The guy that's doing my quarter panels wants to use a 2K primer .
I'm going to paint the car with acrylic lacquer . Will this work ?

 

In short, yes. No problem at all. As long as the 2K is fully cured.

 

Thanks . " Fully cured " would be how long ?

 

Honest answer is "it depends". Depends on the type and brand of paint (read your tech sheets). But also depends on temperature, humidity, possibly, and air flow. You have to read the instructions, and compensate for environment.

 

OK , thanks . I will have to find out what brand of 2K he uses and look up the tech sheet .
The body is on a rotissirie now . and it will be several months before I get the body back on the frame , assemble most of the rest of the car , then paint it .

 

Several months would never be an issue. At most, might have to wait a week. Some primers, overnight.

 

OK , Thanks .

 

Why go through all the labor for a paint job and put garbage on it? We have urethane Clears and Single Stages that are so much better than lacquer. Even an activated enamel is better. I just can't wrap my head around this.

 

It's easy , clearcoats peel after 10 years . Well cared for lacquer jobs can last 50 years or more .
And you can't get the look of an acrylic lacquer job with any "modern " paint .

 

You sure about that. I own 2 cars painted in the late 80's with lacquer and both started cracking at the 15-20 year mark. I just finished a 53' Buick Skylark that was done in 88' that had to be stripped and redone due to cracking lacquer paint. Also the new lacquer from PPG is absolute garbage as they have taken the lead out. I sprayed some black five years ago on a repair job and had nothing but trouble with it and I learned how to paint with acrylic lacquer. I refuse to use the stuff now as it isn't the same as it once was.

Clearcoats do not peel in 10 years unless their isn't enough mil thickness for the UV protection. This could be a problem with a production shop using cheap clear with 2 coats. You can't do a showcar with 2 coats so that isn't a problem.

Buffed paint is buffed paint. Shiny is shiny. The body on my 31' Buick is black lacquer and I repainted the fenders 10 years ago with base/clear due to cracking. I've asked the know it all's that spout the lacquer bs to tell me what parts of the Buick are done with each. They usually tell me the fenders are lacquer as they look better than the body. I've even used base clear over lacquer in spot/fender jobs on repairs because I had no other option and once the two are buffed it's hard to detect.

Lacquer is a hard, non flexible, easily chipped, and needs a lot more care than Urethane.

 

Lacquer may be a bit more fragile, and gets brittle after time (though if you really take care of it, it doesn't), but it definitely looks better. And looks more original, because it IS. I haven't done a modern lacquer job in over 20 years, but I DID do this black nitrocellulose lacquer job back in the mid 90's. The guy brought it back to me, to do some scallops on it, in 2003 or 4, and it still looked fantastic. Though later I was at his place, and he had moved the car from inside his garage, to a tent, outside. I think the killer was that he also used a car cover on it. It developed lots of tiny bubbles in the paint. Not terribly noticeable, but they were there.
It was shot over House of Kolor KP-2 epoxy primer. The depth of finish of lacquer is much better than any BC/CC, or SS enamel. NOT the shine, clearcoated cars look too shiny, plastic-y shiny. Lacquer has depth, like looking into colored glass.

 

Shiny wins awards. I don't buy the depth thing.

 

I'm an engineer, I married an artist. I could tell you a lot of stories that would be difficult to wrap your head around. After a while I accepted that people have different experiences and values and there is no logic to it.

The best part is that being exposed to artistic thinking helped me be a more creative engineer.