Color me the second dumb *** in this case! And don't be so sure you are the least experianced painter on here... If I explained to everybody what I have been up to as a painting project all day today,(and what got me thinking about this question in the first place) most of the real painters would dissavow all knowledge of my existance, not that they shouldn't already!!!
I recently bought a few quarts of DupliColor ready to spray Candy Colors. I don't care for the Candy Red at all...looks muddy, but the Candy Orange looks good. Haven't tried the Candy Green yet, but it looks good in the can. Summit has them for 19.00 per quart. I've been top coating lacquers with urethane clear with no problems for years, both candies and solid colors. I don't paint cars for anyone other than myself anymore but I've done a few bikes that way with no problems. After I get the lacquer on I let it gas out for at least a few days before the first clear coats. Then I sand with 1200, 1500, then 2000 before polishing. If I want to pinstripe it I stop at 1500, do my striping or lettering, let that dry for at least a few days then clear again. I've been using up my stash of DuPont Lucite mixing toners for that last 10 or 15 years and I'm starting to run low, but there are several very "clean" toners that are, essentially , Candy Colors. I did a test on one of my Ford tractors years ago designed to find out how versital this stuff actually is. I did everything as wrong as I could hoping for failure. I intermixed lacquer and base coats, sprayed one over the other on the blends, used lacquer thinner in base coat and basemaker in lacquer, hosed on the clear WAY to thick, stripped it and airbrushed shaddows under the flame licks...more clear, sanded and polished then left out in the weather...ice, snow, wind, sand, 100 plus summers...for 7.5 years waiting for a failure, which finally happened with the clear starting to delaminate over the pinstriping. The tractor was used as a tractor... No playing favorites.... Washed maybe once a years by hosing it down with engine cleaner and a a garden hose. No drying it off, no wax... Just abuse
In total honesty, noticing that a while ago is what made me think of this deal. I had read over on Jockey Journal that one guy was using this clear as a carrier for flakes, but nothing more after that. And I have to admit that I only lurk over there and not participate in the discussions 'cause I'm only a part time bike kinda guy... Mostly just a Hot Rodder. The other thought with that stuff is that they don't offer a candy blue color. Green and red only. some one must be in a permenent Christmas frame of mind within their manufacturing plant...
I have no problems shooting "nice" paint in my ****py garage with NON-lacquers..... Todays urethane clears can be used over damn near anything.... And Dupli-color is ****.......
Hey Sinister...see socalmercs avatar? Besides, I said pretty damn good, thats better than nice. The scale goes like this; 1) you paint that with a broom? 2) looks ok from 50 feet away, if you squint 3) nice 4) pretty damn good and 5) HOLEEEY ****.
I used to always use urethane clears over laquers and would on occasion get lifting. On a job like Rich Wright I might have a problem with one of the colors. You just strip it off and start over. Longer drying helps here. I could get Candy Like results sometimes by just mixing a solid color into the clear just like the toners. I think for a blue you would be happy with the look. Red's I agree do look muddy and cannot compete with the urethane candies. You are doing " custom paint" so sometimes the mistakes can be unique and cool. Prep a bunch of test panels and try out your combos. Oh, and post those photos.
I think you might have missed the first part of this where I explained that I have some respatory issues that would preclude me from sprying urethanes... Wish I could, but it just isn't worth the possible death/downtime not breathing thing. I have a low threshold of death anyway!
I started out shooting lacquer graphics on motorcycles and topcoating with urethane clear for gasoline resistance. The problems come from the gas cap area and pet**** area. Gas will get in between the lacquer and clear and ruin your work if you let it. Make sure you overlap the lacquer with the clear in those areas as best as you can. The clear will not have the best adhesion either. I've stripped my paint jobs back down and the urethane clear flaked cleanly off the lacquer. Also, if you're using 1 Shot (or anything other than urethane) for striping and plan to urethane clear over it, fog the first coats lightly and let it flash. If not the stripes will at least get fuzzy at the edges with a medium coat and damn near run with a heavy coat.
Who "dissed" lacquer....silly..... Lacquer is great...I use it alot......for cleaning.... You might have missed the post I was referring to...... And when clearing OVER 1-shot...add a "tad" of hardener to the 1-shot...it'll keep it from "bleeding"....
Bill Hirsch sells nitro laquer in clear and black... and can mix custom colors, too. http://www.hirschauto.com/prodinfo.asp?number=NITL-GAL
Abso-freekin'-lutely!!! That kit is one of the reasons a '29 rpu has always been on the short list! I have almost talked my self into fenders at this point too...
The Jalopy Journal
