Ahh, the smell of fresh lacquer! I don't know what it is (beyond the mind-altering solvents), but I've always liked the smell of lacquer paint. Goes back to my body shop days, I guess. When spraying in a good cross-draft spraybooth you could spray without a face mask without worry of inhaling too much overspray (lacquer dries incredibly fast, so the overspray particles dry in the air and flow with the draft in the spray booth.
Nearly all enamel automotive paints require a hardener, which consists of mostly isocyanates — extremely bad stuff for the lungs and body. When I was working with the stuff, it was widely known that nearly anyone who paints with the stuff will eventually develop a sensitivity to it. Exposure is cumulative, so the less exposure the better. Some people react so violently around the stuff they can't paint with it. I always wore a good mask around the stuff.
But in terms of my Kenwood TS-430S, the paint I bought seems to be lacquer. It dries very quickly — something of a relief too. A slow drying paint will collect dust, bugs and more. For a little piece like a radio cover, you don't want to have to go back and sand out bugs and lint.
I've sprayed two coats of the Kenwood silver on the top cover and it looks good. My concerns over sheen were a bit premature — the paint dries to a semi-flat, smooth finish. That's ideal for what I wanted to accomplish. It's smooth but not real glossy.
The spray can worried me at first. I couldn't get the thing to spray. The can is equipped with one of those fancy spray nozzles that sprays an elliptical pattern, which mimics the spray pattern from an automotive spray gun. I think the light gray primer was a good idea, it sure covered well. I'm hoping this second coat will be all I need, but I'll have to give it another look once it is dry. This paint has some metallic in it, and that tends to make spraying tricky. If you get a little too much paint, the metallic particles will collect in the sag.
In anticipation of painting the lower cover, I've already removed it and taken off the bail, handle and serial number plate. I gave the bottom cover a good washing and wet sanding. I don't plan on primering it. I just want the colors on the covers to be uniform, so the quality of the paint on the lower cover just has to match.
The guy who sells this paint on eBay sells a LOT of it. He lists paint for all Kenwood rigs, as well as some for various Heathkit “greens” and browns.
The paint is good stuff, we'll have to wait to see if my painting and prep work was sufficient.