Acrylic lacquer or 2 pack

[Alan Pugh]

Hi all,

Well i'm getting close to painting the car, and i'm getting close to picking a colour.

Main question I still can't totally answer is what paint.

2 pack has great advantages, fantastic shine off the gun, good wear & tear, but from what I understand if it gets scratched you have to re-spray the whole panel.

On the other hand acrylic lacquer or single pack, allthough it requires buffing to bring up that great shine is relatively easy to repair in the event of scatches or the like.

I would appreciate your opinions on this as it is a big expense and something I would prefer to do right the first time.

Alan.

[EScanlon]

There are a couple other factors you should look into.

Lacquers are typically paints that are thinned with LACQUER THINNER and need to be polished afterwards. They cannot be sprayed over Enamel or Urethane paints as they will lift it.

Enamels use REDUCER for thinning. These can use different additives to change Gloss / Humidity Reaction / Temperature Reaction. Typically these CAN be sprayed over other Enamels and over Lacquers.

Both of these types are considered Single Stage as they don't REQUIRE a Clear Coat for gloss or for the final component in a color.

Additionally, these can usually be sprayed with a HALF MASK BREATHER. This is very important as it is CRITICAL.

Some of the newer style 2-Stage paints REQUIRE a FULL MASK OUTSIDE AIR RESPIRATOR.

Please do not confuse this with a BREATHER.

That's because the newer style paints use CYANIDE in their formulation to achieve some of those beautiful colors and finishes. Unfortunately, that also means you can't let the mist or vapors come in contact with moist tissue, or what medicine refers to as Mucous Membranes, i.e. Nose; Mouth, Eyes, and others. Contact with that skin allows for ingestion of the Cyanide into your bloodstream.

I can't emphasize this enough. It doesn't take a large amount of Cyanide to kill you. If you insist on the 2 stage paint, then I would strenously insist that you contact a professional who has access to the proper SAFETY equipment. Believe me, there isn't ANY car in the world worth your life.

Hope this helps.

[zed240au]

having used both i prefer to work with 2 pack paint as for your comment about needing to repair whole panel if damaged i think you will find this necessary with acrylic too as it is the only real way to do it properly though if using 2 pack with clear it is necessary and most 2 packs do require clear these days

but the main differences i see are

2 pack plus shine straight off gun

Using 2 pack primer any repairs are very stable

stronger harder paint less likely to scratch or chip

Negative orange peel effect in paint not flat

Acrylic plus flat shine

negative primer and rpairs under surface are unstable and when you paint may move due to the solvent in the paint

lot of work rubbing back and getting that killer shine

easier to scratch and chip

Would have to say for an everyday car i would go with 2 pack but a show car would take my time and use acrylic very slow process acrylic to get that smooth killer shine

so theres more twenty cents worth