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The other thing with California and Lacquer is that unless you are going to spray it yourself, you not going to find a legal shop in California that will do to the VOC limits, and Environmental rules.

California is trying to set up booth licenses rules (similar to Liquor Licenses) to regulate the number of Paint Booths even allowed to operate in the State.

On a related note, saw in the paper that Calif was finally granted the EPA waiver re the tougher mileage and emissions regs they had been seeking for 3 years. Don't remember when they go into effect - next year or one after. Will be interesting to see how the implementation is received though because there are 13 mostly populous Eastern states that will also adopt them at same time. Nationwide in 2016. Don't everyone scream at once.

What's the most "forgiving" paint system ? (something that can be color sanded, buffed to repair defects during spraying).

Newbie with driver. I want to drive car this summer and "paint a panel at a time". Is this practical ?

If I do all the bodywork and priming at once - the whole summer will go by. So I wanted to do the paint job in sections - and enjoy the car this summer.

The hue of the paint wouldn't change if I painted on similar days ? Would everything match reasonably well ?

I was thinking of doing final buffing on whole car all at once at end.

Thanks !

You can't really paint a car in sections, and if you do it right, you can have it completely painted and all the chrome put back on in a week. It doesn't hurt a car to drive it around in primer, people do it all the time. Just make sure that when you go to spray the final coats that everything is perfectly clean and dry.

As for the most friendly paint, it used to be lacquer, but you can't get it anymore. I would try a two stage paint from PPG or the likes, as it has the clearcoat already in the paint, so it's a one shot system. Oh, and for a beginner, an HVLP paint system is worth it's weight in gold.

If it's a non-metallic lacquer and you can keep your technique the same day to day, prepare the paint/thinner and perhaps retarder the same each time, and have similar weather conditions (humidity especially), you may be able to do a credible job painting in sections. Certainly not the best way to do it, but it could be acceptable. If it will be a metallic paint, then I definately would not try it.

If you are spraying with lacquer in any significant amount of humidity, I'd recommend buying some "retarder" (butyl acetate) which will help prevent the condensation of water on the paint surface as it dries (which is a cooling process due to the evaporation of the solvent).

Thanks - I've been wondering about HVLP versus regular guns. So all paints are pretty much urethanes now - right ? Don't I need fresh air mask, not just respirator ?

I want to paint the car for the experience (I did a lacquer job 15 years ago) - but the cost, time, and safety is scaring me...

Getting Maaco to shoot it with urethane for $500 is looking tempting...

On the subject of the availability of lacquer... I don't want to get into the complexities of what's legal in which state, but it appears that Bill Hirsch still sells Nitrocellulose Lacquer and has black and clear in stock (custom colors available on request). $85 a gallon plus S/H.

hirschauto.com/prodinfo.asp?number=NITL-GAL

Edit: I see Hirsch was mentioned earlier by O_D.