Small paint bubbles - any cure

[Itineo]

I got the tank and side panels of my 550f resprayed about 12 years ago and they turned out very well. The orignal tank had been scuffed and rusted from a tank bag and (as the previous owner explained) an unhelpful landlady who wouldn't let him wash the salt off the bike after his weekly commute up the A3 in winter to London from the south coast. Most of the paint on the top had been abraded down to and beyond the primer.  Fast forward some years and in Ireland and I got a very nice spray job done on it with new decals etc - you can get an idea from the avatar pic. But in the last few years some very small blisters are starting to appear underneath the paint here and there. Luckily not anywhere I come in contact with the tank, and just a few for now - two or three patches about the size of a thumbprint.  I suppose the rust was going to manifest itself eventually. Nothing serious just yet but in time the bubbles will crack and flake if left alone. The inside of the tank is ok and was cleaned and resealed and there's no issue with that, no pinholes or leaks - it's purely surface rust that's now reappearing. I wonder has anyone had any success in treating something like this, or slowing down the progression?  It looks almost like it is gas bubbles and not flaking rust underneath. The bubbles are quite small - 1.5mm max wide and half that amount in height. The tank still looks very pretty for now but longterm I think it's a lost cause, and will need a paint job again in the future. But I'd be interested in your thoughts on it. I'll try to take some good pictures in daylight tomorrow.
I suppose the upside is a respray takes us into 2035 and beyond. I hope I'll still be riding then.

[SPR]

It could be micro blistering where moisture gets under the paint .... very difficult to get rid of as it essentially means the paint has become porus.

You could test the theory by using a hairdryer to warm the area to see if the blistering reduces ... or leave it out in the sun on a hot day

Simon

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

TBH if your paint job has lasted over 10 years that's pretty good for a repaint on a used item imho,  my experience in the car trade where repaints would often look poor after 5 years.

[Itineo]

It could be micro blistering where moisture gets under the paint .... very difficult to get rid of as it essentially means the paint has become porus.

You could test the theory by using a hairdryer to warm the area to see if the blistering reduces ... or leave it out in the sun on a hot day

Simon

Thanks Simon,

I'll try that with the hairdryer - could be waiting forever for a hot day around these parts.  I took a few pics that I'll post up now

[Itineo]

Photos as promised. I had to drop the resolution to make the attachments fit and it makes the paint finish look like crap but it's quite good apart from the bubbles. Excuse the state of the badge.

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[SPR]

That looks like rust - not micro blistering ...... full strip / prep / repaint

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

The top of the tank looks like rusting from stone impact.
The sides looks like a chemical reaction between undercoat & top colour.

[Sesman]

Uhh, uhh an F2…lovely.😁 Deffo a good rub down with a 400 grade house brick and a splash of paint required.

[Laverdaroo]

Is a 400 grit house brick a Fletton, Set, Engineer or a Heather? ..............love it

[Oddjob]

Just to point out that the tank badge can be restored using the same method I showed or the 500 side panel. Easy to do and really makes a big difference.

[Sesman]

Just to point out that the tank badge can be restored using the same method I showed or the 500 side panel. Easy to do and really makes a big difference.

Bring it on Ken. My badges need a Renno. What do I do. I can’t seem to tempt anybody into reanodise them?

[Oddjob]

So long as the faces of the letters are ok, no scratches, flaking etc then just touch up the outside with some Humbrol Satin Black No58 paint Phil.

If the faces are really bad, consider trying to restore them using chrome spray or gold if they were originally gold.

[Itineo]

Just to point out that the tank badge can be restored using the same method I showed or the 500 side panel. Easy to do and really makes a big difference.

Bring it on Ken. My badges need a Renno. What do I do. I can’t seem to tempt anybody into reanodise them?

Yes it’s something to do in the near future

[Itineo]

The top of the tank looks like rusting from stone impact.
The sides looks like a chemical reaction between undercoat & top colour.

No the paint overall is very good - as good as original apart from the bubbles. No chips, impacts, marks or discolouration anywhere. The photos really don’t do it any favours at all and a combination of surface dust, reflections of all sorts in the background and low resolution make it look horrible. Perversely, the badges come out perfectly.
I had to give it a rub of a rag to remove some dust that settled on it in the garage and didn’t get it all off. I posted the original pics to WhatsApp as a lazy way to reduce the file size so I could post them here and the result is it looks like a dog - images are only 400k in size so any dodgeyness is mostly coming from that.  Colour and finish are very good all over - which is why I was wondering if there was some way to halt the decline.  It’s still much too good to go respraying it any time soon.
Might try taking a better pic tomorrow or digging out something in better weather from before.
Thanks everyone for the feedback so far.  Definitely going to do something with the badge though. It really IS that bad.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

I use Flikr - upload onto photstream then paste the BBCode into a reply - you can choose original file size BBCode or smaller options. Unless you upload a lot of photos it's free. Downside is if close your account then all posted pics will disappear.

In the past I have used the Coloured Turtle Wax polish it's quite effective at hiding paint imperfections - there are other cosmetic paint repair kits that hide marks but never used them. Only downside I have found with the coloured polish is it will wash out eventually. Unlike a car you only have a small area to polish so no biggie.

On none metallic red paint I have recovered some very dull car panels using T cut then restoring with a good quality wax polish then finishing off with Red Colour Wax - even though the red was a differet shade to the polish it worked great on an old Merc W124 saloon.