Paint Bubbles

[Mutley00]

My Elise has been outside under a car cover in some pretty damp weather recently and has developed paint bubbles on the bonnet & roll bar. Has anyone had any success removoing these apart from a respray - do they go in dry weather?

 

Thanks, Andrew

[Jonathan E]

Hi Andrew,

S1 or S2? are they micro blisters ie lots of very tiny ones or are they big old blisters the size of a 5p piece this can make a difference. Generally its due to either contamination of the grp before it gets paint or moisture ingress from the grp.

How olds the car?? bit more info would be handy.

Regards

Jon

[Mutley00]

Hi Andrew,S1 or S2? are they micro blisters ie lots of very tiny ones or are they big old blisters the size of a 5p piece this can make a difference. Generally its due to either contamination of the grp before it gets paint or moisture ingress from the grp.How olds the car?? bit more info would be handy.RegardsJon

Jon,They are the small microblisters - hundreds of them. The car is a 1999 S1. Puzzlingly is only on the bonnet. I wonder if there is anything in the guarantee.Thanks, Andrew

[Jonathan E]

Hi Andrew,S1 or S2? are they micro blisters ie lots of very tiny ones or are they big old blisters the size of a 5p piece this can make a difference. Generally its due to either contamination of the grp before it gets paint or moisture ingress from the grp.How olds the car?? bit more info would be handy.RegardsJon

Jon,They are the small microblisters - hundreds of them. The car is a 1999 S1. Puzzlingly is only on the bonnet. I wonder if there is anything in the guarantee.Thanks, Andrew

Andrew,

There won't be anything in the warranty, This is a problem that affects cars made from grp, it can happen on brand new cars as well as older ones.The S1 has hand laid grp bodywork, this means the grp is brushed down into a mold and built up layer by layer,obviously its quite a time consuming process,anyway if the layers of grp aren't brushed down well enough then air can get trapped between the layers,because its air it has tiny amounts of water in it aswell and eventually this finds a way out,the easiest way out is through the painted grp,and thats whats caused your micro-blisters. They can be illiminated by cutting back and respraying,although some will eventually make it back to the surface over time.

Sorry its not better news.

Regards

Jon

Ps, loads of Lotus suffer from this problem,some people live with it some don't.