Paint issues 101, Blushing Options

[scotty b]

Just a little heads up and info for those of you painting your own cars. Today I had an issue with blushing. In all the years and all the cars I have painted this is the FIRST time I have encountered it.

As I understand it ( Rick, please correct me if I'm wrong ) what happens is on high humidity days ( today was EXTREMELY high ) you have a battle between the solvents trying to escape the paint, and the moisture in the air trying to settle. Well in the world of physics, water is heavier than the solvents so the moisture gets trapped in the clear. I have painted on high humidity days many times, on rainy days many times, on hot days many times, and on days consisting of all 3.....many times yet for some reason today it happened. One of those lovely things about this work (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

The solution ( for now ) was to lay on a couple more coats of clear then let the fan run for about an hour. As soon as I shit the fan down, the blushing started up again. I let the panels sit until the clear was almost setup then cut the fans on again, this seemed to work. I'll know more in the morning. If it is still there, best case I can wet sand and buff it out. Worst case, all 3 panels have to get sanded down and repainted (IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif)

What looks to be out of focus is the blushing issue. In person it has a nice rainbow look to it (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

[ThePaintedMan]

Interesting. I had a similar situation when putting on my final coat of single stage on my car. It had never happened to me either until then, but I attributed it to humidity/dew that had settled on the car. By the time I put my last coat on it was already dark and the cool night air was really settling in. The paint is just slightly "brighter" in those couple areas than the surrounding paint. At some point I'll need to cut and buff it and hope that it comes out.

Thanks for teaching us hobby bodywork guys something Scotty and Rick!