C4S suddenly got an Acne Breakout!

Went out to my C4S this morning to pop up to my Mum and Dads and to my horror was greeted by this.... I haven't used the care since the day before Christmas Eve and it been parked in the same place as it has been for the past 4 years. We have had no extreme weather so what can it be? Its as though the car has hit 17 and got a bad case of Acne. The bubbles are all over the front bumper and nowhere else.

I have the same problem, though not nearly as bad as yours, on my 1999 C4. Looks like the bumper needs a re-spray for next summer

Have you had a front end refresh recently? A poor respray can come up like this several months afterwards.

Is the car kept under a cover?

It looks like it has been extremely hot and blistered the paint :dont know:

Chemical reaction after recently being resprayed.

It's not had a respray in the near 5 years of my ownership, it's never been kept under a cover. Over the Christmas week it has hardly been hot in Barrowford, averaging about 5 degrees daily and less at night. It's baffled me.

I had this recently, similar in that nothing had been done to the car. I just put it down to something having been sprayed etc or come up from the road that reacted with the paint. Repaint is only real option I was told.

No chance anyone else could have painted it without you knowing? It's not unheard of for a lady to get a car repaired in secret before her husband finds out husband finds out about the damage

acne I have had the exact same reaction on a bathroom wall. The wall had been painted in a bright orange mixture which looked a bit like sand and paint mixed. I stripped the wall with nitromors paint stripper about 12 years ago and last year the exact same affect has surfaced as on your car!

Thats micro blistering! Its something under the paint usually moisture, i see this when people put covers on the car when wet or recent paint thats released the moisture in time. Both dont seem likely in the case of yours, however this is very unlikely to be under factory paint. Its a case of removing and refinishing the affected areas

Google .. " microblisters car paint " .. the various links will explain it . It can happen a long time after it has been painted .. and yes your PU has been painted at some point in its life .

This type of blistering is caused by atmospheric conditions in conjunction with a probable respray on the bumper, maybe years ago. We've had a very long, wet Autumn and water vapour has permeated the paint film. This happens to a greater or lesser extent with all paints. The last few days has seen unusually warm temperatures for the time of year and the escaping water vapour has popped the paint film off at a weak point. Weak points are normally introduced during re-sprays and not at the manufacturer (Porsche). Could be lack of sanding or leaving some contaminant on the surface before the new paint is applied. The solution is a very thorough sanding to remove as much of the at risk paint layers as possible and then respray. New paint quality is important, go for a recognised brand at the refinisher. I could recommend a few.

Thanks for the opinions guys. The bubbles are still there today but have reduced in number and size dramatically. I'll see how it goes and then when I get some other paint jobs done this summer I'll get the bumper repainted too.

Try heating them up with a hot air gun, carefully obviously.