which paint over laquer?

So I have '65 B which I'd assume used laquer paint, though it must have dozens of layers. I know your not supposed to paint acrylic over laquer, cuz it will bubble, but I've heard you can paint something between the acrylic and laquer w/o problems. Will enamel do this? What will work? I'm gonna strip the body, so that's not what I'm concerned with. I'm worried about the interior and trunk. The bodyman who fixed the floors for me sprayed my whole interior with paint. I don't know what kind, but I'm assuming acrylic since most shops don't have laquer and he used a gun, so he didn't use a can of enamel. Do I need to worry about this? The paint looks perfect, and it's been many months since he painted it. So how should I do the trunk? It has a decent amount of surface rust and paint chipping. I was planning on washing it, sanding it, spraying on Dupont "pink stuff" [rust converter], and spraying body color enamel[can] or acrylic[gun]. Thanks for the info!

Ameer,
As a general rule, only laquer should be put on top of laquer. Other paint, whether enamel or acrylic, can fail. Laquer "moves" a lot. That is, expands and contracts with temperature changes. Other paints applied over it won't move as much & can lift (peel) or craze ("crackle"). Some type of primer might give enough adhesion and still allow the laquer to move underneath, but off-hand, I don't know what to advise. You might talk to your paint store. That's what I plan to do before getting to that stage, because I hope to do my own paint ($$$) after the body work. Maybe someone else has more info.

Any kind of paint (lacquer, enamel, urethane, etc.) can be sprayed with a gun. Likely the guy who painted your interior used enamel.. Lacquer does not have much shine until you sand and buff it. Enamel, the bottom of the quality list, goes on fairly shiny, but is not quite as durable. Urethane is very tough, but is dangerous to apply since it contains cyanide products and requires a forced fresh air respiration system and full skin protection. That said, I would not recommend any other type of paint over lacquer. The solvents in enamel an/or urethane can cause the undercoat to lift or soften. Ditto the other way around. Lacquer over enamel can do the same thing. There may be a primer or intermediate coat that will work, but I'm not aware of what it would be. From what I've heard, most show quality paint jobs are lacquer, with MUCH sanding, painting, sanding, painting...then buffing to get a perfectly smooth job.

If you have rust in there, you might want to sandblast it out first anyway. Then the question would be moot. All these years, I thought the original paint was enamel.But then, this body stuff is new to me.

In my '67 it was enamal in the 'boot' and under the 'bonnet'. I think they only really used lacquer in body shops, because it dried fast and gave a perfect finish everytime. I don't think you have to worry, but if there is rust in there, you really should sandblast it and recaulk all the seems. There are primers on the market that are water based that can go over lacquer, but I don't think that they apply here.

Follow all the above advice about rust. As far as paint goes, your old paint is cured to the max and you can put anything over it. Prime it, wet sand, and seal it before applying the color coat. If you sand through the primer, retouch that spot and sand it again. If you put color coat over a sanded through spot it will look fine....for about a year, then the line will show through and you can't do a damned thing with it. Consult an auto paint supplier, tell him exactly what you're wanting to do, and go with the "system" he recommends. Auto paints are changing fast right about now because of government regs about fumes, solids, etc. which take effect next month. Present supplies will die off by attrition as the new ones come in so when you get your supplies get either all old or all new stuff, don't mix them. Either one is fine, just make sure you can get enough of either to finish the job. Repaint or touch up later in no problem, the changes are subtle, but an old type paint with new type reducer situation is the kind of thing you need to avoid.