My nice '65 has most of it's original paint on it. I plan to paint it with lacquer. I do a bit of restoration work and do my own painting. The existing paint is not bad, but needs freshening. I am not going to strip the car but will scuff real well after fixing a few spots. I plan to use a lacquer primer and then PPG paint (Goldwood Yellow). I know BC/CC is better but this car is always garaged and babied. I am having it scored by NCRS and that is one reason for the lacquer paint. Any thoughts on this?

 

sounds good.

 

I have 20 year old Dupont lacquer on my car and it looks pretty much like when I first painted it. It does harden and shrink a little over time as there is a hard-to-see hairline crack over all the bond and caulk joints in the door jambs. I glassed in all the exterior surface bond joints so other than a few minor stress cracks it has held up fine. I'm very careful filling the gas tank up however.

 

Love lacquer, but when it starts crazing , nothing u can do . Resprayed mine with BC/CC
hope I made the right decision

 

I painted mine in 1985 and it still looks like new. Too bad that lacquer hasn't been available for many years. Today's lacquer sux in terms of quality and longevity. I wouldn't waste my time using it even if it was free.

Jim

 

Smart move. I'm doing the same on my 65 this summer.

Jim

 

The lacquer you can buy these days is so inferior to the lacquer you could buy years ago. If your car is a solid color you can spray it with single stage. If your car is a metallic color you can spray it with two stage (BC/CC). Either way you can make single stage or two stage to look like lacquer. Your paint job with urethane will last you a life time. If you use lacquer plan on repainting you car when all the solvents have evaporated.

 

No you won't. A good eye can tell. Yes you can dull the jams but they are ways to tell

 

I would go out on a limb and say that question would be better answered at NCRS.org site.

rustylugnuts

 

If the driving force is NCRS judging, actually having lacquer paint is not a requirement at all. Having paint that LOOKS like lacquer, the way GM applied it is the only things that count.

 

the currently available lacquer paint is nothing like the original paints put on these cars and is nowhere near as durable. I wouldn't use the current lacquers on any car unless it was strictly an unused trailer queen car that will never see the road.
Depending on the color (basically whether or not it's a metallic color or a solid color) i'd go with either BC/CC (metallic color) or single stage enamel (solid color).

either choice can be made to appear as lacquer if needed and if you are concerned about NCRS judging. If you aren't concerned with judging than there would be no reason at all to use today's crappy lacquer and your best bet is to just go BC/CC

 

I'm not familiar we "respraying". Does that mean a quicker prep and respraying over the exsisting paint?
My car looks pretty good from a few steps back but with a close look you can see the flaws. I am not interested in high end shows, just a nice looking driver, but have always dreamt about a new paint job. The car looks too good (for a driver and my budget) for the $12k (or more) it would cost for a good job. (I certainly couldn't do the work myself.)
But does the above mean that you can less expensively "freshen the paintjob" for a car that's not in terrible shape and for an owner who's not very picky and doesn't care about NCRS?

 

My '65 was restored 22 years ago in 1990 and sprayed in Lacquer then. Still looks like new. Today though, I dont know what the best paint or process would be.....guess I'd leave that to the experts who know a lot more than I.