Anyone ever flattened lacquer for a satin finish?

I wanna do a quickie spruce up on a car in suede ...they outlawed enamel and the older 2 stage paints up here so we have to buy the high $ low voc stuff now ...not cheap by any shot and the base with no clear looks horrible....I was wondering if any one has tried to flatten the duplicolor lacquer ...ya I know its not the best but I just wanna quick color change . I remember reading that they used to flatten it back in the day with talcum powder...anyone tried it

 

I bought paint flattener for acrylic lacquer at an automotive paint store, worked great and it can be rubbed out later if you want shiny.

 

check out the duplicolor web site, i'm pretty sure they sell satin clear for lacquer now.
I'm looking to do the same too so let us know how it turns out.
later,
Ken

 

I just checked it out, didnt see any flat clear listed...any idea what this stuff looks like out of the can, i doubt its too shiny ?

 

Just shoot it on a rainy day, it'll flatten for ya!

 

Lol then I coulda shot it any day but about 3 of them in the last 5 weeks !!

 

I've used it and it's actually very shiny.Nice paint for being a spray can.

 

Regular flattener you buy in an autobody supply shop will work with lacquer. That's how we used to paint the semi-gloss stripes on the cars in the muscle car days.
You also used to be able to buy "underhood black" from R-M, which was pre-flattened. It was a lacquer.

 

I painted my car with acrylic lacquer then finished it off with clear which was 50% flattener. Base color was light blue metallic but when I sprayed it on it just appeared silver. When the clear went on the color came out. The paint shop mixed up the 50% clear/50% flattener for me. A mate who does custom paint said if I didn't like it all I had to do was buff it and it would end up shiny.

 

Thanks guys ! I will let you know what I come up with and if it works or not !

 

Just add matting agent to the clear.

 

I've used Talcum Powder and it works fine. The flatening agent you buy is just liquid talc, leave the cap open long enough and it turns to powder.

 

You beat me to it, back in the days we would paint aircraft interior parts with doing this.

 

Bought a couple of one gallon kits from some company out in California off E-Bay at about a hunnert bucks apeice. Comes with a gallon of acrylic laquer, a gallon of apropriate thinner, some filters, and some ster sticks. Tried to buy laquer locally at Finishmasters and was told it was about $730 a gallon (yep). I also wanted a semigloss finish. Sprayed it the way the instructions said, but used a little more air and held back another foot or so. Flowed out smooth and with little shine. Worked for me.

 

I sprayed my Lloyd with the duplicolor laquer that they sell in quarts at autozone and advanced. It sprays semi flat with out doing any thing to it. Even after you spray their clear it has a satin finish if you dont buff it. Everybody that has seen my Lloyd thinks it was painted 30 years ago. Look at the pics in my album.

 

we sprayed a 34 street beast coupe with krylon flat black 16 cans waited a week then i buffed it ,was a splotchy shine that looked like 30 year old lacquer u tried to buff on a barn find! that is what my friend told people an that is what it looked like. was cool! We used & attatched windshield washer tubing around the molded fenders and rear apron u had to look hard to tell it was a 1 piece body.

 

I also painted a kitchen w/ rust-oleum satin and it lays down real nice and thins w/ acetone . I was thinking of repainting my truck w/ the satin red, it is enamal after all and has been around forever!

 

I forgot to mention that you have to strain the flattened clear thru a stocking or you'll get white spots in your top coat.

 

Any idea why?? I actually found 2 quarts of it at one place so I bought them, thanks for the heads up! I guess that must be why they sell the strainer kits or what ever they call them?

 

The flattener is actually talcum powder or something equivalent to it and if you don't strain it you will get white spots of flattener in your top coats. I forgot to strain one pot and got the spots but it was only a test panel so it didn't matter. After that I made sure I strained every potfull. I ended up using a 50/50 mix of clear and flattener for my top coats.

 

How much talcum powder would you ad to a quart or gallon?

 

Where did you find the quarts Steve?

 

I'll mix up a quart, and put a couple of tea spoons in. Spray on the first coat and see how it looks.

Maybe sure you keep count so you know where you're at.

 

Thanks Zombie !


I picked it up at Crappy Tire, theres not alot of color selection , but I came up with a combo thats good enough for the Chevy for a couple of years till I got time to redo it...they have a pearl clear coat that I am gonna use over the white for the roof, prolly flat metalic green on the body..