[William]

Agreed; that does explain it. I don't know beans about paint. We did a rotisserie resto on a '67 Z/28 many years ago; the painter has been doing this stuff forever. He mixed up some black lacquer with flattener for the undercarriage and firewall, sprayed away. Was during the Summer months. Dried nearly full gloss and really looked bad. Tried again with more flattener, knocked it down a bit but not where it should have been. Certainly wouldn't do it that way today.

If the current owner reads this he now understands...