Dupli-Color Aerosols and StewMac nitro?

[aalcantara]

Hello all,

I'm hoping to use Dupli-Color metallic blue aerosols on a build that I'm doing. The can says that it's an acrylic lacquer. Can I spray StewMac clear lacquer over this?

Here's the can I have:

Thank you all.

 

[RodeoTex]

Yes, that works. I've done it many times.

 

[Silverface]

CAUTION -

The Stewmac Colortone lacquers are actually "lacquer enamels" that contain slow-evaporating naphtha and alkyd resin (oil based point resin).

They are fully compatible with Duplicolor and other "conventional" lacquers (Mohawk, ReRanch, Sherwin Williams, etc) - both nitro and acrylic - but dry FAR more slowly!

While conventional lacquers dry in 30-60 minutes per coat if applied properly, Colortone (and Deft, another lacquer enamel) take from hours to days for a single coat to dry.

Film thickness is CRITICAL. Always apply aerosol lacquers by spraying 3 extremely light passes per coat - and a single coat should not hide completely; hide and film flow start around the third coat.

Lacquers DO NOT CURE - they dry ONLY by evaporation of the volatile components. If a coat of Colortone is even slightly too thick it will dry on top and cause "solvent entrapment" - and it may take months for the solvents to evaporate - if ever.

FWIW acrylic and nitro lacquers are fully compatible with and can be applied over each other. Same with laquer enamels - it's the solvents that cause the coats to melt into each other; the resins can be mixed with no problem (some products are actually blonds of the two. The alkyd resin in Colortone will also blend, although, not as consistently.

And rather than asking the question, you should be applying the entire system on scrap - from priming through buffing - until your technique is refined, with no sanding required - just buffing when the system is dry.

And FWIW I'd recommend Mohawk, Behlens, Valspar, ReRanch or any other conventional lacquer clear coat be applied over the Duplicolor. There are just too many tolerance issues with Deft for a beginner. and I can't stress this enough - proactice on scrap and perfect everything before a drop touches the actual guitar.

 

[Peegoo]

^^ Excellent advice.

 

[aalcantara]

Thank you all for your very helpful advice! It really came in handy.