Maybe I’m weird, but I love polishing nitrocellulose lacquer

Apr 30

Maybe I’m weird, but I love polishing nitrocellulose lacquer. Nothing responds better to a little bit of elbow grease. The only trouble is that the shine doesn’t last long. The door panel on the right shows how much oxidation was there after just eight months and the cowl panel on the left is after cleaner wax.

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Apr 30, 2026

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Replies (12)

· Apr 30

100% Nitrocellulose is the nads. When I was a kid yo had two choices. Lacquer or Enamel. You could spray the Enamel over dirt (or Lacquer) and it would be ok. Lacquer on the other hand required a perfectly prepped surface and you couldn't spray it over anything else. All of my buddies of course painted their cars in Enamel. Didn't look nearly as good but it held up better and was much cheaper. My GTO with an enamel job.

· Apr 30

@alsancle Yeah, I don’t think anyone misses enamel. I wouldn’t even use it on a tractor anymore. It never looked that great from day one and once it’s dead, it’s dead. Fortunately, I’m young enough to have only suffered through one lacquer paint job and two enamel jobs. I’ll take urethane any day.

· Apr 30

@Hupp31 Hey! We used to spray Enamel in the driveway. Not being able to sand out the flies that landed in the paint was part of the charm.

· Apr 30

@BuickGuy68 I like when you get the one fly that lands in the hood and does the backstroke half way across it.

· Apr 30

@Hupp31 Once again, where the hell is the laughing upvote!

· May 1

@alsancle You’d really be laughing if you saw how I combat the flies that get into the spray booth. I have one of those handheld electronic bug zapper/swatters. Sometimes you’ll see one flying around in there and you need to pause between coats to hunt the little SOB down.

· Apr 30

You could spray Enamel once and you were done. Didn't look that great but Lacquer required multiple coats with sanding to make it really pop. Lots of work. The early clear coat systems in the 80s could be a nightmare. Who remembers Imron in the 80s?

· Apr 30

@BillSmith Oh god, Imron. I’ve dealt with it on a couple industrial applications. You need a hammer and chisel to sand that stuff.

· Apr 30

@BillSmith
I sprayed gallons of Imron when I were a wee apprentice in an aircraft shop.
I think I can still smell it.

· Apr 30

@Hupp31
Methylene Chloride based stripper takes it off.
Hands get tingly inside the rubber gauntlets after about 5 minutes though.

· Apr 30

@BillSmith You needed a hammer and chisel to get it off.

· May 1

I suppose that transformation is nothing when you compare the fugly beast I towed home and what I ended up with after 40 hours of polishing. The miracle of lacquer.

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