Tiny craters in paint?

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Tiny craters in paint?


This topic comes up from time to time. Today one of our forum members sent me this picture.

He's already buffed out the car and after buffing out the paint there are these little tiny paint defects over all of the car.

I think he said they are on the top or horizontal surfaces? If so, that could mean some type of air-borne pollution or industrial fallout, acid rain, alkali rain, etc. Basically something that will fall from the sky and land on the horizontal panels and do it's destruction.


He says it's the original paint so that kind of rules out solvent popping from a fresh or new re-paint as well as Fish Eyes.


Even though the picture is out of focus, the paint defects look similar to these,


Solvent Popping in Fresh Paint



After inspecting the brand new paint job on the 1928 Model A out in the garage I found at least one place with signs of solvent popping.

Solvent popping is when the reducer, (solvent), which is used to thin the paint to make it sprayable in a paint gun is changing from a liquid to a gas. As this change takes place, the solvent tries to escape and pops through the top film of paint leaving a tiny little crater or what looks like a pin hole.

At least that's the nutshell explanation.


Here's a couple pictures I took to show solvent popping. It is located just above the opening to the rumble seat on this Model A.

For reference, it's just above the handle you see on the top of the rumble seat in the back of the car here,

:dunno:

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

For what it's worth....


I've seen these types of defects in paint show up AFTER machine polishing with a dual action polisher.

It's as though the polishing action of the DA polish had the ability to remove soft little pockets of paint while leaving harder paint alone.

I'm not saying this is what's happening here but it does seem like a phenomena I've seen in my life.


:dunno:

 

[ken tuep]

My wife's vehicle has these across the front. I assumed they were small rock chips only of the clearcoat. They can only be seen at certain angles, under certain lights in my case.

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[The Guz]

The roof of my car daily driver has these. It still has the original paint. They became more noticeable after polishing.

 

[ken tuep]

Does that include new cars with no major miles on them? I have noticed them after polishing also, but mostly on vehicles that were in heavily sandy areas.

I don't remember my wife's vehicle having these defects before going to Florida for 2 months of school, but definitely noticed them after. I attributed it to the sand, "chipping" at the paint.

My truck doesn't have these, but I had repainted the front end when I purchased it. 50,000 miles later it still looks great.

I'm not debating anything, I'm just really curious what had caused them to appear.

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[alfadub]

Does that include new cars with no major miles on them? I have noticed them after polishing also, but mostly on vehicles that were in heavily sandy areas.

I don't remember my wife's vehicle having these defects before going to Florida for 2 months of school, but definitely noticed them after. I attributed it to the sand, "chipping" at the paint.

My truck doesn't have these, but I had repainted the front end when I purchased it. 50,000 miles later it still looks great.

I'm not debating anything, I'm just really curious what had caused them to appear.

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I have a vehicle that has tiny defects over the paint as well, but whereas the defects in the yellow vehicle above look like craters, the defects on my vehicle look like tiny pinpoint pockmarks.

I am also inclined to believe that the pinpoint defects in my vehicle were caused by sand, since it had been parked outdoors for a few years in an area that occasionally had severe sandstorms. There are pit marks all over the windshield as well.

 

[jgibson2980]

Is there anyway to get these types of defects out ? My newer work van has them all over it . It was filthy when I purchased it , I was thinking it was some form of contamination. It has been washed , iron x, clayed , and I started on the polishing process.

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[AeroCleanse]

FYI it doesn't mean the dealer didn't have to touch up areas of paint for some reason. So it might not all be paint from the factory.