Big Bubbles In Nitrocellulose Clear Coat

[glaus]

This is my first "pro" finish attempt - I don't have the money for the compressor, etc. right now so I bought some rattle cans from Reranch.com. I applied the nitrocellulose black for a few coats (perhaps 5 or more altogether with a little 400 grit sanding along the way) after using Stewmac sanding sealer. Everything was looking wonderful, some orange peel but really quite minimal and I could start to finally see my reflection. And then last night I started with the clear coat nitrocellulose from reranch. I likely applied it too thick. As it dried, I notice a bubble here and there (each about 3-5 mm in diameter, perhaps what I've seen referred to as a pop rather than blushing). There might be 5 or so bubbles on the entire guitar body. By the way, I'm in St. Louis - it's humid, it was about 80 degrees and a bit windy and I'm in the garage. I also have some blushout from reranch. My question is this: now that the clear nitrocellulose has hardened overnight, can I apply some blushout to melt the clear rather than sanding it out? Will it melt the bubble? I'm asking this because blushout is supposedly used to get the tiny bubbles out so shouldn't it work the same for the big ones also? My hope is that I can do this rather than sand becuase I just ran out of the black and would like to proceed with the clear. Would it be better to build up more clear coats first prior to applying the blushout if I'm afraid it might affect the black?

Alternatively, should I just wet sand the clear (and to what grit) and then continue with the clear coating?

Alternative 2: will the next coat of clear melt the previous coat thereby eliminating the bubble?

Thanks!

[killemall8]

Blushout is used to eliminate clouding due to moisture... Never heard of it used after a finish is applied to melt bubbles. but i dont use lacquer, so maybe somebody else will know.

[glaus]

I would appreciate it if someone could comment on my options as well as identifying the best way to resolve this rather than the easiest way. Thanks again

[USMCHueston0311]

i would sand it out, wet sand with around 800 or higher grit paper, sand the entire body, and continue the clearing process.. Send a pic of the bubbles so we can get a better look.

[Southpa]

Thats happened to me with acrylic lacquer. Too much heat, too much lacquer and too much convection. The lacquer has to gas off solvents to cure. What is happening is the surface of the lacquer is drying too fast and skinning over resulting in trapped solvent vapor bubbles. In my case it was quite prevalent and the bubbles were fairly deep. I basically stripped it clean and started over. What should you do? If the finish doesn't look like swiss cheese like mine did perhaps you can do spot fills. What can you lose? If it doesn't work you can always strip it back and do it again.