Milky Paint

[Pjotr]

Hi,

Firstly let me say that this is not a complaint in any way as my local Toyota dealer is dealing with the problem and I am

sure that it eventually will be sorted to my satisfaction. My log here is to see if anyone can explain what has gone wrong

in this case as I am interested to find out.

Some plonker reversed into the tailgate of the car (thanks, cost me £150 in excess) so it had to get sorted and the local dealer

gave me a good quote, guarantees etc so off it went early this week.

I collected the car y-day, it was cold and raining at the time but I have a good look at the body work, the shape etc and it was perfect,

I mean spot-on, all creases on the tailgate was there, most impressed. The paint work looked good at the time.

Anyway to the point, back at the office some 10 miles away I went over it again and noticed a milky/spotty appearance on the newly painted section.

The best way to describe it is a faint milky look. It was as if the rainwater had ran off the surface and had etched the surface, ie your could see the water markes all over and it was worse at the lower sections. Most strange, never seen anything like it before..

I called the dealer, took it back and they apologized profusely and took it away, polished it up. It looked much better but I was told, 'not good enough' so please bring it back for us to sort properly. I duly drove back to the office and the surface was back to its 'milky' state' again ! - weird...

Can anyone explain this at all??

I know that they use water based paints (health and safety ehh!!) so suppose this could have something to do with it.

I googled the web and the nearest thing was a US site that mentioned that applying paint in too humid and cold conditions (ie approaching dew point) and with wrong solvent (waterbased?) could possibly result in the paint cooling to fast and hence dew/humidity forming and then getting trapped in the paint.

[Boro Sera]

it does sound like a 'bloom' in the paint. What usually causes this is that the solvent evaporates too fast and seals in moisture under the surface. As you said, painting is very temperature dependant - and it has been cold lately !

Glad your dealer is on the ball and sorting it out for you. Always nice to hear a report of good service.

Good luck

[dave.m]

Orange peel I think they used to call it ?

[Boro Sera]

Orange peel is just when the paint is 'toshed' on too quickly/heavily resulting in a less than perfectly flat finish.

Blooming is like a cloudy shadow within the colour where it looks like the paint has faded somewhat.

Orange peel can be polished/cut out, blooming can't !

[Pjotr]

Thanks for your comments.

Like I said, no complaint re service, 'it one of those things' and I am sure it will be sorted to my satisfaction.

I spoke to a friend in Sweden re this and he suggested that the water based paint had not been 'cured' enough prior to releasing the car.

Kind of makes sense to me, car is in to be looked at mid next week so hopefully I will be able to report back to you by the end of next week.

Water based pants kind of makes me nervous but some of these new compounds are fantastic, eg think of fillings at the dentist, a bit of ultraviolet light and its set, amazing stuff. I have always been pro oil based paints as I think the finish is superiour (smoother etc) BUT I re-varnished my sitting room floor last year and got this 'trade' water based paint (Ronseal), -touch dry in 1 hour, recoatable in 2 and 100% fully cured in 12 hours, awesome stuff , I can not fault it. Suppose this is the way to go provided the application is done properly.

[Pjotr]

Update

Got the car back y-day and had a good look at it today as it was not raining.

It now looks OK after it has been baked properly. :D

A little orange peel but there is some on the rest of the car as well so I can not

complain about it.

[johnrizla]

The blossoming could of also likely been caused by wrong primer being used as the bumpers are pourous if not and causes this problem we have seen this in our accesorys when taken to some back street bodyshops or just simple mistake when preping them for spraying

[JappyBeast]

Selkirk Lad, I grew up in Gala!

[Pjotr]

Sorry but I only live in Selkirk, born far far away. :D

Re paint job, it was the tailgate that was damaged, I was told that another car had the same problem that week,

bot got baked and this sorted it.

[Jimlad]

Selkirk! Only 6miles from me! :)