At our shop we always apply as many coats of base as needed depending on transparency of the colour then clear with a semi wet coat followed by a wet coat. We then wet flat and polish as always. Today a customer wanted a quote and wanted to compare us to another quote he has had for a full respray and got talking about different finishes. These are the options he has been given by the other shop....

1st : as the car left the factory (2-3 coats of lauquer)
2nd : the whole car get flatterned and polished by hand (3-4 coats of lauquer)
3rd : car gets lauquered twice then whole car get flatterned and polished by hand 3rd ( 10-12 coats of lauquer)

This raises an eyebrow from me because A: Doesn't everybody flat and polish everything?? I wouldn't ever let a car go out without flatting and polishing which means the first option can't be great, but B: My real question here is 10-12 coats of clear?? Surely when that goes off and becomes one layer its going to be brittle as hell?

So, I thought I would ask people opinions on how many coats of clear.

What new vehicle manufacturers are you dealing with that still use lacquer? No, not everyone cuts and buffs, or polishes as you call it. If the finish is dust free and matches the factory texture the car gets delivered with no buffing. If there is any dust the car gets denibbed and polished. Why buff it if not needed? Restorations mainly get cut and buffed, but not always. Buffing is done by machine, not by hand. If all you shoot is lacquer I can see why you have to buff everything. Not sure where you are but we don't use lacquer here. Sometimes an owner will request it for a restoration but urethane is predominately used. 2-4 coats of clear depending on the type of job and clear.

clearcoat i put 2 coats on ,you will be amazed how much you would have to flat and polish ,to go through clearcoat .lacquer ,as mentioned on this website,is usually mentioned in the uk ,what is clearcoat. Different clearcoats ,different coats to be applied ,2 coats is what i spray,every one different.

Agree. 90% of what I do goes straight out "off the gun". Denibbed only when and where necessary. If I got the peel match wrong then maybe a light wetsand and buff but that is the exception, not the rule.

Urethane clear is meant to have a thickness of 50-60µm, That's two wet coats. If you're intending to wetsand and buff then 3 coats, given that you'll probably take one off, bringing you back to the required thickness.

Acrylic, or lacquer as it's known in North America, is different. It's low solids so 2-4 coats will give the required 45-50µm thickness. I usually go 5 coats if I know I'll be wetsanding and buffing, 3 coats for an "off the gun" finish. For show cars 4-5 coats, wetsand and then another 2-3 coats, cut and buff.

Vehicles finished in acrylic need to be gun barrel straight, even before primer. Unfortunately the emphasis seems to have gone away from quality workmanship from the bottom up and replaced by slap it on way too thick layers of primer to hide the basic flaws.

A little thicker than factory is ideal, but don't kid yourself that they give them two full, wet coats of clear. Barely 1.5 coats, less if it's Honda or Mitsubishi and, lately, Toyota.

Just remember that two much paint is worse than too little. It will crack and chip. 12 coats of clear is ridiculous, even for acrylic.

Just keep in mind Lacquer and Urethane clear are two completely
different paints. 12 coats of lacquer is not a lot, most lacquers
are thinned up to 100% and not much build to start with.
Urethanes are thick at three coats.

OP is in the UK which was not originally apparent; I fixed the profile to indicate. This term "lacquer" meaning "clear coat" outside the USA causes confusion; he is not talking about the stuff we used to paint cars with before 1980.

OK, so if he's talking urethane clear then 12 coats is ridiculous, even if you cut back maybe 3 of those.

IIRC, though, urethanes are restricted in the UK while acrylic is still in common use and not restricted to professional/booth only, meaning that it may be what he was referring to.

Sure, you do thin acrylic up to 100% but even though you lose so much through evaporation, it can be surprising how quickly it builds up. It lays a lot flatter and dries super fast so you can do like 1.5 coats per pass, but still call that a coat. I work on about 15µm per coat so 3 coats will give the recommended DFT of 45µm.

All I know is, when I painted cars with lacquer back in the 70's
I used two to three times as much paint as I do now with urethane clear.
Even with that much paint, I still burned through easily.
3 to 4 coats of lacquer is nothing. Very low solids.

2 coats of clear

Hi,

Sorry I didn't make myself clear, I didn't realise in the states you use lacquer and clear coat as 2 different products.
The clear coat I use is Maxmeyer 0200, 2 coats, 1 semi wet and 1 wet.

I have no idea what the other bodyshop we are quoting against uses but 10-12 coats of clears seems insane, I am sure it would split.