I'm a hobbyist not a pro body man ,but, I had the benefit of a Dad who was noted for his body work and painting skills. He'd scoff at the notion of "10,12,15 coats of hand rubbed lacquer..." to get a smooth shiny finish.. The more paint coats the more likely the finish will fail.
You CAN get a high quality job with it.
Acrylic lacquer, if properly applied, will last a long long time and without cracking.
This means a minimum of paint. Just like today's paints, good solid body work needs to be under your lacquer. It needs to be sealed; Then no more than two color coats. Lots of paint will not help bad body work or poor prep work.
I painted many cars in the 80s and early 90s with it.
In my opinion, Temperature and humidity need to be dealt with more diligently than current base coat clear coat paints.
"Hot" thinner is necessary on warm days so that the lacquer will flow onto the surface smoothly before it dries. Keeps the paint flowing longer so it lays down. Bad orange peel can be caused by the atomized lacquer actually beginning to dry in the air before it hits the surface where "blobs" up and dries causing a "rhino liner" effect. The reverse is true for cooler days; but, personally I found the cooler thinners much more finicky.
Either way, The good news is you can wet sand and rub out bad spots, runs, and other goof ups like that fairly easy.
All my lacquer jobs were sprayed outside or in hostile garage environments; no spray booths. A 61 Chevy Impala I painted in 1983 still wears it's 2 coat lacquer job and is regularly seen at car shows locally. No cracks, blisters, or spider webs.
Painted it on a (hosed down) gravel driveway with a Binks Number 7 gun.
My 58 Buick Roadmaster still wears its factory "Silver Mist" metallic acrylic lacquer finish; and other than actually wearing thin in spots still looks darned good. I can't bring myself to repaint since it's only original once!
just my 2 cents
