help i have a 70 chevelle ss that is in vg condition except the paint. it has lacquer paint that has small bubbles the size of a pin head. i don't want to sand it clear down, so can i just sand out those pitted areas, use urothane primer and basecoat clear coat and not have any problems with those pitted areas comming back?????? the car was painted about 15 years ago and i'm not sure what happened.

THANKS FOR ANY ADVICE

i will just read youre responces

Solvent popping must be completely removed, or it will return. :yes:

Bob. not a "pro" painter here, but have done enough painting over the years. From my experience, once lacquer has checked, popped, etc. it is a future disaster wating to happen. Odds are there was solvent popping below the lacquer. I would sand it down to whatever level you need to get to where the subsurface is intact. In the old days, we would call a scuff and shoot job like you are describing a "lob-job". Scuff it down, apply some surfacer/sealer and shoot it with enamel just to make it look good. If this is all you really want, then it's your choice. If you think you are going to shortcut it like this and have it last, you are mistaken.

so you think the car needs to be sanded clear down

I would suggest removing the last paint job, at least.

Sand it down and don't look back. Now for the good part. It's lacquer. You can start at one end and wet sand it down in no time. Wash, degrease, sand. You could block sand lacquer down to the primer in a weekend by hand.

Take it to bare metal. You'll just be inviting more problems by taking care of one area. Once a solvent gets under laquer, it will pop again. You also cant just use a urethane primer and base/clear it or the solvent pop will comeback 10 fold. Laquer and base/clear systems are completely different in respect to how they work.

Bob. not a "pro" painter here, but have done enough painting over the years. From my experience, once lacquer has checked, popped, etc. it is a future disaster wating to happen. Odds are there was solvent popping below the lacquer. I would sand it down to whatever level you need to get to where the subsurface is intact. In the old days, we would call a scuff and shoot job like you are describing a "lob-job". Scuff it down, apply some surfacer/sealer and shoot it with enamel just to make it look good. If this is all you really want, then it's your choice. If you think you are going to shortcut it like this and have it last, you are mistaken.


My last new GM car (likely my last daily driver GM car of ANY kind ) had solvent pops from the factory. The dealer went thru the big song and dance "Gotta call the Z-O-N-E rep on this" and they were FINALLY authorized to fix the paint. You would have thought they were calling in a representative all the way from the home planet of the Klingon Empire or a Special Emissary all the way from Vulcan the way they hyped up the process of getting "Mr Magic Man" fixer of all complaints into the dealer.

What I got was a LOB JOB as described above. It screwed up very soon after the LOB JOB just as mentioned above. I personally paid to have the less than 1 year old car STRIPPED (hood trunk and deck surfaces ) to bare metal by a guy I knew in the body work business. His work outlasted the rest of the factory paint and I know the where abouts of the car till it was 25 years old!!! This mess was a long time ago and because of the paint and other "Factory flaws" the car turned out to be the last GM car I will ever buy from GM or a GM dealer.

The message here....don't screw around with bad substrate. If you don't wanna do it right just live with it as it is. Half baked solutions are just gonna be a waste of time and money.

Take it to bare metal.

Great advise, do this.