What to Consider when Buying Lacquer Spray Paint

If you want a hard, durable finish that has a high glossy finish, you need lacquer spray paint. Lacquer is a clear or colored coating that gives the illusion of depth. It is typically used to paint cars but is being used more for other projects. There are several things to consider before buying lacquer spray paint.

Preparation

Lacquer is a great paint because it is glossy and thick, but if not applied properly, it can bubble and crack. Also, because of the translucent factor of the paint, it shows in flaws or inconsistencies in the surface of the object painted. There is a high preparation time to consider before deciding to use lacquer spray paint. The surface your painting on must be clean, sanded smooth, and primed. Ammonia based cleaners are best to clean because it cuts through any grime and grease. Be careful after your surface is prepped. Oils from your hands will interfere with the lacquer’s ability to bond, causing bubbling and peeling.

Lacquer and Enamel Paint

Sometimes you may want to use lacquer spray paint, but need a specialty color that you can not find. Consider is using lacquer paint with enamel paint. Enamel paints come in wider variety of colors and can be easily used with lacquer. Keep in mind lacquer spray paint uses a lacquer thinner as a solvent. When you use lacquer on top of any other paint, it will soften it. You would not want to cover lacquer paint with enamel paint, and if you did that, there is a good chance that the topcoat of enamel over lacquer would peel eventually.

Clean Up

Before you decide to buy lacquer spray paint, you need to consider the clean up after you use it. Lacquer spray paint was made to be durable and long lasting. It is very hard to clean up if you get it on unintended surfaces. To remove unwanted lacquer spray paint, you must apply denatured alcohol or lacquer thinner on steel wood. Use the steel wood to scrub the lacquer off. If it is not coming up with the steel wool, you must poor alcohol or thinner directly on the spot and use a paint scraper.

Drying Time

Lacquer spray paint dries extremely fast. You must work fast when spraying painting. It looks best when you apply a generous coat of lacquer quickly in one long movement. Moving quickly, start the next stroke before the first one starts to set and barely overlap the edges. If you want to take your time spray painting, consider using a different type of spray paint.

Lacquer spray paint is NOT an easy paint to use. It does provide a beautiful finish with a deep shine that you really cannot get with any other type of paint such as enamel or basecoat/clearcoat enamel. Basecoat/clearcoat enamel approaches the depth of lacquer paint, and has for the most part replaced lacquer paint due to the ease of use of enamel as opposed to lacquer. Everything on the surface being painted with lacquer must be absolutely perfect, as lacquer accentuates any imperfection.

Also, enamel paint can be applied with one or two coats, whereas lacquer paint requires multiple coats, and each coat must be allowed to dry and sanded with a very fine grit sandpaper and dust cleaned off before applying the next coat of lacquer paint. Lacquer paint should be used only by the very advanced do it yourself person or professional painter. It does provide a beautiful finish, but enamel paints have greatly improved over the years and can provide a beautiful deep finish rivaling lacquer paint. The amount of time, work, and difficulty to apply lacquer paint has resulted in enamel paint for the most part making lacquer paint obsolete.