# plastic shutters blistering



## mpminter (Mar 21, 2011)

Yesterday I painted some brand new shutters for a customer, and he called today to tell me that there are blisters and bubbles popping up everywhere. They shutters were wiped down with denatured alcohol, sprayed with Bulls Eye 1-2-3, allowed to dry for a couple hours, and then sprayed with Duration exterior satin. I don't have a picture right now, but I'll try to get one up tomorrow. Any ideas as to what may be the cause? Again, these shutters were brand new out of the box, and they were allowed to dry for a couple minutes between being wiped down and being sprayed. The only thing I can think of is that maybe the primer wasn't dry when i applied the Duration, but I have no idea.


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## RH (Sep 7, 2010)

Maybe the surface temp was too high? Was it in direct sunlight?

Also, is denatured alcohol really the best solvent to tack that product with? Usually that's reserved for shellac, mineral spirits for oil and plain old H2O for acrylics.


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## Dave Mac (May 4, 2007)

seen that happen when it was really hot outside and two coats applied in the sunlight


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## DeanV (Apr 18, 2007)

A lot of factory cored plastic shutters are supposedly unpaintable per label and manufacturer instructions. At HD, the paintable kind is a different plastic than the colored ones from the same manufacturer. Not sure if XIM plastic and vinyl primer could stick to that kind of plastic or not but it is the only kind I would try.


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## CliffK (Dec 21, 2010)

Dave Mac said:


> seen that happen when it was really hot outside and two coats applied in the sunlight


 I have seen the same. What happens essentially is that the primer or finish dries before it has a chance to adhere properly. Usually it's the primer, so it is just kind of sitting on top because it was too "dry" to stick. When you put the top coat on it "wets" it and causes it to bubble. I have also seen this happen with low humidity windy conditions on the exterior.
Could be that or like Dean suggested ,it is some funky plastic where the primer just didn't bond.


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## mpminter (Mar 21, 2011)

Gibberish45 said:


> Maybe the surface temp was too high? Was it in direct sunlight?
> 
> Also, is denatured alcohol really the best solvent to tack that product with? Usually that's reserved for shellac, mineral spirits for oil and plain old H2O for acrylics.


I went with the denatured alcohol just because I didn't want to risk acetone damaging the shutters. The area I had set up for painting was cool, breezy and probably 50-70% shaded so I seriously doubt it was too hot. I've used the XIM product before, but it dried so fast that it was miserable to work with, and I would have had to buy a ton of xylene to clean my sprayer. In retrospect, that was probably the best option. I will be going by to take a look tomorrow morning and I will be curious to see if the top coat is bubbling off the primer or if the primer is bubbling off the surface.


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## NCPaint1 (Aug 6, 2009)

Why would you need xylene to clean up XIM? Theres a water and oil version. No need for xylene.

Sent from my Android, which is still better than the iPhone 6


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## straight_lines (Oct 17, 2007)

I ran into this last year. Had to wipe with xylol and used stix. It finally worked.


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## Rick the painter (Mar 30, 2009)

Were they outside thru the evening? Condensation could have got ya.I had similar problem with BM Mooreglo.The new coatings dont cure as fast as the old and can get damaged easier.


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## Workaholic (Apr 17, 2007)

I would think maybe it was the temp but I have never had a problem with just slapping some paint on them without primer.


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## Rbriggs82 (Jul 9, 2012)

Workaholic said:


> I would think maybe it was the temp but I have never had a problem with just slapping some paint on them without primer.


Me neither, sometimes less is more.


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## mpminter (Mar 21, 2011)

Workaholic said:


> I would think maybe it was the temp but I have never had a problem with just slapping some paint on them without primer.


This is what I've done in the past with no problems, however the customer was a little dubious. This is an add on, so he's paying for labor and material and I figured what the heck, I'll just prime them. I may have outsmarted myself here...


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## DeanV (Apr 18, 2007)

If adhesion is real poor, powerwashing might get most of the paint off,


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## NACE (May 16, 2008)

Had a presentation at our PDCA meeting tonight from XIM rep. She was great. The XIM plastic and vinyl primer is designed exclusively for those types of shutters that are unpaintable. She had some great samples. These shutters don't have a release wax on them that makes paint crawl but have plasticizers in them that reject all coatings even after solvent wipe.


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## Gough (Nov 24, 2010)

DeanV said:


> If adhesion is real poor, powerwashing might get most of the paint off,


Since we don't have easy access to a hot-water power washer, we sometimes take projects like this to the car wash. I think the last time we did that was to prep some plastic shutters for repainting.


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