:mad: I painted a 58 Chevy in Cashmere Blue Lacquer and put on 5 coats of PPG clear Lacquer. The paint is now 6 months old. I know that no one uses lacquer anymore but I have painted 3 cars in the last 10 years with it. It's easy to work with and I didn't need to buy any special masks or breathing equipment. Anyhow, the job turned out great but bird droppings eat right through the clear if not removed in 10 minutes. I havent had this problem with any of the previous paint jobs and I know the original 50's cars were painted with acrylic lacquer and there wasn't any problem with bird poop. Is it possible that PPG has fooled with the chemistry of the lacquer because they don't want painters to use it anymore? Does anyone know if there is a protectant or wax that I could use? Sorry about the long message.
I hate to tell you but with 5 coats of clear lacquer that car shouldn't even be outdoors. Clear lacquer is just the opposite of clear urethane, the clear lacquer doesn't like the outdoors and can age very quickly. Wax may help protect it from rain spotting or bird droppings but you'll need a more UV resistant coating for more protection and even then it's a crap shoot.
While I agree that lacquer is easier and safer to spray it's quite delicate and not a good choice for cars that see the outdoors regularly. It's great for show cars because it looks good and is the original paint on most old GM products but they usually don't see much road time.
:confused: I understand what your saying Len but what puzzels me is one of the cars I painted 10 years ago is driven several times a week and goes to a lot of outdoor shows. It still looks great and droppings have no effect on the clear. It also had 5 coats per PPG's data sheet. The sheet states their DCA468 High Performance clear is UV resistant and is a quality top coat for everyday use.
Maybe it's different than the lacquer that I know but I've never seen one that comes close to urethane as far as UV or weather resistance. Do they (PPG) state why it's any more "high performance" than other lacquers? As far as I know automotive lacquer is all about the same, a drying (not hardening) process that gets brittle as the solvents escape from the lower layers and the more coats you put on the faster if fails. Clear is usually worse than pigmented colors because it's more brittle but maybe they found a way to make it less brittle as it dries.
I looked on the PPG web site (www.ppgrefinish.com) but couldn't find info on the DCA468.
Merle- I used PPG lacquer (DDL-Duracryl) in the old days. DCA 468 is still the same as it was then. (Len- High Performance Clear -had a chequered flag logo when PPG started sponsoring Indy Car racing-not meaning any higher quality). DCA 468 as well as any of the competitors was always damaged by bird crap. Merle- if paint companies don't want you to use a product, they'd stop making it-not by making it perform crappy. I agree-it's time to move on from lacquer. I think you should bypass Acrylic Enamel & join the rest of us in the 21st century. Spray urethane products. They look as good as lacquer & are almost bulletproof.
Merle ,if you put on 5 coats of clear lacquer,then you wet sanded and buffed the clear, and then take into consideration the massive amount of shrinkage that occurs with lacquer products,you just don't have enough material on that car for protection. with 468 clear, I would put on 10 to 20 coats of clear, waiting ample time between coats, let it sit for a week or two,wet sand it with 600 to 800 grit then 1000 let that sit open for a few more weeks to shrink then do your first buff. Lacquer just does not have the high solids like the urethane clears do.It does have some UV screeners in it , but not as much as the urethanes do for protection.Lacquer is a type of product that you will always be wet sanding and buffing thats just the way it is.that is why you need to have enough film build on that car so you can buff out all those little mis-hapes.Hope this helps.
#*%& Birds
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