No offense Terry but seriously, acrylic lacquer sucks, auto paint has come a long way the past 30 years I would personally recommend using a single stage (i.e. no clear needed) acrylic enamel (w/ hardener) or urethane enamel job over some 2 part epoxy primer. The urethane being a much better choice IMO, newer technology harder and more durable. Do it once and do it right. Your paint job will be tough as nails and look great doing it. Good luck with your choice.
-Wildcat
Thanks mate, and no offense taken, I painted cars and bikes semi-professionally for many years, and you're quite right, acrylic laquer is nowhere as durable as most modern paint mediums. I wouldn't advise using a/l for use on frames as it tends to chip easily, but there are plenty of "rattle can" type paints that will do the job fine, and inexpensively. When I painted the gold bike I was looking for an "original" look for the tank and sidecovers, and as I already had a few rattle cans of the candy gold acrylic laquer on the shelf, it was a no-brainer as to what I was going to use.
Having said all that, a good acrylic laquer finish is easy to apply (particularly for a novice painter) and will last many years if looked after with a good wax every now and then. Honda used acrylic laquer on all of the SOHC4's, and even though they cut corners to keep costs down (like not using any kind of primer under the candy base color and insufficient clear coat to adequately protect the color coat) there are still quite a few good examples of SOHC4's out there in original paint. The other benefit with acrylic laquer is that it doesn't contain anywhere near the levels of dangerous cancer causing carcinogens that most modern automotive paints do. (with the possible exception of water based paints, I don't know much about them) Cheers, Terry.
