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paint bubble, not rust related

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nevets

nevets

Jedi Knight
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The bonnet of my AH has developed a small bubble in the paint, as though the paint lost its adhesion to the primer. It's not a rust bubble because the underside of the bonnet is perfectly fine. The car was professionally painted with 2-part paint over 10 years ago and the bubble is fairly recent. There are no other defects in the paint anywhere else on the car.

I would like to try to fix it and here is what I thought of so far...

1. Since bubble is flexible, I can actually press it down, so I'm considering using some clay and weights to compress the bubble for an extended period, hoping it will stay down. Possibly apply mild heat from the underside (hair dryer), actually it gets pretty warm with engine heat.

2. Using a hypodermic needle, inject a tiny amount of super glue through the bubble and then press it down until it sets. My fear is that the glue will ooze back up through the needle hole and make a mess or that it will react with the paint and discolor. Too risky.

3. Live with it.

Any other ideas?
Thanks guys.
 
How much does it bother you? Or better yet, how many $$$'s does it bug you?
 
Yup. Either ignore it or be ready to spend the dollars to re-do the hood, match color, etc.

If it's any larger than a dime in diameter the paint has "stretched" over the bubble area and will NOT shrink back to the size of the area it came from. And for it to have formed in the first place there's something going on (a chemical reaction) between it and what it was attached to. Just because there's no evidence on the underside doesn't mean there's not a rust condition between the paint and the steel, BTW.
 
thanks for the input guys. I was hoping there was some kind of noninvasive trick to fix the problem. I'm almost positive it's not a conventional rust bubble because I can easily compress the bubble completely down with my finger. If it was rust there would be raised crispy corrosion under the paint.

I might actually consider redoing the hood if I thought it was possible to get an exact color match.
 
consider going to one of those places that do cosmetic repairs on cars - small dents etc. They maybe can do a relatively inexpensive repair. My wife's beetle got the rear bumper scuffed by someone - the whole bumper repair and repaint is going to be $200
 
nevets said:
thanks for the input guys. I was hoping there was some kind of noninvasive trick to fix the problem. I'm almost positive it's not a conventional rust bubble because I can easily compress the bubble completely down with my finger. If it was rust there would be raised crispy corrosion under the paint.

I might actually consider redoing the hood if I thought it was possible to get an exact color match.
Click to expand...
Like Doc said, probably something got on the hood during prep that's causing the area to not hold the paint...you can sand a circle down & respray it if you're good enough to blend it into the rest of the hood.....but you've gotta go down to bare metal ro see what's there.....& it could be rust - just not rust thru.
 
I have a small one of those on the door of my TR6. Been there since shortly after I painted the car. I don't look at it or play with it. It hasn't changed in any way in seven years. If you poke a hole of any size into it, you will only regret doing so...unless you are just playing around right before the hood goes for paint.
 
I agree with the guys above, you could have had either bad prep before paint or a pinhole on the underside or surface rust below the remaining finish. Either way you need to go back to bare metal on this spot to ensure it won't show back up .
For the most part when I see blisters and have sanded into them I quite often find rust, very possible your finish is nearing the end of it's life span.

Vern
 
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