Paint Wrinking / Crinkling/ Lifting

[ms1120]

I decided to do this in the name of the furtherance of the Power Wheels Nation. I have seen alot of posts lately on painting problems and wanted to try to save some poor soul alot of time. Paint wrinkling occurs primarily when the base coat doesnt bond to the material. This can occur from grease left behind, different thinners in different paints, adhesive left on the surface and primarily, not waiting the recommended time before recoating. When this happens, anything you spray on top of base coat will cause the base coat to lift away from the material. Then, tragedy strikes. It usually starts as a spider web looking design that seems like an easy fix. The problem is, when you spray more paint on top of it to "fix" it, it only compounds the problem.
I am painting a truck for my daughter and she wanted it pink. I did everything by the book (can) and painted it with enamel. I cleaned it, primed it with Fusion White and then top coated it with Krylon Ballet Slipper Pink. I did everything from make sure the humidity was right, the temperature was right and then that everything was clean. The one thing that I didnt do was wait the period of time recommended on the can. ON PURPOSE. I, like many of you, am sometimes impatient. When you are painting and have a patience problem, you better use Laquer.
I have literally painted over a hundred Power Wheels. A few have gone wrong. For those of you who have attempted or are about to attempt to paint a Power Wheels type vehicle. this is important. Now, this is primarily an Enamel problem. That is not to say that Laquer wont do it but I havent made it happen this far. If you spray Enamel over cured Laquer, there is no issue. If you spray Laquer over Enamel, bad things are very likely.
I did this on purpose. I did everything I could to make it stick and only one thing that was sure to make it lift. I waited three days. What a waste of paint, huh? Dont be impatient. In the event that this happens, you can use Laquer Thinner and alot of elbow grease to take it off. Sopt sanding the wrinkled section and repainting probably will not give you the desired results.
Take your time and do it once and do it right. My general rule is not to paint at all unless I have all the supplies with me and the conditions are right. Hopefully this will save someone alot of headache.

[taz11]

Great info MS1120. The only thing I can add to this is that sometimes putting an excessively think coat of paint over cured paint (even when properly cured) can also cause this. The solvents in the new paint are sometimes stronger than the best plastic/paint adheasion.

It is a common practice to lay on the last coat really thick to get a better gloss on it......Beware if you have cured paint underneath.

[ms1120]

So, I used this in real time to see how long it took. With a 1gallon paint bucket, a set of heavy duty chemical gloves, a wrapped dishwashing sponge and 8 ounces of laquer thinner in the bucket, I was able to remove all the rest of the paint in an hour and a half. That makes total time from mess up to ready to paint again 4.25 hours. Dont waste the time in having to start over. It is always, like taz said, that "One more coat" that gets it.