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View Full Version : Painting over original 1969 lacquer??



g356gear
05-16-2009, 09:13 PM
Hey guys,
I have a 69 Camaro that was painted 20 years ago with base/clear enamel over a lacquer paint job. The entire car was shot with a primer sealer before the enamel was layed down but now there is an issue. As the car has been sitting so long, over time, there are several spots where the paint has lifted making it look like many smalll bubbles under the paint. Obviously the car needs to be painted again but what would be the recommendations for the new paint? Take it down to the original factory lacquer and then what?

The car was painted once back in the late 70's and the color of the car was changed at that point. Problem is that the car had a ton of hours of body work getting it laser straight with that paint job. I think that is why it wasn't taken down when it was refreshed in 89, just sanded down, primed and re-shot. Taking it down to the metal is not really an option for me. I do want to switch back to the original color.

LateNight72
05-16-2009, 10:06 PM
Take it down to metal, otherwise the paint will fail again.

jilge71
05-17-2009, 07:16 AM
Take it down to metal, otherwise the paint will fail again.
x2...you can only have x amount of materials before you start having problems.

HIOSILVER
05-17-2009, 07:25 AM
X3 take the old stuff off

Rhino
05-17-2009, 09:34 AM
The car was painted once back in the late 70's and the color of the car was changed at that point. Problem is that the car had a ton of hours of body work getting it laser straight with that paint job. I think that is why it wasn't taken down when it was refreshed in 89, just sanded down, primed and re-shot. Taking it down to the metal is not really an option for me. I do want to switch back to the original color.

This is just my personal opinion, but if the filler is that old, I'd want to strip it down to bare metal anyway. I wouldn't want to put this much time/effort/money into a paint job only to have it fail within the next few years because the filler starts hardening or breaking down. At this point you could also have a rust problem hiding under the filler you have no idea about.

You mention you see bubbles forming. Do you know at what layer this is happening?

minendrews68
05-17-2009, 09:38 AM
X4 and then some

g356gear
05-17-2009, 10:07 AM
This is just my personal opinion, but if the filler is that old, I'd want to strip it down to bare metal anyway. I wouldn't want to put this much time/effort/money into a paint job only to have it fail within the next few years because the filler starts hardening or breaking down. At this point you could also have a rust problem hiding under the filler you have no idea about.

You mention you see bubbles forming. Do you know at what layer this is happening?

Looks like under the last layer of enamel. It was a very odd situation because this took close to 20 years to appear. None of these spots were there when I saw the car 3 years ago.

justasquid
05-17-2009, 10:46 AM
Is there a reason why taking it down to bare metal is not an option?

With that many layers of paint, your going to run into all sorts of issues. Your underlying layers could be cracking, delaminating from each other or just lifting off of the metal due to all of the different layers of paint and just being old. Over time, different layers of paint will shrink at different rates, its never a good idea to lay a different type of paint over each other.

Also, you mentioned the fact that the pre body work made the car laser straight. Sanding it down to one layer is going to be impossible to keep that laser straightness. It will be much easier in long run to just get it all down to the bare metal and start over, especially since you have a bubbling issue.

The bubble could be any number of things. Where are the bubbles located? If they are in an area that is known to trap water, it could very well be rust. Many people that wash their car and put em back in storage without the car completely drying run into this issue.

g356gear
05-17-2009, 05:48 PM
The bubble could be any number of things. Where are the bubbles located? If they are in an area that is known to trap water, it could very well be rust. Many people that wash their car and put em back in storage without the car completely drying run into this issue.

Yeah..it's not rust. It almost looks like the car has a case of hives. They are everywhere...low, high, roof, hood, doors. They seem to be in patches or groups a couple feet in size. Half the hood is fine, the other half has the bumps. One quarter panel is perfect, the other, not so much. The car hasn't been washed since it was painted in 89. I tried to take photos, but you can only really see them when you look down the side of the car in the sunlight.

MWCC
05-19-2009, 04:04 PM
The best rule of thumb is after 2 paint jobs (original plus 1 repaint), strip it all off. No matter what lies underneath good or bad, 2 paint jobs with primers to go along with them is too much to shoot over top of. The mils are just too thick and cracking will certainly become evident soon after.