point. Popped blisters with older layer of paint below.

Right side of hood, mid-point

Right side of hood overview

TPIShark

Hi fishingfool, nope. So far, so good. I kept flushing it in the sun with the contact cleaner until it stopped showing up, then prepped it for gel coat, and went from there...