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Strange Bubbling On The Paintwork.

MalcH

MalcH

Active member
Any ideas folks?
My Alfa Spider not the Ferrari. I took the car cover off today as I need to replace the front brake discs and brake hose. Anyway after removing the cover I noticed a few odd marks on the paint. There are three 'rings' of bubbling under the paint. These are not in a perfect circle (the chain not the actual bubbles).
I have heard that car covers can cause this though I do not know how. Picture below is just one but all three are on the boot lid.
Any thoughts?

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Bubbling

the same happened to my 308(albeit it was a fibreglass one).I thought it was down to the use of the cotton car cover causing this micro blistering. After I left it off lo and behold-no more blisters appeared.
 
My thoughts too. Kind of annoying as I have no room for another garage. I will ask around elsewhere and try to ascertain if it is the cover.
I have a quality cover too, it was nearly a quarter of the car's worth :laugh: (Car is cheap though!).
 
What kind of cover are we talking about here Malc? Fully breathable or not really? Just asking because prior to the advent of the mightly carcoon/airchamber etc I've seen cars that have been stored under a loose, breathable cover for 10 years and more and still looked perfect. A fully breathable cover shouldn't do that as it has to be something to do with moisture not escaping or air not getting to the paint in some way. Obviously some new paint off-gasses for a while, maybe 3 months or more, so putting a non breathable cover on a newly painted car could cause issues I guess, but guessing that's not the case with the Alfa's boot?
 
It's the damp conditions mate coupled with the cover.If you leave the cover off and the weather gets warmer and dries everything out they will probably subside but would return under damp conditions again.
 
The car has no doubt been painted sometime at least in parts. Red on on Alfas of that age turn pink :laugh: and mine is not pink.
I do think that there has been, not bad but not good paint techniques used on the car. Maybe not dried properly or even wet flatted and not oven baked (see below).
The cover is not a cheap one, not by any length. Specialised tailored cover cost me a good few quid brand new. I had to wait three months whilst they made it!

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professional from Mopar forum said:
Very common with cars that have had the primer wet flatted Gary, which is why we always recommend and train new painters with a 100% dry flatting process.

The only wet flatting done now is for that traditional super flat top coat "flat and polish" finish and as it's only the top coat the moisture can't get in.

Cars that have had the primer wet flatted should alway we properly dried out in the booth...

Covering the car will accelerate the problem as well. As soon as you get the cover off, let the air circulate and get the car in the warm, you might find that all the microblisters will disappear...fingers crossed
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stevew said:
It's the damp conditions mate coupled with the cover.If you leave the cover off and the weather gets warmer and dries everything out they will probably subside but would return under damp conditions again.
Click to expand...

Snap, from a pro. Cheers Steve :thumbsup:
 
I had this on a car about 6 years ago.The bubbles just appeared overnight?
Really odd,as like yours,it was on several different areas of the car.
I had never used a cover on it,and neither had the previous owner.
I had it resprayed,and have used a cover on it ever sinse with no problems.
 
phillg said:
I had this on a car about 6 years ago.The bubbles just appeared overnight?
Really odd,as like yours,it was on several different areas of the car.
I had never used a cover on it,and neither had the previous owner.
I had it resprayed,and have used a cover on it ever sinse with no problems.
Click to expand...
As Steve said I think the cover encourages it. I am guessing cold snow and ice sat on the cover has not helped mine. Maybe if we had snow long enough without the cover it could have been worse?

When I removed the cover there was some condensation under there but the snow had been sat on it for 36 hours about 24 hours previous.
 
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N/S/F and N/S/R wings have blistered on my Alfa, I just put it down to a cr@p paint job done in the car's past.

Hopefully it will be going into the bodyshop later this year :grin:
 
stevew said:
It's the damp conditions mate coupled with the cover.If you leave the cover off and the weather gets warmer and dries everything out they will probably subside but would return under damp conditions again.
Click to expand...

Steve, is this the same with indoor covers or is it a totally different deal? If my car's not in the carcoon then I throw a cover over instead - soft fabric type just to keep the dust off really. Bad idea?
 
I used an indoor car cover on my 1983 Mondial for five years in a garage (4.5 years dry) with no issues whatsoever.
 
MalcQV said:
I used an indoor car cover on my 1983 Mondial for five years in a garage (4.5 years dry) with no issues whatsoever.
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Thanks Malc. My garage isn't too damp but the humidity does get up a bit. It's only for when the car isn't in the carcoon so just wondering if Steve thought I could have the same issues. Noted when I went to see him when he had both his 348s at work that he didn't use covers - wondering if it was best not to bother.
 
Nosevi said:
Thanks Malc. My garage isn't too damp but the humidity does get up a bit. It's only for when the car isn't in the carcoon so just wondering if Steve thought I could have the same issues. Noted when I went to see him when he had both his 348s at work that he didn't use covers - wondering if it was best not to bother.
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For the last six months my Mondial was in the same garage (my Dad's) as my F355 is but without the Carcoon. It was a proper tailored soft cotton type cover.
I think the issue is the cover being in contact with the metal and high moisture content (probably). There was quite an amount of moisture in places on the Alfa when I removed the cover due to the snow.

I have decided to go for a PermaBag for the Alfa when I move into the house for over Winter. The Ferrari will live in the garage and probably like you I will only Carcoon it over the Winter.

And lastly the bubbling has almost disappeared already :thumbsup:
 
I have seen similar blistering to this before, In fact the worst was on a red Daytona seen at the FOC meet a few years ago in Banbury. Worst case senario, it could be poorly repaired panels where moisture has contaminated filler via small pinholes or wrong/contaminated primer used with topcoat. Sorry. Hope I am wrong.
 
Mulc said:
I have seen similar blistering to this before, In fact the worst was on a red Daytona seen at the FOC meet a few years ago in Banbury. Worst case senario, it could be poorly repaired panels where moisture has contaminated filler via small pinholes or wrong/contaminated primer used with topcoat. Sorry. Hope I am wrong.
Click to expand...

Don't be sorry it's a ten bob car. FWIW I think you are right too. The good news is that already they are barely detectable now :thumbsup:
Still in great nick for the money and age.

DSCN1937.jpgalfa2.jpg
 
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