The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop paint problems

My truck is starting to get hundreds of little white dots in the paint on various parts of the body. Almost like the measles. They are not rust bubbles and when you rub your hand over them they are not rough. They are not fisheyes.
The PO painted the truck at least 15 years ago and I have no idea what primer/paint was used but I have a feeling that this might be a reaction between them.
I am getting blushing in patches as well.
The truck is washed and waxed and from 20 feet away you can hardly see the problem. I would like to find the cause and hope to stop any more.
I don't intend to repaint.

It was painted 15 years ago and the spots are just now becoming visible? Sounds more like something got on the paint recently than a chemical reaction taking 15 years to happen. I used to live by a refinery that once blew some crap out of one of the stacks & left spots on my truck. They paid to have the spots buffed off but a few years later the paint started to peel.

I know what you mean but there are no industries here and the truck lives in a garage. This didn't just start overnight it has been coming on for a few years.

To bad about your paint problem. The way you discribe it, sounds like maybe to old finish had solvent pop and after years of waxing/rubbing you've worn through the top layer. Now when you wax it the small pits are holding wax that turns white. Once a paint job starts going south theres generaly not much you can do to save it. Your local body/paint shop could give you a diagnosis and an $$$estimate.

That sounds quite feasible. I won't repaint it as it is still decent.

iv seen strange things happen if it was covered with plastic so it couldnt breath or mayby you polished thew the clear coat and its seperating from the paint is it clear coated mayby you could clear coat it now to reseal it mayby the spotes were under the surface and are coming threw now mayby someone are animal sprayed something on there that you dont know about cat spray can mess up paint

Truck was not covered with plastic and I don't know if its clear-coated. I think it was just lacquer. Cat spray is an idea but it would have to be a pretty ingenious cat to hit some of the places its at. Even on the leading edge of the hood by the centre strip there are spots starting.
I have a picture but still don't know how to post it here despite the explicit instructions.

Sounds like you have the same thing I had after 15 years of lacquer paint job. My doors looked rely bad to where I was sure I was going to have to buy new doors. Looked to me like doors rusting from in side out. So I was told that is was just a bad metal prep job before the lacquer was sprayed. As far as the white spots it maybe dry wax around those areas. I now have my doors down to bare metal and there was no rusting under paint. Remember lacquer keeps on shrinking as I found out the hard way.

I had the same thing happen on the wife's 67 Mustang convertible a few years back. Car had been painted about 7-10 years earlier, but one day I came out and took the car cover off and there they were -- 1000's of little pimples. I tried sanding and shooting the trunk lid with a new coat of acrylic enamel (Ditzler Delstar). It looked great for couple of months and then they came back. I asked several knowledgable folks about it and never got to the bottom of it. Eventually, I snaded the car down, shot PPG Epoxy primer and went back with PPG Acrylic Enamel. That has been almost 4 years ago now and I have not had any reappearance.

Thanks. Seems that could be it.

olblu
Face it your truck is well just getting it "character Marks" or as my grandma would say "liver spots" for a car/truck.