My questions about painting

[kenseth17]

Lacquer paints are not available because they voc laws. They were already on their way out in the early 90's. They had me dump all the lacquer paint on the mixing system at the dealership I worked at in 1992. Lacquer paints do not have a hardener with them. They are air dry. You don't really want to use a lacquer anyways. Not real durable and chemical resistant. Lacquer primers are still available. Enamels can be mixed with or without a hardener. But without a hardener, they won't truely dry all the way through for many many years. It is possible that the enamel is suppose to sit a week before clear. I don't think that is the case if it has an activator. See if you can find the product sheets for the enamel if you want to use it and see what they say. Urethanes and polyurethanes are the best as far as durability goes.

[SUMOBOY]

Most of your enamel questions can be answered by the guy behind the counter. Or, at least by asking him for the correct info sheets. Any reputable paint manufacturer supplies hazmat sheets, but they also supply instructional flyers that will answer all the Q's yopu've asked. Each manufacturer will have slightly different advice because their chemical formulations are a bit different. There are a few rules of thumb regarding enamel. Most suppliers will tell you that if you sand before clearing, you'll have to add another layer of paint before the clear. They'll tell you a certain time frmae with a minimum cure time and an end time before you have to spray another layer of paint before clearing. For instance, you should wait let's say 18-24 hours before clearing, but no more than 7 days. Also, as with any layer of paint or clearcoat, if you spray too many or too thick a coat you'll see blisters eventually appear because of the trapped solvents trying to outgas as they evaporate. I learned a lot from reading these sheets when I worked on cars 20 years ago (not professionally). Lastly, laquer uses thinner, which can also be a strong grease and wax solvent, but not necessarily a good CLEANER. And reducer is used to reduce the viscosity of enamels.