We describe semiuniversal deformation spaces for the noncompact surfaces Z k := Tot(O P 1 (−k)) and prove that any nontrivial deformation Z k (τ ) of Z k is affine.It is known that the moduli spaces of instantons of charge j on Z k are quasi-projective varieties of dimension 2j − k − 2. In contrast, our results imply that the moduli spaces of instantons on any nontrivial deformation Z k (τ ) are empty.