Hi fellow forum members,
I’m always looking for an additional C2 Corvette
and I’m about to look at a candidate tomorrow morning. The paint is old This C2 is Lacquer and is 43 years old and according to the gentleman that owns the car claims the paint is in excellent condition. In addition to checking that all bonding strips are still intact fitment of fenders, doors, hood deck it’s a roadster. Look for any previous damage and cracks or splitting of paint, door jams and bird cage. Any fading etc. Let’s say it passes with fling colors
what is the down side of paint this old ? If it’s in the sun for a day let’s say at a car show will the paint start to check or spider or just patina as time goes on? Or ?
car has always been garaged
thank you,
Rytocor

 

My '67 was last painted in 1982 using lacquer - fine metallic silver-blue (Elkhart). It is not crazed but there are stress cracks in a few places. The bonding strips are not showing but there are a couple of repairs where you can see the indentation (I assume from shrunk filler.) Its a solid 10 foot /10 mph car. Earlier this summer, I spoke with a guy at a cars and coffee who has a custom VW bug. Last painted in 1979, also with lacquer but a solid red, no metallic. His paint looked fabulous.

There's nothing about lacquer that needs any special attention. Keep in mind that most old lacquer jobs probably do not have a clear topcoat, so when you compound you are actually removing color. Additionally, if you can find matching paint, repairs are pretty easy.

 

Thanks again the color is mosport green, I assume is has metallic in the finish. Is that correct ?

 

Thanks again the color is mosport green, I assume is has metallic in the finish. Is that correct ?

 

The downside is lacquer is a more brittle paint than modern urethane. Thus it is more prone to chipping and cracking than urethane. It is also more prone to damage from contaminants on the surface - bird mess, spilled gas, etc. With a lot of weather exposure it will begin to oxidize on the surface which can be brought back with a polish but each round of polishing does thin the paint slightly. On a car that is mostly garaged and kept clean it can give a long service life. But due to a variety of factors it can occasionally start to craze, spider web or otherwise deteriorate in areas or overall.

 

My Rally Red has its original skin

paper thin


would not want it differently

Mossport green more of a challenge, just like the blue with a fine metal flake

 

If the paint is still "ok" I say cut and buff it and enjoy. There's lots of repainted shiny Corvettes out there...Very few original paint survivors. Save the old paint! If you're not wanting to cut and buff yourself find a good detail guy and have him do it.

 

thanks for all the advice
I looked at the car today 43 year old paint and it looks it. No spiders or shrinking but very little gloss and it was disappointing to me it just looks tired. and thinning in many places some would call patina
Photos hide all this very well.
hard to explain unless you viewed it in person
plus the price at this point is too high
maybe I’m better off with an original paint car if I can find it then it makes sense to look tired and old.

 

Lacquer will polish back to a high gloss very well but if it's already thin in places that is a challenge.

 

[QUOTE=RYTOCOR;1608108574]Hi fellow forum members,
I’m always looking for an additional C2 Corvette
and I’m about to look at a candidate tomorrow morning. The paint is old This C2 is Lacquer and is 43 years old and according to the gentleman that owns the car claims the paint is in excellent condition. In addition to checking that all bonding strips are still intact fitment of fenders, doors, hood deck it’s a roadster. Look for any previous damage and cracks or splitting of paint, door jams and bird cage. Any fading etc. Let’s say it passes with fling colors
what is the down side of paint this old ? If it’s in the sun for a day let’s say at a car show will the paint start to check or spider or just patina as time goes on? Or ?
car has always been garaged
thank you,

Rytocor /Quote
I always know many of you have solid input and it’s really appreciated

I had my 66 L79 Couoe out today this one has 2 stage done prior to 2009 not sure the exact date but it always looks good, not as good as a good Lacquer on these cars but still pretty nice. I’m going to keep looking for that right one would love to find a special roadster. I have been blessed to be driving C2’s since I was 19 and there is usually at least one in my garage
In order of owning these great cars
1 In 1969 a 66 Milano maroon L79 of course I just new it as a 350 HP Vette in lacquer
2. 1975 a 66 Trophy blue coupe with a 350 in Lacquer
3. 1993 a 1967 Marina blue coupe L68 427 400 hp in lacquer.
4. 2002 a 63 Daytona blue Split window 300 HP was 2 stage urethane
5. 2004 a 66 roadster Milano maroon 300 hp painted in lacquer.
6 2021 a 1967 coupe L79 in Fathom Green lacquer
7. 2023 a 1966 Coupe L79 in Trophy blue in 2 stage urethane
8. ?

thanks again

 

So who/where can one buy lacquer paint anyway? DuPont/Dotzler long gone. Could anyone sell him lacquer paint in a pint to enable any touch ups? I just thought lacquer paint was not available in any quantity other than touch up pens.

 

Let your fingers do the walking

web walk search paint supply

there are a lot of old non corporate shops that have lacquer

whst color are you looking for?

 

Riverside red lacquer paint. I’ve been to all the paint shops and they laugh at me when I ask for Lacquer. I’ll try online again from what you are saying.

 

https://tcpglobal.com/pages/acrylic-lacquer-paint

I stand corrected! Thank you very much.

 

PPG
website has list of suppliers

I believe this one in Washington state that you can get these materials. I did that about five years ago.

 

My car was repainted back in 1979. Silver pearl metallic lacquer with I can’t tell you how many coats of clear.
The paint still shines like it was painted yesterday buy it does have a few spots where it’s starting to check.
but for a 47 year old paint job it still looks fantastic.

To have it repainted I was quoted a price of 40k. Ridiculous

 

Get a grip

Last summer I put 11,500 of pure paint cost to work up a no hit coupe from raw fiberglass

high quality OEM stuff, not fly by nite repair paint

another couple K in sandpaper fillers prepsol

my labor

40k is cheap

two years ago I thought 50 k show paint job was crazy

not anymore

The retail price of the main color went from $1000 a gallon to $1800 a gallon in just three years - that’s 80% bidenflation

 

Any day now it's gonna drop by 500, 600, 700, 1000%!
(I wouldn't hold my breath on it though.)

 

Affordability .

 

It’s just hard to justify when I paid 25k for the car in 1991. I get it things have gone up but if I had to pay 40 or 50k for a paint job the car would never leave the garage