My dad is trying to get his hood on his 96 GMC 1500. He's got the paint code and got everything set up. He's up to the third try. The first two times he has had trouble with the paint blistering. We figured it was a result of the reducer. The first time we mixed it 1-1 paint and reducer. Also he painted it with the hood standing up. Ugh what a mess. The paint ran bad and in spots it blistered.

Well he tried again today and this is what happened.

This time he tried 2x paint to 1x reducer. It didn't blister this time as bad. Also he sprayed it with the hood flat on stands. The top part seemed to be coming out ok but this was happening? Should he go straight paint.

When he gets done with the paint he's going to put the clear coat on. It's only the hood he's painting. It was a replacement from when the truck was stolen and also there was a fire in the neighborhood and hot as fell on the truck and burned the clear coat and it started to fleck off. When it would rain it blistered the clear coat off. So how should he go about doing the paint right.

 

Looks like improper surface prep. Did you scuff the surface prior to laying down the color? Did you wipe the area with a good degreaser before you started? Did you use a prep wipe just prior to spraying? How heavy were your coats? You should not try to cover in one application.

 

Yep did all that. No did not try to do it in one application. That was just the first coat. He didn't even finish the job. He started on the left and was almost to the end of the right when he saw it blistering. The last time he did it he ran out of gray primer and finished with white. It was fine on the white but where it had gray primer it bubbled off. But again the paint to reducer mixture seemed to thin.

 

Incompatible paints? What brand and type of primer and paint were you using and with what brand and type of reducer?

The fact that it laid down nice on the white primer and bubbled off of the gray primer is a dead give away that there is an incompatibility of some sort.

 

Yeah, So I told him to get only the white primer. But He didn't use the gray primer this time. The paint and reducer were purchased from PPG. Matched to the color code for his truck. The sales guy at PPG matched the reducer to the paint. Also the hardener to the clear coat. It just seemed the paint was too thin. We mixed it 1-1 paint and reducer. Should it have been that or less?

 

1:1 is basically the "standard" for ppg reducing, it may seem really thin, but it still covers well. What PPG mixing system did they use? I use PPG deltron EVERYDAY at work have also used nexa and autocolor. What you have its called paint "lifting" Its basically when the solvents underneath haven't cured yet, and your trying to pack more on, and they are trying to escape through the top coat. Its a royal pain the the *** trust me. The only true options are these. Sand it all the way off. And start completely over. Once it starts, it needs to be gotten rid of before it can be fixed. I have basically mastered how to NOT get it to lift! lol. Sand the area smooth after it dries awhile, have him take the gun and Work in the area with primer, using VERY VERY light coats, and using the air from the gun to COMPLETELY dry the coat before using the next (don't take long, hand just gets tired lol) After that is done use LIGHT coat of paint. The faster you get the coat dry, the less time those solvents underneath have time to mix with the topcoat. It will probably take about 5 light coats to cover the hood, if all looks good after that, clear away. If you start again and see lifting, STOP, putting more paint on it only makes it lift worse! This is really not i recommend a novice to try, There are a lot of tricks to painting that you can only teach yourself. This is one! Good luck, thats will take some patience and time. If i were by you i could have that hood done based and cleared in about 20 mins!

 

Depends on what the "P" sheet for the paint says... Did you get a spec sheet with the paint? It should tell you how many parts of color to how many parts of reducer, to how many parts of hardener (if used).

 

wow, will try this one out myself.