Paint job swirls

[emal]

Just a quick question for Talkbass world:

Has anyone ever had these types of swirls or squiggly lines (for lack if a better term) on their basses?
It's not exclusive to "rub" areas .
Makes the paint job look cloudy
I've never seen that before so was curious.

Bass never gigged or recorded etc.

 

[direktor]

Being my day job is in digital photography/videography/image processing/digital color correction….

Those look like an artifact from a processing step applied to the photos after they were taken.

Not 100% certain, but it looks like photo 3 is much more of a closeup than say photo 1, but yet the pattern is scaled the same on both.

 

[mikeswals]

Looks like contamination separation happened in that area when the layers went on.

 

[emal]

I took those photos
Picture 3 is thevreonr "horn" of the bass
the 2 others are from the back

 

[emal]

Looks like contamination separation happened in that area when the layers went on.

That's what I was afraid of.

 

[AHaze]

Not on an instrument but I have done some automotive paint work and ended up with a similar appearance. I don't know exactly what caused it but I don't have a proper spray booth or formal training for that matter so I assume it is caused by either some sort of contamination or a technique error. The good news is I was able to correct the issue with wet sanding/polishing so that might be worth a go if it bothers you that much.

 

[/\/\3phist0]

Underlay coats were not cured enough before topcoat applied.

 

[emal]

Thanks for all your answers!
It helped!

 

[SharpCat]

Looks vaguely like automotive wrinkle paint. I think that works by having excess thinners in the paint so as they evaporate the actual paint shrinks and wrinkles. Maybe same here to some extent?

 

[moon-bass]

It looks like an issue with the paint/clear coat. Either a contaminate (cleaner in the line, mineral spirits, water, body not clean when painted, ultra high humidity, etc.), wrong type of thinner (which is pretty much the same as a contaminate), paint/clear coat type mis-match, or cheap paint with undried layers underneath (looking at you, Rustoleum). It's hard to tell from the pics, but if it's just in the clear coat, you might be able to buff it out with some compound and a good buffer/lots of elbow grease. If it's in the actual paint itself, I'd recommend sanding it down and repainting as you don't know what the contaminate is and if the paint will last - or if it will start peeling.

Best of luck!

 

[emal]

It looks like an issue with the paint/clear coat. Either a contaminate (cleaner in the line, mineral spirits, water, body not clean when painted, ultra high humidity, etc.), wrong type of thinner (which is pretty much the same as a contaminate), paint/clear coat type mis-match, or cheap paint with undried layers underneath (looking at you, Rustoleum). It's hard to tell from the pics, but if it's just in the clear coat, you might be able to buff it out with some compound and a good buffer/lots of elbow grease. If it's in the actual paint itself, I'd recommend sanding it down and repainting as you don't know what the contaminate is and if the paint will last - or if it will start peeling.

Best of luck!

Thanks! I'll probably leave it as is for the foreseeable future. Of one day I sell it then I'll have it professionally done.

 

[GreyBeard]

I'm no expert but it looks like what auto body guys use to call "orange peel". The contamination between layers sounds like a reasonable explanation.