<VV> Paint, the ForbiddenMention

[Tony Underwood]

At 12:40 PM 9/21/2009, airvair at earthlink.net wrote:
>My trailer (which is a '93) was originally painted Cadillac red, with a
>clearcoat. The clearcoat has taken to peeling off, leaving the base coat
>exposed. Based on that and other experiences, I wouldn't paint a car with
>basecoat/clearcoat.



If the base coat was lacquer and the clearcoat something else (like 
acrylic enamel or urethane) I'd agree.   I checked around about that 
specific point (urethane clear over lacquer) and noticed that it has 
a tendency to not stick well via anecdotal evidence from shops that 
did it.    Likewise some of the motorcycle painting I looked at along 
the way which included a variety of bikes wearing a fancy custom 
striped flamed lacquer basecoat and urethane clear... which was 
cracking and peeling on several bikes I saw.   Of course they had the 
clearcoat layered on them like pancake syrup...  'course it's not 
gonna stay.


Likewise most acrylic enamels, which would tend to peel and flake off 
lacquer after a while if the surface wasn't carefully prepped, seen 
it a lot.


...maybe that "apply clear over unsanded basecoat" thing is kinda 
bogus; I always wet sanded the base coat, no peeling or unsticking issues.


Hell, even the malfarctioning red basecoat-clearcoat on the top half 
of the '60 Monza isn't peeling, it's just hazing itself into 
chalk.   Likely gonna repaint the top half of the car with that 
Datsun lacquer which is damned close to the Roman red that went on it 
before (the sides, nose, and rear of the '60 Monza still look fine, 
clear and glossy).   And no clear coat this time, just to see how 
that old red holds up...




tony..