Paint Bubbles, ?

[snowgear]

I bought my Elan this spring. No paint bubbles at all. I live in Western washington (wet climate). I have the car stored in my garage -basement. After 1 week of hard rain and 100% humidity, I noticed small paint bubbles and blisters all over the body in the paint. Mostly on the bottom areas, rockers, etc. I assumed it was because of my wet, damp basement. My buddy who has a Nash with original paint that was very thin had the same thing happen (his car is stored inside in Dry Eastern ,Wa) . He was told from a guy in the Nash Car Club that with old, thin or cheap paint, the pores in the paint will let in moisture in in high humidity or hard rain.. His car had hundreds of small blisters and bubbles.
The preventive cure seems to be old style Carnuba wax as it seals the pores.
To late for me, I waxed the entire car today and am moving it East to a dry heated garage.. Any fix to this problem?? Or better luck next time. ?? The car is a driver, so I am not too bummed...But I wish I had waxed it sooner.. Oh Well.
Tim M.

[Bob Horzmann]

Your bubbles may not be from what you think. I have a TVR that was repainted years ago. I have blisters and bubbles that have been forming under the paint and erupting for several years. The car has been stored inside in a heated shop with low humidity. When the car was painted, it was wet sanded to prepare it for the new paint. Water from the wet sanding, enters the fiberglass and remains there until a climatic change takes place. On my car you can scratch the blisters and the water is under the blister. It is possible that you are having the same thing happen. Lotus and TVRs probably require a month in a heated area, just sitting naked before the primer is applied. Body shops and manufactors can not afford to wait for the car to dry out before painting.
Hope this might offer an explaination for what is a relatively common problem. Bob Horzmann

[rickf]

When they did mine, they coated it with a gel or sealer of some sort the last thing before painting to prevent that from happening. The shop's done a lot of work on Corvettes and he said they had to do it on fiberglass. They painted it during our usual rainy, damp winter and it's been about 6 months. So far, so good. I'm keeping my fingers and everything else crossed.

[LaikaTheDog]

I had my lotus for a year with no problems, then I put a 'water resistant' cover over it the first winter and subsequently developed hundreds of little blisters a couple of mm in diameter, when you looked at the car it looked like acne, but only where the wet cover had been sitting in contact with the body, so pretty much everywhere, it only took 3 weeks to completetly ruin the entire body.