Thread: laquer vs urethane

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My 33 had black laquer on it when I bought it 14 years ago. to me, laquer has a look you can only get with laquer. It looks like black metal rather than the mile deep, black plastic today's urethanes provide. I KNOW all the cons of laquer...brittle, not nearly as resistant to enviromental chemicals, must be buffed and polished more often, ect. I'm still leaning towards laquer for the look and the ease of application. What are your thoughts?

depth and luster are not related to product or the number of coats. single stage black be it laquer or enamel or urathane will look the same if finished off right. laquer was just easier to polish. i paint a lot of black cars and it just takes extra time to polish. clearcoat over black can haze it some. it is also hard to buy as it is illegal in most places.

The local NAPA store keeps it in stock...qts and gallons. There was talk 5-10 years ago about outlawing it but it didn't come to pass...at leasat not here in rural Wasington State. The difference I'm talking about is hard to describe and I don't know if luster is the term I would use. Over the years we've always talked about black laquer as looking like black metal and urethane looking like metal covered with a deep coating. Both great looks but two different looks and textures.

the trick is to add a little " thalo blue " to the black. that was the name of the old ppg tint. from there it's getting the finish as clear as posible. meaning flat and polished. laquer will sand easier and polish easier. it's the clearity of the finish that gives you that deep look. caint buy laquer here in texas. not in most counties anyway. lot of enamels are gone. centari is gone .

Hey dljdad , I know what you are talking about . I learned to paint 32 years ago and at that time a laquer paint job was
the ultimate . A black laquer job was
what everybody judged the straitness
of a cars body. The look is sort of hard to describe but as crazy as it sounds it was sort of a slick but soft look. When I first saw a bc/cc black job I just thought it looked almost too glossy but having done a few bc/cc jobs I believe I can compare it to the old hand rubbed laquer in look . The last laquer job I did was a 1939 ford pickup . The paint was red , 24 coats , dry
sanded down every 4 coats with 600 grit
then hand rubbed at the end . It was slick
and lasted a long time before it started to show its age. I have a friend ( the one that started me in painting 32 years ago )
and he still uses laquer on a daily or weekly bases .

enjoy it while you can. you cant buy laquer here in texas. at least not in any larger metro area. it is being fased out by most suppliers and mfg. epa and osha have done away with it.

laquer does'nt last very long in todays sun. i would hate to warranty a laquer job here.

Nothing against lacquer, but its a product thats 30 years behind times.
Hope OSHA never goes to that guys house or shop, as fines will be high if they find his booth is inadaquate , as lacquer has the highest VOC content . Thats why its being fazed out .
OSHA is getting real strict as they are now trying to stop all paint sales to an individual , to help stop the home sprayer, as the VOC 's just fly in the air with no filtration system.

So you guys spraying at home , be careful of your neighbors as they can cause you some serious fines if they complain about the smell to the right sources !!
We are not talking 100-500$ fines , we are takling 10's of thousands to millions of dollars.

A razor blade found on a shop floor is 10K fine here, any gallon thinner/reducer container not kept in a fire proof cabinate is 10K fine for every gallon on the shelf . Same goes for unused paint in cans. Lets not even get into where you store your waste,long term jail time if your dumping it on the ground somewhere .
So be careful all you guys doing home paint projects . As OSHA can make your life a living HELL.
We just bought a 5 thousand dollar recycler to recycle our waste as it was costing my shop 1500$ to carry off our 55gallon waste barrel every 2 months , and that waste is our responsibility even on that companies truck till it gets to the destination. If the truck has a roll over and has a chemical spill, we( the shop ) are liable for the Hazmat bill.

SprayTEch

SprayTech, how do you even keep up and know all these rules in having a paint shop? As you probably know, I wan't to have my own shop one day whether it be paint or the mechanics part (probably both kind of like a resto shop) but all these rules seem like they would be too hard to keep track of even if you have a book from OSHA and all these other things. Sorry, not to get off subject here or nothing but your talking about the laws and rules so thought I might ask.
Thanks.

My boss has the 3 inch thick book , and its tough to decipher at times.

Not only that you also have to have safety data sheets on every product you have in your shop too. That even includes the soap you wash your hands with, to windex to clean windows. Every product with a chemical compond has to have a saftey data sheet in that book !!!!!!
Thats if I accidently drink windex or the can blows up in my face , the boss can have the data sheet on that product for the EMS guys that come to save my life. That way they know the chemical make up and know how to treat the problem .

Running a shop today will make you go broke, if you obide by every rule in that OSHA book.

Good luck with owning your own shop as each year it gets more difficult .
You need to do alot of home work to know all the rules on having a Body shop/Hot Rod shop.

Spray

Man, I'm a dinosaur when it comes to building cars and I gave up on lacquer 15 years ago. With all the new products out, it's a blast experimenting with different colors, hues, translucents, tinted clear coats, pearls, etc. No way I would want to go back to having to paint everything black just so people thought you knew how to build a car. I'm sure I could still do it all "the old way", but why?? It is so limiting on what you can actually do if you allow yourself to be caught up in the trap that the old ways are the best ways. Hot rods are a form of expression, if I was to have kept building nothing but black cars with flatheads I sure as heck would have missed out on a bunch of really kewl innovations that have come down the pike in the last 30 years !!!!!!!

I used to paint with laquer also. Twice the effort, half the life. BC/CC gives me better shine, better depth and better life. Products like S-W Glamour Clearcoat are amazing, and there's nothing easier to spray than basecoat. I haven't used anything else in 20 years.

Not that the old laquer jobs didn't look great, but times have changed.

Yeah Spray, seems like it would be a pain in the tail to own a paint/body shop. Oh well, we will see I guess.

Dont let me Rain on your dreams , its just getting difficult to make money for yourself if your going to open your own shop.
Just do your home work , and do it !!!

Your going to an auto body tech school right ?
Have your teacher go over some of the requlations that are required for the Body/Paint shop.
This would be good information for you guys.

Also when you get to the paint section of the classes , have them have you try Water Borne Bases from PPG, it still requires a Uerahane Clear over the top. Water Borne uses Deionized water for reduction.
.
you can also use a special air turbo dryers to help speed up dry times.
I would love to try it but our shop doesnt want to spend any money for me to go to more PPG classes .


SprayTech

Ok I see. Thanks for the info Spray. But yeah I am going to be going to auto body for college and auto tech for my associates degree (they don't offer associates for auto body for some reason) but I will see what I would need. Only thing that will be hard I think is actually getting a paint booth, shop, land, etc. Especially the paint booth, those things are expensive. But of course it's not like I am going to come out of college right away and start a shop, I will be working for others for a few years. There are some kids around here that came straight out of high school and the auto tech program offered here and a few of them have their own full on resto shop doing everything from mechanics part to painting. Only thing I don't see much of here is interior work. Sure there are shops that do it but not custom nice stuff, only small things.
Well alright I don't wanna stay off topic too much here, just stating my info and point.

I STILL want to buy some lacquer!! Where do I get it??