The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Lacquer paint

Anybody go old school and spray lacquer (the old acrylic stuff) on your truck? If so, what product did you use? Results? Thinking about it because of the dirt issue in the shop. If memory serves, you could shoot lacquer in a dust bowl and it didn't really matter much since you would have to wet sand/ buff anyway. Please share any results. Thanks!

Lacquer does not age well. There's a reason that it's rarely used these days.

Don't use it. With in a few years you will have Lacquer cracks. Really old school would be the enamils and really really old school would be the delux paint that was heated on a hot plate and then sprayed.The new paints are much better.

I don't even know if you can get lacquer anymore. Didn't the EPA pretty much stop its use?

Just in some areas. Still sold here in Illinois.

DG

Dulux, instead of delux, is a product of Dupont, I have sprayed many gallons of it...but its a myth to say it was heated on a hot plate, unless it was a painter new to the business...
Lacquer cracks only when a painter sprays coat after coat, trapping solvents that eventually will find its way out, then say lacquer will crack in a couple years...another reason for crow footing is after getting multiple coats of clear on, again trapping solvents,still wondering why it doesn't hold up.. Clear has NO strength whatsoever..Take a small amount of color (providing its lacquer) allows the color to cross-link, adding strength, as long as You allow the coats to flash before adding another coat not to exceed (3) coats...When I painted for GM on cars that were in the auto shows, Lacquer was what We used 100% of the cars...Certain colors oxidize before others, maroon is one of them, take a buffing wheel and bring the color back to its original luster...On the other hand, with enamel You must remember the last coat is the sheen coat, if You put a buffer to it, the color will die in 6 months,or less...

Used a lot of lacquer in the 80's and like Bill said if you have 10 coats then it is an issue. Lots of guys used to brag about having 5 coats of hand rubbed lacquer on their rides which was a joke since it was about 3-4 and probably 1 1/2 of those were wet sanded and buffed off. The other problem I remember was that lacquer/solvent will penetrate and you had to be careful with the surface/ primer and what you had under it. Bill you are right about the trapping solvents, leads to lifting and what we used to call spider webs/ crow foot effect. It is still available, heck Summit sells it, Dupli-color, I beleive.

Yeah but it shined the best!!! Had a deep, yet soft shine. Definitely the best paint to date. And I gotta say that the paints today aren't any better. Have u seen any clear coats jobs that are more than 5-6 years old and not faded all the way to the paint?!!!! I'm talkin' factory now. If it's not garaged kept, it's no better than the old stuff. Maybe better for the environment, but not the painter. Have u read the lable for urathans? (spelling)

While trapping solvents in paint can lead to issues most of the checking (cracking, spider webbing, etc.) I've seen was caused by the excess thickness of the paint not expanding and contracting at the same rate as the metal. It's the same issue that plagues fiberglass. The base (metal and fiberglass) expands and contracts more than the paint can so the paint develops cracks. Usually trapped solvents result in blushing, lifting and sometimes bubbling of the topcoat.

BTW for us old schoolers who remember the lacquer and the 10 coat hand rubbed/buffed remember its a thinner per coat than enamal and its not any different than ppl putting 10 coats of clear on now adays lol you sand between coats making it basicaly just a few thin coats, plus us grandpa's didn't have UV protection in our paints lol

and btw you rarely saw a lacquer multi-layer with.... orange peel even some of the "high dollar boyde cars i have seen in the last decade had orange peel and buffmarks do take it for what its worth

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

The issue I have with lacquer is that it oxidizes more than other paints. The color you see on the polish rag is oxidized paint coming off and you polish a lot because of the high rate of oxidation. It doesn't take too long before you're through the paint and the primer starts to show. All topcoats oxidize but lacquer does it faster than enamels.

Panhead59, I agree, some of the 'vettes and higher end vehicles we did at my Dad's shop back in the day were beautiful. Yeah, I read the labels on the newer two stage stuff. Just was always easy to shoot lacquer to me. Just wondered if anyone had used a lacquer product with nice results lately or had pic's to share of one they had someone do.

I'm glad we something better to paint with than lacquer. The first lacquer I used was Honduras Maroon back in 62. Nice paint to spray, especially if conditions were not ideal, but it always meant buff out to finish the job.
I never thought it was any fun trying to bring up a shine in a door jam !

The only gripe I have with modern day paints, aside of the cost, is that clears don't have the longevity one would like them to have.

Dan