My car was painted some years ago and had been in storage for about 12 years after it was painted.
I noticed the paint started pimpling all over in the last 2 yeats....can anyone tell me the reason for this and what if anything I can do (wetsanding,etc) to get rid of the pimples or will it require repainting.

Thanks

 

It could be rust coming through the paint. Post some good pictures.

 

Yeah, I was thinking the same. I would hope not, because that is a PITA and requires a repaint after it is repaired. What areas is the damage?

 

Yeah, Its rust no doubt... I just finished repairing mines, big PITA!

 

rust or water, if the bondo got wet it can hold moisture and release it later.
If its rust, they won't pop, poke one and see. If its hollow it was water, or might still be full of water. Use a pin.

 

There's really nothing to pop....it's like the car has goosebumps or something.
I took a pic....have a look and let me know what you think.

Definately not rust....car is excellant shape....just appraised at $13K.

 

looks like orange peel, but i've never heard of it appearing years AFTER paint

bumpin it, hopefully someone else will be able to help out

 

I was expecting something different, Thats not paint pimples, looks more like razor bumps... I was gonna say orange peel aswell after see'n the pic, How about WetSanding and Buffing it?

 

Couple more pics.....

I'm going to try wetsanding and see what happens.

 

try some clearasal lol j/k

my Pontiac 6000 had those too. turned out that the paint job wasnt done properly >

 

Either that or it's an X-File lol...

 

hmm, I'm guessing thats lacquer paint and its blistering up now, its just a form of how lacquer paints shrink over time, it will need to be repainted. in the pics you can see orange peel but if you look closely you'll see little bumps that look like stubble, Im guessing thats what hes talking about.

 

Looks to be an extreme case of solvent pop. That is when the solvents from a primer, sealer, base coat, etc.. tries to evaporate after after the top layer has cured. If it is base clear you can try to wet sand it but in your case I doubt it will work. Your gonna end up sanding through the clear most likely to remove those bumps. Its is a single stage, no clear coat, then you might get away with sanding and buffing. That is if there is enough color to not sand through. Id start with something heavy, prolly 1000-1500 grit and then finish up with 2000 grit. After you do this your going to have to buff it. Not by hand, youll be there all day and it wont turn out well. An orbital wont work for this you need a rotory variable speed buffer. This is the scarry part and if youve never done it before you might want to let a profesional do this. You have to be very care full not to burn through. Dont leave it in one spot for very long, always buff off panel edges not into them. Its easy to do once you get the hang of it. If you need some help or more info on how to do any of this PM me. Just to put you at ease, that is deffinatly not rust
Matt

 

that's what I was thinking too, looks like someone went cheap and put a single stange on it.. there is a decent amount of orange peel there too from said cheap paint job, but what he is refering to is the bumps located in front of the mirror in the top left of the picture... kinda hard to due to the picture quality. Truthfully I can only see it in the second picture myself, which is what I was refering too, I just see orange peel in the first.. it looks like the same $200 paintjob I had on an old honda done at the local chop shop... they kept it an extra week (the homeless employees used it as a hotel) when I picked it up I had to wake the two employee's who were sleeping in it, and kindly as them to take their 40's with them.. got a hell of a price on the paint job though..

 

u ever plan on selling your car??

 

this paint job was 10+ years old when this started happening, I would think thats way too long for solvent pop to just have started... everything is more then cured by now, unless of course its lacquer based.

I really have no doubt its due to lacquer based paint, my teachers corvette stingray has this same issue, it looks like it has water droplets on it when your standing 10 feet away, but once you get closer you see the paint has little pimples in it.

 

Nope...love the car too much to sell.
Looks like a new paint job next spring....and not a cheap MAACO like single stage.
Thanks for all the replies.

 

That cheap paint you talk about was standard for GM in the 80s, there is nothing a fancy 2 stage paint can do that a single can't if you treat them the same. But folks don't, you can color sand and clear a single stage paint, they been doing it sonce the dawn of hotrods. If you were born after your car was made, your a putz who knows nothing.

THe best rod jobs were your so called cheap single stage black laqcure so deep you could walk into it.

 

yeah ok...

and I'm not disagreeing at all that lacquer finishes may look nice, but honestly they're out dated, the products of today are so much safer to spray, they will hold up much better then lacquer finishes and they'll look just as nice when layed down correctly.