Paint finishing/ applying lacquer

Captain Slow IRL

I had to touch up a small patch of rust, using some of the made-up aerosol from Halfords. It's had about 3 coats and I had to spend a fair bit of time today with 1200 wet and dry to get rid of the orange peel. There's a pretty good finish on it and I'm wondering if it needs to be lacquered over - the new paint seems to have the same sort of gloss as the original paint but the Haynes manual on bodywork and the Halfords employees couldn't give me any advice about the need for lacquer.

Also, the new paint is slightly darker than the original but it looked identical when I tested it - would it need another coat or 2 before lacquer?

kdevitt

If its from Halfords, its probably an acyrlic - which should have a lacquer put on top. You'll probably need to try and blend it into the older paint if its looking darker, which I wouldn't fancy doing with a rattle can!

Captain Slow IRL

Hmmm! Paintdocter, where's that blending tutorial (for dummies)?!

Would the lacquer affect the shading in any way, making it lighter or darker?

Owen

Blending's something you do with paint/basecoat, not really with lacquer. You can usually 'lose' the lacquer around corners of bumpers, on pillars, but if it's a panel, you'll usually paint the affected area, blend the new paint into the old and then lacquer all of the panel.

The lacquer won't affect the shading of the painted area, normally what you should trying to achieve is the same colour exactly, but the new paint will have a matt finish, which you then bring to a shine with lacquer.

Captain Slow IRL

So, the matt look on the paint will be masked by the lacquer, assuming the lacquer is applied correctly? Also, when you apply the lacquer, you haven't done anything to the paint to smooth it out?

Owen

You shouldn't need to if it's done correctly. All acrylic or waterbased paints will have a matt finish when dry, the lacquer then brings a gloss finish overall to the paint.

Captain Slow IRL

I was getting an orange peel finish on the paint, this is why I tried flatting it back.