Duracryl Lacquer

[Justin N.]

Dear Members,
Is this what most you shoot for a lacquer finish? I'm thinking of using lacquer instead of BC/CC Glasurit and was curious. Last weekend at the local NCRS meet, After comparing cars with lacquer against BC/CC, I could tell from about 5 to 10 feet away which was which. It was quite obvious, but maybe that's from shooting so many BC/CC jobs at my friend's body shop.
Justin #41362

[Dick W.]

Re: Duracryl Lacquer

PPG's Duracryl is a good lacquer to use. I guess that you are lucky to find a jobber that has lacquer and the mixing colors. Quite a few of the formulas for the older cars are off set colors. Be careful of the color/tint/hue. Find a spot on your car that still has the original color and color match to that spot.

[Duke W.]

Re: Duracryl Lacquer

There are ways to "trick" modern single stage enamels into looking like lacquer, but very tough if not impossible to do so with BC/CC.

If you plan on painting your own car, lacquer is the way to go. You can get good results without a booth. It's labor intensive, but very forgiving.

I don't know of any auto paint suppliers in CA that still have lacquer mixing equipment. Various air quality regulations essentially disallow the use of lacquer by professional paints shops, but these various rules and regulations do not apply to the home hobbiest.

You'll have to get the lacquer from an out-of-state supplier that still has lacquer mixing equipment.

Duke

[Dick W.]

Re: Duracryl Lacquer

Justin, I am with Duke on being able to use single stage urethanes to give the appearance of lacquer. The amount of extra work to do so is quite a bit, but the results can be rewarding. Having a paint job that looks original and as durable as the new C-6 Corvette paints. I am sure if you research the archives on this board you will find numerous posts on the procedures and the pros and cons of doing so. You will find members that are adamantly against anything but lacquer, and there are those that are at the opposite end of the spectrum.

I gather that you are employed in a paint/body shop, or have experience doing that kind of work. Using either topcoat should be easy for you. I know that you understand about the proper usage of substrates before you color coat the car so I will not go into that again.

I believe that you stated that you would be at the Regional in Berkley. If so I will talk to you about how to get the lacquer look. NCRS and some other judging organizations have standards on paint. Go to the Northern California Chapter web page and they have it online. Roy Sinor spelled it out in his column in the Restorer within the last six months or so.

[Justin N.]

Re: Dick, Duke, and Jack

Thanks much for the help! I just saw so many paint jobs at the meet which had tons of clear 'hung up' on edges and difficult to sand places which made it quite obvious. My experience of auto painting is from curiousity. I have done about 15-20 complete restos of vintage cars with my friend at his shop, but wasn't being paid, just fascinated. I'll be up at the Golden Gate in April and will be looking forward to putting a smiling face with a name! Duke, we can carpool if the 'tree-clutching, acid-crazed, Berkeleyites' don't scare you off because of Earthday. I understand, I was born very late in the sixties about 20 minutes south in Pleasanton.
Justin

[Ed Jennings]

Re: Dick, Duke, and Jack

If you aren't an experienced painter, lacquer is a much, much easier paint for an amatuer to use successfully. If you are apraying a solid color, virtually any mistake you make can be sanded and buffed. You could almost put it on with a brush. Not so with urethane. The solid colors can also be sanded and buffed, but not nearly as easily as lacquer.

[Justin N.]

Re: Ed, I won't be spraying, but

my buddy will be. He is very experienced! Although just a young lad in his early thirties, it's a family business three generation deep coming down from Vancouver, B.C. He mentioned how easy it is to bring back lacquer to life after oxidation, but these are older cars and the ones he worked with were Rolls/Bentley. My car is Marina Blue, so it's not a solid color unfortunately. There was one car I saw at the meet(Peterson), I think a 1960, it was a fuelly and it was this metallic silver color. The metallics were bad and varied from panel to panel, but he used lacquer as I saw his photo book with all the bodywork. I'm just sort of 'weighing' my options before I make a move. Thanks much!
Justin

[Mike M.]

Re: Ed, I won't be spraying, but

That car may have been shot in pieces.
To help avoid panel differences, shoot the car after assembly.
H. a. N. D.