I am going to have my 1971 cutlass re-painted and it has Laquer paint on it.Will I need to strip all of this off the car in order to go back over it with base/clear?? If so, whats the best way to remove the old paint? Thanks.

 

I'd go with media blasting.

 

If you are going to paint it with base clear you will not need to strip it all off. If you were going to paint it with laquer you would. laquer paint is only paint and laquer thinner so it will bubble or strip everything else it is sprayed over.

 

I would strip either have it blasted or use stripper

 

If you get the surface smooth with a DA sander, you can epoxy prime it (e.g. PPG DPLF) and then top coat with base/clear or lacquer. You don't have to remove all the old lacquer to re-coat with lacquer.

 

I have never heard this? Lacquer paint jobs are by nature many coats, wet sanded between etc, when they did repairs in the 'old days,
' they didn't strip down to bare, metal. The rule used to be lacquer or enamel over a lacquer paint job or enamel over enamel... I have seen lacquer 'craze' paint but generally not if it was a quality paint and if you primered.

I always thought if the old paint was in good condition, no checking,crazing etc then scuff prime and paint. ( lacquer/enamel) now with BC/CC I agree with r 2 r that seems to make sense I have ony sprayed lacquer, but plan on BC/CC on my project.

 

I'd get rid of all the old lacquer paint. In my experience, no matter what you put on it, it's going to wrinkle. The only paints I've ever left on a car are epoxy paints.

 

I think you've got it reversed.

Scott - If you want to spray over with Lacquer, you'd be fine without taking all the paint off. It is recommended that you at least use a sealer (or high quality Epoxy Primer) on top of lacquer if you're going to use BC/CC.

If the lacquer is in bad shape (i.e. cracking, crazing) I would strip it as close to bare metal as you can.

You can still find lacquer paint out there if you look. If you are doing the job yourself that is probably the easiest route + you won't have to deal with the isocyanates in the paint.