joec

got them on my 1 year old paint job.. I'll get it fixed someday, but I'm gonna drive the snot out of it for a while and enjoy it..

Stewart Allison

Joe are the bubbles around the hood or front guard area ? Stewy

66 big block

I have a Corvette Image front end built in 1999 I had the nose redone again last winter it was sanded gel caoated primed painted cleared painted match was great . About July started to see fine bubbles again body shop wet sanded with 2000 grit and buffed it came out end of september came back on tops of fenders again this time we sanded with 1500 grit around december and I wipe down with acetone and rinse with water once a week .In spring he will buff and I hope this is the fix

gr8corvette

Doesn't anyone see the silver lining here? If your paint is not perfect, then you can drive your Corvette without fear of some twerp accidently scratching it.

Stewart Allison

It always seems to be around the engine area. There must be something that's in an engine that loves to be absorbed into the glass and leaches out when the heat gets to it ? Coolant, brake fluid, engine oil, grease ? I'm just wondering if it's coolant. when filling coolant I always spill it everywhere. It hit's the fan and sprays all over the guards and front of car ? I very rarely spill brake fluid. Coolant never evaporates !!I'm betting that's where the problem is lying. If I spill coolant on the floor in the W/ shop it will sit there for months until I clean it up. Stewy

Kensmith

No, it doesn't have to be around the engine area. If someone sprays WD40 in their door lock, uses some kind of vinyl or rubber protection products on seals or weatherstripping, sprays some water repellent on their convertible top, and so on it can seep down cracks and into the glass and eventually work it's way up into the paint. There are all kinds of ways fiberglass can get contaminated and show up later. It doesn't take much. Best thing you can do is keep that stuff away from the glass as best you can. And it's usually something you never knew happened nor did the guy doing the work on the car. But letting the car sit in the HOT sun for days after stripping it will help along with sealing the glass later. Still no guarantees though.

joec

Nope just in front of the drivers door on the front fender of my 65 coupe.. Out of all the pictures I took while the car was in the shop I actually found 1 where I saw a rag on the fender.. That was probably the culprit.. Otherwise the paint is very nice.. Bummer for sure..

/joe

lynns59

I've read a lot on this site about people using Epoxy primer now instead of Gel Coat. If someone was having this problem would the Epoxy do the same as the Gel Coat?

Formula Outlaw

When I bought my car in Nov. 05, the paint was in really good shape. Now I've got pin-head sized bubbles on my hood which appeared after entering my car in some summertime Florida car shows.

I also noticed a stress crack on top of the driving compartment just in front of the rear glass that appeared between my garage and driving to the VettesOntheCircle at St. Armands Circle on Lido Key (Sarasota).

Then I moved to TN. This year my car has sat in my garage (unheated... ) and over my left front wheel well I've noticed some small pinholes have developed along with a star shaped crack a little smaller than a dime. They were not there when I brought the car back from ClassicRipOffsSoutheast this past July.

At somepoint I'll repaint it, but for now I'm just waiting to get my new engine in and drive it and enjoy for awhile.

But you can bet your azz it will never sit in an unheated area again..

magicv8

Mine sits below freezing in a garage all winter. I have driven it in rain, ice, hail, and snow - coast to coast and border to border. My paint has no bubbles or blisters.

I use dot5 brake fluid to prevent paint damage, and after reading an article on fender "stars" caused by rocks the tires spit at the tops of the fenders at high speed, I troweled on roof tar under the fenders many years ago. The tar suppresses wheel noise and makes it harder for stones to impact the fenders hard enough to "star" crack. It does not bleed through the fiberglass.

I have had my car painted twice in 22 years. I pay extra for gelcoat.

Formula Outlaw

Just can't figure out how a "star" crack formed sitting still in a garage. I figured it must've been the cold, maybe I'm wrong...

66vettedude

I'm just going to throw this out here,,,fiberglass is very porous,,if you spray primer or epoxy primer on too heavy and or double coat it too fast,, it will bridge over the pin holes ect. Then guess what will happen when it finally dries a few months down the road? It shrinks! I would recommend to really look the bare surface over really well with a light and even guide coat before anything gets sprayed. Bondo and finishing glaze will pin hole too. We will guide coat the bondo or glazing putty too just to make sure! Remember that the epoxy has a longer curing time than the primer sufacers. I also recommend letting the epoxy cure out fully before the primer surfacer is applied. I would also fill the pin holes with a catalized glazing putty (not primer, it will shrink!)before you spray anything down. I would even let the bondo cure out a few days before priming it. Make sure to give the surfacer the recommended flash time between coats.

Stewart Allison

Sorry I live in in a different planet. What's Bondo and Glazing Putty ! Is glazing putty that yellowish high fill they used to use in the olden
days ? Stewy

KENS78SILVERANNIV

I have the same problem in the same area. Got tired of repainting the whole car.

Now I hire a dent repair guy to come over every other year and do a touch-up paint repair on the spot. Matches the paint perfectly. $200.00 and I'm good for another two years.

Stewart Allison

Are the spots in the same area each time ? Stewy

66vettedude

Bondo is plastc filler,Glaze is a catalized filler that fills good and sands real easy, you can finish sanding it with 180 grit, it replaced the old air dry laquer filler that we used to spread over the body work sand scratches years ago, and would shrink bad as soon as the sun dried out the paint.

62Jeff

If your car has A/C, and if the bubbles are located approximately over the A/C compressor, the bubbles are likely A/C oil that sprayed onto the underside of the hood at some point in the past, and leached through the fiberglass.

Cpe04

This has always been a problem. I remember that the paint on the trunklid of my father's factory new 1954 Corvette bubbled when it was about two years old and had to be redone.

Stewart Allison

What;s the idea of the Plastic filler ? The Glaze you mentioned is what we call feather fill. 2 pak Real easy to sand and we normally use it as a very, very fine fill. Stewy

Digartz

So if things like wd-40 and other lubes & protectants can leach into the paint, how do we keep the rubbers, plastics and vinyls fresh and free from dry rot cracking? Gotten all kinds of tips to use exactly those products. All my weatherstripping and plastics are original and in perfect shape, and one of the things that makes my mine valued where it is right now. Makes it a really tough choice - paint or plastics? Trying to keep the "unrestored" value for as long as possible on her. As they keep saying - they're only original once!