New paint blemishes

[Frank mellin]

Have recently repainted my clinker built folkboat after much prep work and now notice hundreds of tiny bubbles in various places which will need rubbing down and repainting.
What is the cause of the problem
How can I stop it happening again?

 

[Daydream believer]

This may be of help
When varnishing/laquering furniture articles this can happen & is called fisheye. In that case it is due to the presence of silicons on the surface of the wood ( Or metal if it is a car for instance) These silicones can come from polish, or even things such as WD40, sprayed in the atmosphere nearby. Some body shops will ban the presence of such products in the spray shop.

Car body sprayers actually have a product that they add to the paint to stop it. I did try some when stripping & re polishing our club tables (14 of them) but it did not work on wood with the laquer I was using. It might with paint on wood. It cost about £14-00 for a tiny bottle and only needed a couple of drops. Car body paint suppliers will have it. Forget the name. They will know exactly what you mean if you ask.
The alternative, I used which worked very well, was to put 2 coats of shellac on the bare wood first. But this is too late for you, as you have already applied one coat of paint. It is extremely expensive & not economical on a boat hull. Nor would one expect to use it under a 3 coat yacht paint system.

I think that in this case your best bet is to rub down the surface to get a flat finish. Wipe off with proprietry wipes, to get the dust out of the fisheyes. Not hand wipes, the ones for wiping paint surfaces prior to varnishing to remove dust etc. ( International paints do them, as do people like Brewers & Anglian Paints). Then re apply the paint. Enamel yacht paint is thicker & stronger than varnish etc. so may hold back whatever caused the fisheye.
Good luck.

 

[Poignard]

It would help if FM could tell us exactly what he did, step by step, by way of preparation, materials used, techniques, etc.

 

[Daydream believer]

It would help if FM could tell us exactly what he did, step by step, by way of preparation, materials used, techniques, etc.

Probably what 95% of sailors do. Rub a bit down, but get fed up & decide that it really does not need much prep work & one can paint over the old stuff. The cracks can be filled by putting the paint on a bit thick in those spots. Open tin, stir it up with dinghy sailors dropped best carbon sail batten. Dirtier the better. Get cleanest pre used stiffish brush one can find. Slap it about a bit to get it working. Stick it in tin work it about to get the old colour off of it. Start painting it onto boat. Stand back & admire. Use rag to wipe of dead flies. Pour tea from flask. Chat to mates, carry on but get fed up & start hurrying so miss a bit & get some runs. Say "sod it" give up & forget to clean brush. ( no turps) Put lid on can. Stamp lid down to make it fit so some goes up leg of trousers. Get in car & bu..ger of home. See paint on radio knobs/sat nav has dried. Hope wife does not notice.