Lacquer paint
11-02-2010, 11:09 AM
#1
Melting Slicks
Thread Starter
Lacquer paint
Hi Guys,Roughly how manny coats should go on.And should you block sand or wet sand after so manny coats after it dries for a day before final coat.I have been reading on a few web sites that some of the painters do this.Bob W
11-02-2010, 01:09 PM
#3
Safety Car
Bob,
I would put a minimum of 4 full coats on. some guys do way more, but if you have 4 good, wet, coats of lacquer, you should have plenty of material for color sanding and buffing. It is really not necessary to color sand before putting on the final coat, unless it a metallic color. Metallic colors can not be color sanded, as it will break through the top layer and make the paint look blotchy or "ringed". Solid colors can be color sanded with 2000 grit and then just buffed. If you are going with a metallic paint, you may want to consider a couple of coats of clear lacquer on top of the color to give you some room to color sand without breaking through to the metallic.
Lacquer is still a very viable paint product and is still my paint of choice for a car that is going to be judged. It is not as durable as urethane, but most of these cars do not get a lot of abuse. Lacquer is also the absolutely easiest paint on the face of the earth to touch-up. Try touching up a Basecoat/Clearcoat paint job and you will learn what frustration truly is!
Regards, John McGraw
I would put a minimum of 4 full coats on. some guys do way more, but if you have 4 good, wet, coats of lacquer, you should have plenty of material for color sanding and buffing. It is really not necessary to color sand before putting on the final coat, unless it a metallic color. Metallic colors can not be color sanded, as it will break through the top layer and make the paint look blotchy or "ringed". Solid colors can be color sanded with 2000 grit and then just buffed. If you are going with a metallic paint, you may want to consider a couple of coats of clear lacquer on top of the color to give you some room to color sand without breaking through to the metallic.
Lacquer is still a very viable paint product and is still my paint of choice for a car that is going to be judged. It is not as durable as urethane, but most of these cars do not get a lot of abuse. Lacquer is also the absolutely easiest paint on the face of the earth to touch-up. Try touching up a Basecoat/Clearcoat paint job and you will learn what frustration truly is!
Regards, John McGraw
11-02-2010, 01:34 PM
#4
Melting Slicks
Thread Starter
John,Thanks for your input. It is an original 54 Penanat blue.Would like to get it judged at some point when finished.Would you still put the clear on top or elimanate the clear for judging.Bob W
11-02-2010, 01:37 PM
#5
Race Director
Back when I painted my car they talked about putting x-number of double coats on with lacquer. Instead of moving up or down 50% for each pass - a pass back and forth was made and then the next double pass was moved up for a 50% lap. It worked well with lacquer and the older paint guns and put quite a bit of paint on the cars. I'm not sure if it's still as applicable with the HVLP guns.
If you haven't painted and color sanded before, my 2 cents would be to put probably 6 or 7 coats on just to be safe and have plenty of material to work with. Also, on your final coat, try to lay it on as clean as you can. Go over the car as soon as you finish spraying it and if you find a bug in it or some piece of dirt, force dry it with a little heat from a heat lamp, sand out the trash, tack it and immediately spot over it with a another coat of paint. When you color sand and polish it, it will be invisible. Much better than trying to sand out something in the completed surface and ending up with an area of thin paint or finger sanding grooves in the final surface. Maybe you will be lucky to be spraying in a nice spray booth. Good luck.
If you haven't painted and color sanded before, my 2 cents would be to put probably 6 or 7 coats on just to be safe and have plenty of material to work with. Also, on your final coat, try to lay it on as clean as you can. Go over the car as soon as you finish spraying it and if you find a bug in it or some piece of dirt, force dry it with a little heat from a heat lamp, sand out the trash, tack it and immediately spot over it with a another coat of paint. When you color sand and polish it, it will be invisible. Much better than trying to sand out something in the completed surface and ending up with an area of thin paint or finger sanding grooves in the final surface. Maybe you will be lucky to be spraying in a nice spray booth. Good luck.
11-02-2010, 02:26 PM
#6
Safety Car
Bob,
No I would not use clear on any solid color, especially if judging is in the future. The only real reason to use clear would be to minimize the possibility of "ringing" metallic paint when buffing. The nice thing about lacquer, is that if you make a boo-boo, it is easy to fix. If you have to fix a run or a bug track, you can just spot paint that area the next day after you sand out the imperfection. Yes, double, wet, coats are the preferred way of painting lacquer, as runs are pretty tough to make in lacquer. If you try this technique on most urethanes, you will make lots of runs.
Trash in lacquer paint is fairly minimal because the paint dries so quickly. Just make sure that the area is as clean as you can get, and spray away! You do not really need to cover the floor an other surfaces like you do with other paints, as the lacquer will be dry before it hits the floor.
The thinner selection is critical for lacquer. Make sure that you use the temp range thinner that matches the conditions at the time. You are much better off using a thinner that is too slow than using one that is too fast. Too fast of a thinner in warm weather will make for paint that has a lot of dry overspray and does not flow well. Don't under any circumstances, use a cheap, generic lacquer thinner, even on your primer. This type of thinner is only good for cleaning your guns.
Regards, John McGraw
No I would not use clear on any solid color, especially if judging is in the future. The only real reason to use clear would be to minimize the possibility of "ringing" metallic paint when buffing. The nice thing about lacquer, is that if you make a boo-boo, it is easy to fix. If you have to fix a run or a bug track, you can just spot paint that area the next day after you sand out the imperfection. Yes, double, wet, coats are the preferred way of painting lacquer, as runs are pretty tough to make in lacquer. If you try this technique on most urethanes, you will make lots of runs.
Trash in lacquer paint is fairly minimal because the paint dries so quickly. Just make sure that the area is as clean as you can get, and spray away! You do not really need to cover the floor an other surfaces like you do with other paints, as the lacquer will be dry before it hits the floor.
The thinner selection is critical for lacquer. Make sure that you use the temp range thinner that matches the conditions at the time. You are much better off using a thinner that is too slow than using one that is too fast. Too fast of a thinner in warm weather will make for paint that has a lot of dry overspray and does not flow well. Don't under any circumstances, use a cheap, generic lacquer thinner, even on your primer. This type of thinner is only good for cleaning your guns.
Regards, John McGraw
11-02-2010, 02:40 PM
#7
Melting Slicks
Thread Starter
Thanks Guys,for all your input.We will be using a spray booth to make things easier.Will post pictures when painted.As allways you guys are top shelf.
