Technical Save that old lacquer

I was digging through a paint cabinet that I have had since the early 1970's. I found an old glass olive jar with some blue candy lacquer that I remember painting a motorcycle tank with in about 1972. You could see on the sides where at one time it was almost full of paint. Now it was about 1/4th full, and hard as a rock. For an experiment I filled it up to the full mark on the side of the glass with lacquer thinner. A week later, about half of the old solid paint was liquid again. After 2 weeks it is all liquid and looks as good as it did back in 1970. Now I just need to find something to paint candy blue. So if you find old lacquer paint that has gone to a solid, it can be saved.

 

Lord knows my dad saved all sorts of paint that he had leftover from builds that I was going to toss out. I’ll make sure to save the lacquer if he has any

 

I've done the same thing. I used some and it seems to be okay. I did some touch up work spraying with my touch up gun and it came out good. It still is holding up and that was about 3 years ago.

 

I cracked open a can of acrylic that was over 40 years old expecting it to be rock solid, but it was still liquid, stuck some in a gun , thinned out, and painted some valve covers. Laid down like new stuff.. The only reason I kept the can was it was leftover from my first attempt at a respray, and it was more of a shed ornament.
I did hear once that the newer the paint, the less time it will "keep" before hardening up.

 

My 38 Chevy was painted in the early 80's, I'd kept the left over paint and four or five years ago used that paint to do the window bezels, steering wheel, etc on the Studebaker with that same paint, it sprayed great

 

I have 40 year old lacquer - some nitrocellulose, some acrylic. Good quality thinner - still works just fine.

 

Might be a silly question, but can lacquer paint be thinned by something other than lacquer thinner?

I ask because I have about a 1/2 gallon my dad left, but can find a place locally that sells it.

 

I still have some red oxide lacquer primer from the early 90's. Still good last I checked. I'll break it out occasionally for some small protect. Just add thinner & go.

 

I probably still have some 40 year old lacquer and have found the same thing. If it will stir up, it is fine. My only problem is that I don’t still have any of the cars that those small amounts of paint match. The only car that I own that I painted very long ago (1992) was still recent enough that it was BC/CC urethane.

 

The irony is rich here.

 

Acetone, but it evaporates faster than lacquer thinner. I haven't checked, but it might be more expensive, too.

 

I recently shot some ancient lacquer on a fiberglass mold just as surface to sand smooth. Used to shoot gallons of the stuff but it’s been unavailable in California for decades. The smell of that stuff sure brought back some fond memories!

 

seems like old stuff holds up beter than the new stuff