Anti-Ricer

I'm going to be painting my 68 cutlass S in the next few months.the body is pretty soiled so I'm going fix it and primer over the repaired area .I'm going to sand the car smooth and slap some black Nason (budge) paint on it.My question is can I paint over Lacquer paint or do I need to take it to bare metal

stetzie

Painting over lacquer shouldn't case any problems.
Lacquer over enamel paint would cause several problems.
Enamel paint will wrinkle with lacquer for one.
stetzie

ihengineer76

You can paint over it if you use the right primer/sealer. Talk to a GOOD body shop or automotive paint supplier and they can direct you as to what you should use. Just a word of caution, black is VERY unforgiving. It will show any little defect underneath and make a car that would look respectable with a different color seem like hack job. Just be sure to do the prep work well. Black can look awesome if done right.

MDchanic

You can paint pretty much anything over lacquer, but you can't paint lacquer over enamel (and especially not lacquer over enamel over lacquer).

Or at least that's the way it used to be...

You do want to be certain that everything underneath the paint you are leaving on is 100% A-Okay.

- Eric

RocketPower442

If you cant get it right paint it white. That was an old saying in highschool back in the late sixties.

Eddie Hansen

Unless your going for the 100% retro look or are painting in your garage few people use lacquer anymore I love it btw . You must remember lacquer is very fragile and your basically going to use it for your foundation, so the comment about thre right primer sealer is very very true, lacquer checks, chips, and alligators over old body work. But it does have its own unique look, when it is fresh and well cared for:-) .
The comment about painting the car black is also true bodywork needs to be flawless... once you go black you can't go back ( and fix waves etc ) lol

Anti-Ricer

I have a gallon of black sealer in the garage. Here is the thing I'm not planning to primer the whole car.I was just going to do it where I had to do bodywork. Then remove the trunk lid,fenders,doors and cut them in.Now it seems like I'm going have to seal the whole car then primer the whole car.Then cut everything in and looks like I should prolly pick a lighter color being this is my 1st mini resto. p.s I'm painting in my garage. Going to wet the floors down and spray a extra coat of clear so I can wet sand the dirt out and then buff the paint back to a shine

ihengineer76

Wetting the floors down can plasticise the enamel and make your finish aweful. You will spend a ton of time trying to cut and buff a decent gloss. I would recommend just cleaning the floors very well and filter incoming ventalation air. A cheap way to do this is put a funace filter over your fresh air inlet.

And I agree with Eddie, laquer does have a cool look. Its what my car is painted with, but mine was done in the early 80's and is starting to show its age.

jfb

hey for a real good job just strip it with 80 grit this will also save weight. I would also suggest afterwards to get a epoxy primer and stick with the same manufacturer of your paint system on a total bases. The systems should not be mixed and matched they were desigend as a whole system. I used dupont from start to finish and have had no problems in 9 years.