Lacquer bubble! :(

[Nick88]

I'm currently finishing my fat nashville project in my take on lake placid blue.

I've sprayed the blue and gone through the incredibly tedious process of cleaning up the binding (turns out my masking tape wasn't all that sticky and came up in a LOT of places).

Yesterday i gave it 3 coats of clear lacquer, but when i checked on it this morning, to my horror i discovered two large bubble in the finish!

The first (and largest) is on the left side of the front. It seems to have bubbled from underneath the paint, as the blue came up too.



The second is also on the front, but towards the jack. This one hasn't lifted up the blue below the clear lacquer.


Does anyone have any idea why this might have happened?
The spray cans i used are auto paints and are supposedly compatible with each other


Any methods of cleaning this up without having to sand it all down to the wood again?

[RodeoTex]

Recently I painted 2 bodies and left them out in the sun to dry faster. 30 minutes later they were bubbled up all over. Sickening.

I also found out that it isn't necessarily sunlight but just too much heat can cause the same. I left the same 2 bodies in the car for a couple of hours just a couple of days after being refinished. Same thing again only not as bad.

I had some success just sanding the bubble out smooth, putting in auto body glaze, sand, touch up the paint, clear, wet sand, clear, wet sand many times over until all blended together.
You can't even tell now.

Yours don't really look that bad. I think you can use filler and touch up.

[EddieN]

Blush remover might do the trick. Might.

[Nick88]

Originally Posted by RodeoTex

Recently I painted 2 bodies and left them out in the sun to dry faster. 30 minutes later they were bubbled up all over. Sickening.

I also found out that it isn't necessarily sunlight but just too much heat can cause the same. I left the same 2 bodies in the car for a couple of hours just a couple of days after being refinished. Same thing again only not as bad.

I had some success just sanding the bubble out smooth, putting in auto body glaze, sand, touch up the paint, clear, wet sand, clear, wet sand many times over until all blended together.
You can't even tell now.

Yours don't really look that bad. I think you can use filler and touch up.

Ah, sunlight may have done it. I've been hanging it in my garage, and in the late afternoon the sun comes through the window to where it's hanging.
Thanks for that reply. Now atleast i know what's caused it.

I've run out of the metallic blue, so i'll buy some tomorrow and then try the filling and re-spraying (and hang it in a different spot!)

I'll post the results once i've finished her.

Thanks Tex

[Rich Rice]

Looks like the clear might have been a little too wet, which could have leached through the color and found a weak spot below.. I would drop fill with CA glue, let it cure, sand flush, touch up the color, let cure, then try drier clear coats. It'll disappear eventually. Seen worse, fixed 'em. You'll do OK.

[jwells393]

I got a bubble once hanging a body in a window to speed curing. The bubble occured where I had filled a screw hole. Must have been some air trapped and the heat made it expand too fast.

[JasonRobert]

I do not like halfords paints or lacquers. The paint seems to always be too thin, and the lacquer never seemed to fully cure, and I had a very thin coat of lacquer as well.

[castpolymer]

I had a bubble yesterday on a Tele body I am lacquering. I did have a couple of Halogen lamps on it to " speed " the process. I guess I had the lamps to close. I was using ReRanch nitro lacquer ( which I have had great luck with ).

[Nick JD]

There's a lot of air in wood. Whenever I'm covering something full of air, with something airtight, it's a great idea to be finishing the job just after the day's temperature has peaked. Even better - keep the temperature constant at the plastic's recommended cure temperature/humidity for the entire cure process.