I have a guy I know that has a 20 year old black lacquer paint job, just needs a little freshening. It needs one small spot repaired. He wants to know if the rest of the car can be sanded and recleared. There are no cracks or chips to speak of. He just wants the finish freshened up. This is a nice car, a real nice car. He has just been polishing this thing for 20 years and wants to make it look a little nicer. He isnt ready to spend the money to have it all re-done in a new base/clear. He has all the paint ready to go. I just dont really know what you can and cant do with the stuff. I dont want to get into and find that I cant make it right. thanks, jeff
in my opinion...laquer is one of the easiest, and most forgiving paints you can use. i am not a painter, but i did paint 1 complete car and a couple of motorcycle tanks with laquer. laquer is pretty easy to blend if you need to spot paint areas. i can give you instructions on how to do this... but i may or may not have done it in the correct way according to a professional painter. as long as the paint he has is the exact paint that was put on the car originally (exact color) then you should be ok. any areas that need touched up, should be sanded or scuffed, and the edges feathered out. when you spray these areas, feather the paint out to good paint, wetsand, and buff. the spots should become invisible, and they shoudl blend right in with the existing paint. again, i am not a painter, nor am i an expert on this....this is just the way that i did it.
What specifically do you want to know? Lacquer IS easy to touch up, but OLD lacquer can be challenging. Oc***ionally it will shatter like gl*** when you try to put fresh paint over it.
In the early 70s, I followed all the write-ups about the antique show cars that competed at Hershey, etc. I recall reading that those cars all were laquer so that stone chips could be sanded, reainted & blended in with the best results compared to other paints. They would always save extra paint from the restoration just for that. Supposedly, laquer paint that is hardened on a surface for years technically can scaped off and be mixed with thinner and it turns back into paint! So that's why those show cars could be blended so perfectly; because the "spot painting" actually melts into the old paint without leaving blend line. There are variations in blacks, from what I read. I am not sure about laquer clearing, I don't think those show cars used it, because then you can't keep repairing it, once it is cleared.
Back when I started painting about 20 years ago, all I used was laquer. That is what my dad had always used and so that is what he taught me. As mentioned above, laquer is fairly easy to blend. If he just needs to fix a few spots, he should be able to get away with it (if he has any experience at all). A few years after I started painting, I would spray laquer base and then shoot urethane clear over it after sanding the base with 600 grit. The urethane clears have changed quite a bit since then though, and I am not sure whether you can still get away with that or not.
This is one of the things that I am worried about.. Also , what size tip on the gun is used? And , after it is done, is buffing it the same as urathane? So, if it is a stable surface, it might be ok to go over. Thanks for the replys so far. Jeff
You said re-cleared? If it is cleared you may have a problem melting the new into the old. And I'm just wondering here, You say he has the paint? Where and when did he get it? We haven't been able to find it here for 10+ years and our sources tell us it isn't made anymore. Well, what they said was it's illegal now.
You can still get lacquer from many sources, even the old nitocellulose lacquers are still available (Bill Hirsch, and Hibernia Restoration, for example) Are you sure it's cleared? If so, is it lacquer clear? 52styline is correct, 20 years ago there were products available to clear over a lacquer substrate, that were NOT lacquer. Even Centari has a special clear to go over lacquer, as well as the old "2K" products (early urethane?), and Imron was a popular clearcoat for lacquer, though Dupont always warned against doing so. So you need to verify the type of clearcoat used, if you can. A quick test to see if it IS lacquer is just to put a lacquer thinner soaked rag over the paint for a few seconds, and then wipe it with the rag. If the paint smears, it IS lacquer, as only lacquer thinner will dissolve lacquer. If a cheaper enamel (non catalyzed) was used the finish may wrinkle. If it's catalyzed, usually nothing happens. The usual repair regime was to fix the problem, lacquer primer it, sand, reprime, to make sure you got out the sctarches, final sand with 400 grit wet. Then we would usually compound out the area surrounding the repair (blend area) Do this pretty far out, or just do the entire panel. You could also just 600 grit wet the entire area, but you won't "see" the blend as well if you do this. Paint the immediate repair area until color coverage is achieved. Spray blender, or slow dry lacquer thinner around the repair area. The next coat go out another 2 in. or so outside the reapir area. Spray blender over that entire area (repair + blend). Let dry a while, then do another coat, but go 4 in. farther out. Blend out that area. Do this for 4-6 coats, always blending (melting in) the new paint gradually into the old. Whe finished, let the reapir dry for at least a week, then 600 grit and polish...that stuff is SO much easier than buffing urethane! If the panel is lacquer cleared, do the same procedure with the color, but when finished, clearcoat the entire panel...usually a blend in lacquer clear results in "rings" where the blend is, it never really melts in completely, and when you buff it, the transition area will show as a ring. If the car is cleared with other than lacquer clear, you may be in trouble, but a VERY experience painter (old school!) may be able to pull it off. Lacquer has a deserved reputation of wrinkling up enamel based paints. But there are ways to get around it.
Chopolds explained it pretty well. I was a rep. for BASF for 30 years and have seen some real nightmares from experienced painters. Should try to stay with lacquer over lacquer and stay away from any urathanes unless you know what your doing and wear a good mask with charcoal, not a dust mask. Dad
I agree with chopolds on the cracking. When I got into the body and paint business 36 years ago the only thing we used was Acrylic lacquer and straight Enamel. First you have to identify if it's Acrylic or Nitrocellulose lacquer. Nitrocellulose (not sure of spelling,it's been years) which was more common in the 50's & early 60's ,will clog sand papper more than Acrylic. Sand a small area that can't be seen to find out. If it's Nitro, be carefull recoating, it can "lift" like enamel, if you shoot too wet or use too much thinner or retarder. If it's Acrylic you can recoat with color or clear ,just make sure you give it plenty of 'flash' time in between coats. You will need at least 4-5 medium/wet coats in order to sand and rub properly. You will also need to see if the present paint job is clear coated. Do that when you sand for repaint. If it leaves black sand resedue, then it's not cleared. If you use clear, be carefull not to put too many coats on. Over black, it will tend to make it look 'milky'.When I shoot black I don't normaly clear, it gives a much 'blacker' deeper look. As mentioned earlyer, lacquer blends well, althought it is better to clear at least the blend area. Just step each coat out, making sure to tack in between each coat.Then 'melt' in with thinner or retarder. Let dry at least a week (I like to do 2 or 3), then sand with 600, then 1k paper and buff with a wool pad. You cannot lay into lacquer like urethane, it will 'burn'. Hand rub your blend area, finnish off with hand glaze, done. Sorry if I got a little long winded, should have been a tech I guess. pm me if you want to talk. Hope this helps
chopolds last post is on the money. He mentioned alot I missed, Hope everything we said didn't confuse you. good luck!
just painted my 32 with blk lac had forgot how much fun it was just a note about painting over old lac just dust on lite coats not wet or it will craze on you
Wow,choplds and guys, this is just what I was wanting. Man , all the things t look for and how to handle all that comes up. well, if I do take this job on, I will post it all on here. thanks for everything. Jeff
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