Needs some advice from any paint guru's

[TWAG]

Just remembered my previous civic did as well about 6 months after having the bonnet painted in winter. Bodyshop blamed it on the heat of the engine.

I've said it before, I will never have another car resprayed again. I know that doesn't help your situation but it was just far too much stress and hassle and it's never perfect.

I know that feeling, This is without doubt the last time I ever have a car painted! Without the paint being perfect the whole rebuild has been a complete waste of time and money and I'm not talking about a small amount of money.

[Lee H]

yes I paid over 3k which I am currently gutted about. Took a lot for me to commit to pay this kind of money but I just wanted a perfect paint job. Now there talking about repairing certain panels and blending the paint in which I feel really uneasy about.

I'd feel uneasy too to be honest. Other thing is these issues seem to be appearing by the day so what's to say the parts they don't repaint won't break out soon. My went worse when we had some sun, obviously you haven't had that since this has been painted.

Also the lengths you went to to deliver a bare shell for paint, last thing you want now is masking lines and blended panels, you want it right but I can understand not wanting to strip the car down again.

I paid £1300 for my Nova to be painted, dropped a bare shell off like you did but it was there for over a year.

[Novasport]

The thing that worries me with bodyshops is they tend to push vehicles outside whatever the weather. If a shell is in primer, that is porous so it will suck up any rain or moisture in the air. When painted over the moisture is trapped by the paint.
I am looking to get the Spider painted and will wait until summer but even then I am concerned of any humidity. I am going to use an epoxy zinc primer to seal the bodywork to hopefully prevent issues but it is still down to the painters prep & workmanship to be top notch.

[robjenko]

The thing that worries me with bodyshops is they tend to push vehicles outside whatever the weather. If a shell is in primer, that is porous so it will suck up any rain or moisture in the air. When painted over the moisture is trapped by the paint.
I am looking to get the Spider painted and will wait until summer but even then I am concerned of any humidity. I am going to use an epoxy zinc primer to seal the bodywork to hopefully prevent issues but it is still down to the painters prep & workmanship to be top notch.

thats it spot on there!

I work in a decent bodyshop and we have had cars like this to repair - most recently an escort cosworth also given a bare metal respray (shoody work done elsewhere mind) that was covered with blisters.
these blisters look like moisture bubbles either from the primer soaking up the water when left standing in a damp area or could even be from the thinners used in with the primer (ie if they had used "gunwash" thinners that can contain up to 40% water!! insted of a quality 2k thinner) unfortunatly the only way to resolve this would be a complete return to bare and start again. these micro blisters can cause rust.

another point is that might not have helped is if they had waxed the car after painting as this will "seal" the topcat / lacquer not allowing it to breath. waxing should be avoided for a quite a few weeks until the paint is fully cured.

as for the other marks, they look like poor prep to me, they look like dry flatting with too low a grit of paper.

[Nick J]

Hi mate, very sorry to see this.... I will drop you a pm with my personal opinions.

Nick.

[meritlover]

It doesnt look like it has been prep'd properly. There are loads of sand scratches and you can see the primer isnt flatted properly. They didnt even bother to remove the window as there's paint all over the rubber. So it wouldnt surprise me if the above was true and it was left outside for a week. If its even a half reputable paint shop you could point these issues out all over the car and they cant deny the job has been done terribly badly and get them to give it another going over.
If you paid 3k for painting alone they could have at least of offered to pull your eyes out for as well.

[lee 16v]

thats it spot on there!

I work in a decent bodyshop and we have had cars like this to repair - most recently an escort cosworth also given a bare metal respray (shoody work done elsewhere mind) that was covered with blisters.
these blisters look like moisture bubbles either from the primer soaking up the water when left standing in a damp area or could even be from the thinners used in with the primer (ie if they had used "gunwash" thinners that can contain up to 40% water!! insted of a quality 2k thinner) unfortunatly the only way to resolve this would be a complete return to bare and start again. these micro blisters can cause rust.

another point is that might not have helped is if they had waxed the car after painting as this will "seal" the topcat / lacquer not allowing it to breath. waxing should be avoided for a quite a few weeks until the paint is fully cured.

as for the other marks, they look like poor prep to me, they look like dry flatting with too low a grit of paper.

this is what I was about to say. Also you can get water in the compressor if you dont have filters in line.
Either way it needs stripping back to metal and doing again.
The thing that looks like scratches are scratches under the base coat, to be fair to the painter some times you dont see these until you start painting, but if you use water base you can flat then out with a 2000 pad then base over them again.
If we have to put a car outside when its in primer, we cover it if its wet out and then put a heat lamp on it when it comes back in or put the heat on in the oven before we start work on it again.

[burgo]

3k is very top money so to get all those prep marks is pretty shoddy. My light blue saloon came out better than that and I prepped that.

[lee 16v]

As someone said it look like dry flatting marks from the block when rubbing the primer, you should then use a DA with p500 to remove these, if you miss them on a silver car, the silver base coat shows them all up, if the car was any other colour it wouldnt look as bad, the darker the colour the more you can get away with.

[Will F]

Painting and painters have always been a bug bear of mine. You need to find a painter that's reasonable and does a reasonable job. I've spend thousands and hundreds on jobs and to be honest they've come out similar, so because someone charges more really doesn't mean they're any better... As you know form experience unfortunately.

you then build a relationship with that company and so any feedback and jobs that need redoing become much easier and both parties expectations are managed and understood...

sorry to see you're having a nightmare, but it's one of those things. They should sort it for free and do any of the removing and refitting that you've had to do.