Go with the pre-catalyzed lacquer. You have several choices in the finished look, in your case I would go with the gloss finish. If you go with lacquer, you are going to want to spray it, but unless you intend to use that HVLP gun after this project, I would go with something along the lines of a Harbor Freight touch up gun. Just spraying the lacquer is not going to give you the clear-look finish that was originally on these pieces of wood. You will probably need to color sand and hand buff each piece when done spraying. This will definitely give you the best mirror finish AND by going the color sand route you can get that cheap gun because you will be hand finishing each piece. I have been using pre-cat lacquer for almost 30 years. It is virtually indestructible as evidenced by a coffee table that I made back then. It has survived my kids and is now patiently tolerating my grandkids. The finish still looks like I just sprayed it.

Tom

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1993 300TE
1984 300D
1984 300SD
1976 BMW R90S