Paint: Paint Failure

[Pentax645]

Last year I painted the cab (including doors) on the 55 Studebaker E5 I'm restoring. I used Nason acrylic enamel with hardener but did not clear coat it.
I wasn't pleased with the paint. It didn't polish well and seemed to be soft. I decided to repaint the cab this year along with the hood and fenders that are now straight and ready for paint. I used Dupont Chromabase with clear. After applying the second of 3 coats of color, I saw places where the paint was wrinkling. Wrinkling happens when the paint being applied interacts with whatever it is being put over and it causes the lower material to curdle. It is very much like putting paint stripper over paint. The wrinkling took place only over the Nason acrylic enamel, not on the hood or fenders which were covered with surfacer. The wrinkling did not occur everywhere, only on about 5 scattered hand size areas. The guy at the paint store says he has not idea what went wrong and that I did nothing wrong. I did not use any pre paint cleaning solvent because I did not use any air tools to final sand the body.
I have to remove the damaged paint, resurface and repaint. those panels. I wonder if anyone else has had this happen or if anyone has any idea what took place here.
By the way, the paint on the panels that I clear coated look beautiful.

[Ron Dame]

Did you apply a sealer before painting? The clear might have helped, but a sealer is necessary. I'm afraid you will need to strip it (if you are lucky only the areas without clear) and repaint :-/

[swvalcon]

chomabase is a base clear system. It has a little bite to the and if your going over enamel that hasn't cured good you could have this problem. Next time if you ever need it remember that if you take about 2 oz's of your clear hardner and add it to a paint cup of mixed base it will prevent this from happening and will make your base coat stronger. You just have to give it a little more time to set up between coats and about double what you would before you clear coat. It makes your base more like a single stage paint and the base has a little more shine to it but it helps take the bite out of it and makes it stronger.

[Pentax645]

The wrinkled areas appear to have adhered to the surfacer below. I'm will be busy with other things for about 2 weeks and when I get back to the truck I'll sand the wrinkled areas smooth, apply some surfacer, smooth it all out, apply sealer if its available and paint. If it fails some time in the future, well, so be it. I'll take care of it then. I feel however, that my plan will work.

[Deaf Mute]

Duct tape should cover any wrinkles, Bill! They make it with Minnesota Vikings logos now so you will fit right in!

[Pentax645]

When I was in college, a few layers of masking tape covered the rust holes on my 59 Ford quite nicely! I brushed paint over the tape and from across the street, it looked pretty darn good! Of course, I'm a bit fussier now.