Popped bubbles!

[quee2646]

Hello all,

A couple of years ago, I had a bad experience with a car cover: the cover trapped moisture under the cover. When I took the cover off, I saw the car was covered in bubbles! Drying in the sun has either got rid of the bubbles or, in some cases, popped them, leaving unsightly lacerations and 'chips' all over the paint work, particularly the boot lid (see picture).

20180816_131047.jpg (118.99 KiB) Viewed 1208 times

Two years on, the car is garaged; but I'm wondering what the best way to get rid of them is..? As you can see, I've applied touch-up paint as a short-term solution to prevent any more water getting in; but this makes it look worse..

[palacebear]

I've had the same problem, due partly to trapped moisture under a cover, and due partly to a slightly 'budget' re-spray at some time in the past. None of my bubbles (micro-blisters) have actually burst, so I've been able to control the problem by leaving the car in the sun (as you have done) followed by a lot of careful, gentle T-Cutting, followed by a lot of polishing for which I use AutoGlym. These steps don't eliminate the problem; they just improve the appearance of the car from 6 feet away!

A machine polish might be better but you'll still need to maintain a hand-polishing regime to protect the paintwork, and it's still unlikely to be a permanent cure. IMHO the areas you've touched-up will really need to be rubbed down and sprayed.

Sadly the only permanent cure for the micro-blistering is a full re-spray with VERY good preparation.

[ManyMinors]

You can't "get rid of them" really because there is no paint adhesion where the bubbles are. Rubbing down and respraying won't really do much good. Unfortunately the only real answer in the long-term is to strip off all the affected paintwork right down to the base metal ideally and carry out a respray.