my 71 had a beautiful silver laquer paint job 22 years ago. At that time all new sheet metal was installed. The car has been driven carefully and stored indoors but now the paint is spider webbing/checking so I neeed to look for a body shop to repaint the car. What questions should I ask the body shops and what is the best method of removing the laquer? Thanks for the help.

Your lacquer job must have had to many coats which is usually why they check. You can use stripper or have it plastic/soda blasted to remove the old paint. It all has to all go to insure your new paint doesn't do the same thing.
Many paint shops turn into paint jail, I'd ask him how long it will take and how much. There can be surprizes once the car is down to metal that can change your estimate though. To nail the price down better you should get it down to metal yourself so the body shop sees everything and can give you a better estimate.

67 shovel is right about the down to metal thing. Mine is down to metal right now and I CAN'T believe the crap that is now exposed, which raised the previous estimate. It looks like an 80 yr old human that went thru a hundred operations thru out life with stitch marks everywhere..:eek: The good part, the painter says its all repairable..:hurray:

i agree, paint/finish removal is one thing any hobbyist can save money (alot of money?) by doing him/herself...i'm not sure what kind of paint was on my el camino but it only had these huge cracks where the original paint was painted over, without filler and that (original paint) was cracked also. and,... the finish was cake to remove until i got to the original paint, stuff hung on like grim death. no matter grinding or chemical removal, i dont know if its just that tuff or it cured from the finish over it or what....bottom line was, it all had to come off.
if you're totally happy with the way the body work (straightness, panel alighnment, filler work) was done, you can sand down the cracked areas and try to see just where its originating, if it stops at the primer or filler you may be able to just sand it off and reprime and paint....sand a layer off and let us know what you find, take some pics, and/or talk to your painter ....good luck

Thanks to all who have replied to my question.
70,71

I was wondering the same thing, mine is a 23 year old laquer paint job that is spider webbing and need of a paint job...:thumbsup:

I see Painters usually taking it down to metal when check marks are present. Depending how deep the check marks are I would think..

unlike the other finishes laquer coats melt into each other so there are no layers to speak of. If there was a laquer based sealer then laquer primer I would assume that the crazing goes all the way through the paint. I have had sucess to some degree by sanding it down and spraying it with laquor thinner to melt the crazing back together.

it always best to get to bare metal when refinishing if you want to know exactly whats undernieth or have concerns about previous fixes or are doing a high end resto...or you're just that anal.
but if (try to imagine this one with me, difficult though it may be)...a previous owner did it right from the git go, theres no massive filler areas maybe hiding a bad fix and youre trying to save a buck and do as much yourself as you can, why grind it off just to put it back on?...like i said, i had to go to bare metal since the cracks originated with the original paint, but, had i known that the areas filled were uneffected (since filling made bare metal neccessary and so the original paint was already removed)...i would have stayed far away from the areas that, it turned out, what was a very good filler job....

There is a waterbased primer that acts as a barrier for cracking and checking, for a quick fix I would recomend it. Not sure how it holds up over a long period of time though.

lol, i just reread your first post and im convinced (all else aside) you should be thrilled beyond words that the finish lasted 22 years, if you know him, call that body man and tell him "thank you"...give yourself a pat on the back too, while your at it, for taking such good care of your car