85 replies to this topic

[Goosenka]

Can anyone tell me what the likely causes of paint bubbling are?

Can it be avoided on a car kept outdoors in all weathers?

I find when I shag the misses on the bonnet, if I cum on the paint it causes bubbling, her cum dont seem to affect it.......

Edited by Goosenka, Yesterday, 06:56 PM.

I am interested as to what you said before the edit?

Just couldn't bring myself to say what I wanted! Your comment was so random and amusing I left it at that

[Bargi]

'mine' (wheelbros) is number 68 off the line.... it has blisters galore (including what I could only summarise as corrosion )

Well that blows my theory of early VX being ok. Mines no. 60 and got none. Lives outside as well... Now I've said this it's bound to get some over the holidays

[VXT Tim]

Bit of a resurrection, I've had my vx 7/8 years now and never had bubbles/blisters. Car is a complete garage queen, no rain, snow, frost etc. Today 30 degrees I decide to go to work in it, car has been out in the sun all day. Just put the car in the garage and noticed 2 little bubbles on the rear clam. this surely can't be down to osmosis

[FLD]

Bit of a resurrection, I've had my vx 7/8 years now and never had bubbles/blisters. Car is a complete garage queen, no rain, snow, frost etc.

Today 30 degrees I decide to go to work in it, car has been out in the sun all day.
Just put the car in the garage and noticed 2 little bubbles on the rear clam. this surely can't be down to osmosis

Why not? There's enough humidity around for the vapour to permeate the laminate.

[slindborg]

It's boiled up/started the corrosion reaction.

[turbobob]

For it to permeate, it has to penetrate the laquer (if any), the paint, the primer (ok this is poros) and the gel coat before it can get to the GRP. The gel coat doesn't offer complete 100% protection, but that combined with the paint and laquer if any, should give something like 99.9% protection? Tim, the blistering is caused by moisture. In extreme cold the moisture freezes and bubbles. In extreme heat (hot ambient plus direct sunlight) the moisture evaporates and causes the blister.

[slindborg]

Note the inner surface of the clam is only gel coated at best...

[FLD]

Vapour can permeate the back of the laminate. Vapour is everywhere and is not subject to the surface tension that keeps it out of small pores. As bob says fibreglass is not impervious to water so should really be epoxy sealed. Thats expensive, so....

[FLD]

I should add that the way the bodywork is made doesn't help. Its glass matting in a closed mould that has plastic injected. It gives consistent sizes but often doesn't fully wet the fibres which may cause wicking of moisture into the laminate.

[slindborg]

And can leave patches of incurred resin which when combined with water actually creates a corrosive acid

[VXT Tim]

And I thought I wasnt going to get it.
So will these burst eventually?

Edited by VXT Tim, 25 July 2012 - 07:53 AM.

[slindborg]

yep, most likely when we get the first frost.

[VXT Tim]

Even though it's always garaged.

[slindborg]

now its bubbled, just leave it outside for a few frosts..... see what else bursts

[Arno]

I should add that the way the bodywork is made doesn't help. Its glass matting in a closed mould that has plastic injected. It gives consistent sizes but often doesn't fully wet the fibres which may cause wicking of moisture into the laminate.

Also the injection-mould process doesn't need much, if any, gelcoat applied to the mould for it to release properly so VX (and S2 Elise) clams are virtually 'bare' GRP with little or no gelcoat to speak of compared to traditional GRP construction.

Bye, Arno.

[TazN]

Mine has quite alot of bubbling in various spots. Went through last winter and none have burst, plus I cant put my nail in them so not sure if they are even 'blisters'. The front clam just in front of the bonnett is more like orange peel (but on a large scale) and not blister like at all.

[FLD]

Even though it's always garaged.

Sometimes that makes it worse. Garages harbour humidity whereas outdoors the wind whips it away pretty quick.

[TheRealVXed]

FYI, it isn't actually osmosis. Osmosis is the movement of a liquid through a semi-premeable membrane down the concentration gradient. Boats and other submersed fibreglass constructions suffer from osmosis. Unless you keep your car in the bath you can't get it. My dad re-sprayed his MG in the late 80s in his garage. He didn't prep the body properly nor spray it in a dry environment and it shows exactly the same symptoms as the paint on our cars. It is the quality of the painting and painting environment, not the clam. Anyone brave enough to get a scraper out and scrape off the paint on the affected area will see that it is where the paint has lifted from the clam, not damage to the clam itself

Edited by VXed, 25 July 2012 - 11:49 AM.

[turbobob]

Even though it's always garaged.

Sometimes that makes it worse. Garages harbour humidity whereas outdoors the wind whips it away pretty quick.

Interesting point. The garage is catch 22. You keep it in there to keep the temps nominal, but in doing so expose to stagnant air & therefore increased humidity.

Edited by turbobob, 25 July 2012 - 12:05 PM.

[turbobob]

FYI, it isn't actually osmosis. Osmosis is the movement of a liquid through a semi-premeable membrane down the concentration gradient. Boats and other submersed fibreglass constructions suffer from osmosis. Unless you keep your car in the bath you can't get it.

My dad re-sprayed his MG in the late 80s in his garage. He didn't prep the body properly nor spray it in a dry environment and it shows exactly the same symptoms as the paint on our cars. It is the quality of the painting and painting environment, not the clam.

Anyone brave enough to get a scraper out and scrape off the paint on the affected area will see that it is where the paint has lifted from the clam, not damage to the clam itself

This has been debated a lot on here. The misconception is the bubbling is osmosis. However, as we have been discussing, there is probably a degree of moisture from the air transferring through the gel coat into the GRP. This would be classed as osmosis I believe.