My dad had his '67 E-type repainted in 2005. I inherited the car in 2010. When I got it, there were these bubbles in the paint on the hood. The car has never had any rust and so that isn't the cause.
I had one mechanic tell me he could use a hypodermic needles to squirt some crazy glue in there, but he was so expensive I have gone elsewhere for about 7-8 years. I also wasn't sold on the idea. Then again, my current shop said the only solution was to repaint the entire hood. It is a metallic paint (GM 1975 Cadillac Gossamer Firemist Blue). There are 4-5 bubbles. Two larger and the others smaller than a dime.
Any suggestions?

 

Left(near)Side,
Those bubbles are difficult to repair without painting the whole bonnet. Maybe a really good painter may be able to feather it in without repainting all of the bonnet. And even if you can find someone that can do a good job, you don't know if there will be some bubbles popping up somewhere else, also, you don't know it the two paint jobs are going to fade at the same rate. I suggest biting the bullet and doing the whole bonnet. Just my two cents. Good luck.
Bill.

 

Unfortunately those bubbles are a sign of bad prep before painting and the only way to fix that is to go back to bare metal. I agree with Bill that unless you aren't bothered by a (hopefully) slight color mismatch a full bonnet painting will be required.

 

*sigh* Ok. So can you just do the middle panel (between the fender chrome strips) or do you have to do the entire piece? My shop just emailed me that its a $2,000-$2,500 job. After $10,000 just this year on the tranny, exhaust, and a few smaller items I'm feeling tapped out this year.

 

Just my view, but maybe if it's a financial problem this year, leave it this year and do it properly next year?

 

Defects like this can be locally fixed, but the biggest problem is matching the new paint to the old, especially if it's a metallic colour. When I was repairing a few locations on my X350 where the aluminium had corroded underneath the paint, I found it a devil of a job to get an aerosol to match the existing colour but finally managed it having bought two previous aerosols from separate suppliers. Plus side is the paint is relatively new and of the modern type so won't have faded much, if at all.

 

Yes, you could just paint the center section of the bonnet, but the issues with not being able to match the color to the fenders is still a possibility. But, if financially this would be a burden, I am with dibbyandco. Leave it be for now and get back to it next year. Just keep an eye on it.
Good luck.
Bill.

 

Based on their location those bubbles are the result of both bad preparation and the intense heat coming off the engine. Once you get the center section repainted I would advise you to open the bonnet a bit after every drive to prevent the paint from getting very hot during the cool down period. This is less of an issue when the car is in motion.

Good luck,
Alan
N.J.

 

This is not an uncommon problem as the heat on that area of the bonnet is intense and even with correct preparation down to bare metal, you may still get bubbling.
The modern water based 2 step paint probably does not stand to heat quite as well. When I had my car repainted, just to be perfectly safe, I added a stainless steel heat shield to the exhaust manifold. XKS Unlimited sells a great one that bolts to the manifold and looks amazingly stock......say goodbye to paint bubbling forever.
If you repaint the bonnet.....go for the heat shield.....it's worth it.