Bloody Paint!

[Furyblade_Lee]

My poor Scim has succombed to a dodgy paint job. When I got it, the paint was pretty decent apart from some micro blistering in various areas, but nothing too major. Well after the snow the whole car is a bloody mess with litterally hundreds of tiny bubbles all over. Now, I am sure the cars was painted over 5 years ago, but has been stored inside and this is probobly the first time it has spent a winter outside. To say I am gutted is an understatement. If you "pop" a paint bubble liquid runs out, I am quite sure the gel coat is fine just the paint bubbling. No real idea what the hell is the cause, but I am thinking maybe the paint was porus (not sealed?)and the cold has caused moisture to freeze and expand??? I feel a respray looming...

[plasticpig]

It's called fibreglass osmosis and has nothing to do with the quality of the paint job. It's a well known phenomenon in the marine industry.

Edited by plasticpig on Wednesday 17th February 09:49

[Furyblade_Lee]

Is that really really bad?? Have owned many gel coated, fibreglass, Kevlar kit cars, never had a problem like this before. Is that because it's 60's techniques in a Scim?

[plasticpig]

Not particularly. Fibreglass is porous so water can travel through it via capillary action. So if you get damp on the inside of the panels it can travel through and show up as water blisters under the paint. My GTC suffered in a couple of places from it last year. It had a respray 9 years ago. Before being resprayed it spent 10 days under heat lamps to dry it out.



I have seen other fibreglass cars with micro blisters so it's not just a Scimitar problem. The thing to ensure is that the fibreglass is completely dry before respraying. Otherwise the problem may reoccur very quickly. Like your Scimitar mine is kept outside all year round.

[Furyblade_Lee]

Oh dear... Thanks for the detailed reply!

Edited by Furyblade_Lee on Wednesday 17th February 10:32

[Furyblade_Lee]

Ok, so am I right in thinking that if I strip back all of my paint to the gel coat, let it really dry out under some heat lamps before primering and spraying then that should at least give me several years of good paintwork? Or do I need to go deeper into the gel? Am in a mind to just sell it on to someone as a project, but it is a great car mechanically now and has a mint interior. Looks amazing from 3 feet away!!!

[plasticpig]

Not sure to be honest. I think it can damage the gel coat. There are some fibreglass experts on PH so you would probably be better off asking in the Bodywork & Detailing section and opening it to a wider audience.