Vmaxkid

I have a 78 Pace Car that was completely taken down to fiberglass and refinished in I would say the 1990's (previous owner had the car redone). I originally thought that the car had been refinished w/ bc/cc when I bought it but as I found out when polishing it the black would come off on the buffing pad.
My question is this, the lacquer has held out very well and the painter did a really great job back then. In fact since I have owned the car and brought it to shows people comment on the quality of the paint job. Here is the issue. I want to have the hood and the tops of the fenders repainted as over the years I have developed some scratches in the paint that I don't like. Others never notice it but I do and it bothers me on such a nice car. I brought it to a place to see if they could take the scratches out but they did minimal sanding as they were afraid they'd eventually break through the color and didn't remove the scratches. I found a company that sells lacquer. I am wondering how big of a job this would be? Since the car was taken down in the 90's and has had really no issues with delamination of the paint (except in one area there is a small star that developed in the paint) what are the steps needed to prep and paint lets say at max all black on the front clip of the car?
Can the lacquer be sanded down beyond the scratches and painted over?
Does anyone know a great painter who has painted lacquer in the Albany-Saratoga region of NY?
Any help would greatly be appreciated.
Bryan

Dave Tracy

With that old of paint, a color match might be difficult with spotting the car. Others will chime in I'm sure. Your quest for what you can see but others don't notice may be expensive. Good luck on your endeavor.

markids77

Unless you are SURE the current paint is lacquer I would not attempt the repairs you describe. If the current single stage finish is an Alkyd Enamel or Acrylic Enamel applying lacquer over the top will cause crazing, lifting and dulling... it will look junkyard bad; if not immediately then soon after. In your case I would think very hard whether I could live with the paint as it is, or I would explore an Acrylic Enamel single stage recoat of all the black above the stripe on the whole car. It is "safe" to paint an enamel over either lacquer or another enamel... not so the other way around. Any spot repair will show sooner than later so don't let the shop talk you into a "blend" repair on single stage paint... you will regret the decision.

leadfoot4

I'm sure that you've probably already considered this, but if not, are you able to contact the previous owner, and ask who did the refinish? Or, maybe ask around the area, to see who the "higher end" body shops are, and then stop in to ask them if they remember the car.

I'm no professional painter, but did repaint a couple of my cars back in the 80s, with acrylic lacquer. Also, my cars were black. As much as you may think so, black isn't easy to "spot in", unless the job is relatively new, and you have some of the paint that was originally used.

Also, you need to consider that a Corvette has few "sharp breaks" in the body that you could use to "hide" a partial repaint. The panels flow one into another, so you could be faced with painting the entire front end of the car...