Solvent Popping

More than 50% of the Honda/Hyundai cars I've noticed on the road have micro raised spots all over the paintwork. Whether it's assembled locally, or fully imported (CBU) from Japan, there are batches of cars which are prone to have this problem. For example, I've seen a few CBU black Odyssey and many of the CBU Jazz with such problem. I suspect this kind of OEM paint defect is called solvent popping. From what Glasurit mentioned, solvent popping is...

"Blister-like surface defects due to solvent entrapment in the surface of the paint film."




Also, I found this quote from the net...

"... More often, the root cause of blisters is solvent popping caused by the paint sprayer who did not observe the correct flash-off time during the paint spraying stage. Flash-off simply means the allowance of time as specified by the paint manufacturer for the solvent or thinner to evaporate during the paint spraying stage. In the painting process, a car is sprayed over with basecoat (color) and clearcoat (topcoat) a number of times. If the sprayer fails to observe the flash-off time in between coats, trapped solvents under the succeeding coats will find a way out creating microscopic bubbles.

These tiny holes become very evident during the rainy season when moisture enters the holes and manifests as blisters only to disappear when the sun shines and the moisture evaporates. The long-term effect of blistering is more damaging - as a result paint chipping and lifting will take place."

No, I haven't seen such problem on Toyota or even Perodua paint before, no matter how the owner neglect his/her car. Definitely it's due to flaws in paint finishing procedure which Honda/Hyundai have to look into it.