Solid colors were almost always single stage. Morton paint Co.'s Eliminator is a very high build, dense polyester (as in fiberglass resin) based primer similar to Evercoat's Featherfill. Lacquer was applied at the St. Louis plant, and enamel was applied at the new Bowling Green plant. Or did they have a clear coat that went over them? There are some alternatives though. The term lacquer is used for a number of hard and potentially shiny finishes applied to materials such as wood or metal. *** Lacquer is no longer available, and unfortunately many of the original Gibson automotive lacquer colors were not translated to the new low VOC paint formulas. Start your paint job right by picking a paint system and using it through the entire paintjob. This provided an excellent base for the lacquer, but we did use a lacquer sealer before the color was applied. GM didn't stop using lacquer until the early 1980's Definitely lacquer. So for the most part were lacquer a single stage paint? However I beleive the manufacturers stopped using lead in automotive paints much earlier. Lacquer setups.. spray cans.. etc.. they will last great in covered areas without salt etc.. like underbody or interior. Last ones were for the 1988 model year (1987 for Buick G-Bodies, there were a few 1988 model year Chevy & Olds G-Bodies produced through December of 1987). Ocasionally metallics back in the day were single stage in laquer, but any custom work in metallic, candy, or pearl was al multi-stage. In 1982, console mounted clocks were quartz units and had the word "QUARTZ" printed on the face, while the 80-81 years did not. I worked at a GM dealership body shop in the early 1980's as we did a lot of base/clear acrylic lacquer. My '88 M3 and my '91 Ranger both have single-stage paint. These fall into a number of very different groups. I used to use lacquer on Corvettes in the 70's over Morton Eliminator 2K primer. FWIW - I've noticed metallic colors were converted to 2-stage before "solid" colors. And never believe the myth about using lacquer primers under acrylic enamel or urethane paint. Acrylic lacquer was the primary paint formulation used by General Motors for the majority of the production years in which classic Corvettes were manufactured, serving until the early-'80s. Ford and Chrysler used almost exclusively high solids enamels in their paint assembly lines for many years. In 1981, Corvettes were produced with two different types of paint. Too many things can go wrong with paint, so give yourself an advantage by using … As previously posted, different manufacturers started using two stage paint at different times but I think many manufacturers started switching in the mid-late 80's. In the U.S., the manufacturers switched from enamel to lacquer based paints in the mid 1970's. Lacquer paint would not contain lead. ... My caddy has lacquer paint (and its cracked on the top of the car/ front clip) But t the time lacquer was used because it wsa the best technology available. But you're right, to the best of my knowledge GM never used high solids enamels to any extent on their assembly lines. Lead was used in Enamel paints. There is a reason GM stopped using them.. wookie: "the lacquer paint jobs back then lasted about 10 years. This was the reason that the paint on all of them looked like crap towards the end...GM did not put any money in the paint shops at the factory as they knew they were killing those cars off. Early 80s was the beginning of urethane." Many manufacturers are in the process of changing over to water based paint. This provided an excellent base for the most part were lacquer a single stage paint an by. Into a number of hard and potentially shiny finishes applied to materials such as or. 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