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Paint question

D

Dennis66stang

Member
I need to reprint my door and I still have a quart of unopened paint from when I painted my car. The problem is I painted my car 4 years ago and I am wondering if it's still ok to use or should I buy new paint. It's house of kolor paint.

Thanks for your help


Sent via horse and buggy
 
Have you reached out to ask House of Kolor? I would think sitting around that long it is not advised.
 
I've used 10+ year old DuPont chromabase base coat without issue.... As long as it wasn't mixed with the reducer or catalyst, I'd imagine you'll be fine, but you should still check with the supplier. I think I'd be more concerned getting a perfect match with a fresh batch. Something that really surprised me recently is when I went to the local jobber to have them mix me up a pint of metallic paint... I brought them the mix from the quart I just finished off and they needed to go look up the proper mix ratios for a pint. Apparently, the ratios differ depending on the amount being mixed. I would have thought the ratios would always be the same regardless of quantity mixed...
 
You ever see the automated mixing rack at a paint supplier house where all the cans are continually mixed? I'm not a paint expert by any stretch but it makes me wonder why anyone would go to the expense of doing such if a paint can just collect dust sitting on a shelf for years and not be adversely affected. I assume at some point the separation of components must cause something to go "bad".
 
I'm not disputing that the paint can change over time and settle at the bottom of the can... but that doesn't mean it will catastrophically fail. Certainly if the bottom is all gel'd up and won't disperse with a good mix, then I agree discard it... but in the few cases I've had, the base coat comes right back to life after a thorough mix. From what I've heard, Dupont's base maker contains the "critical" elements and the color has more latitude... Not sure of this, just something I heard. HOK could very well be similar.

My personal belief is that a base coat (like chromabase , chroma primier, etc) is more likely to have a better shelf life than a traditional acrylic enamel or urethane paint...
 
The biggest factor involved is temperature that it has been stored. i have leftover paint thats been in the cabinet for 16 yrs & counting that is still good. some of it even went thru the fire 3 1/2 yrs ago & is still good. if it hasnt been opened numerous times & stored in a fairly decent climate it should be fine. an unheated garage with lots hot/cold temp variations will shorten the life considerably. freezing temps will ruin it really quick. best advice is mix it well & shoot a small test panel or run out card & see how it sprays/matches.

stangg, the ratios are the same, but these new systems print out how many grams of each color is needed to mix a pint, qt, gallon etc. people are too lazy to do the math nowdays when the computer does it for them! :whis
 
1 month ago I used some red enamel that was left over from 3 paint jobs over 12 years ago and after removing the skim on top sprayed and looks great, even better that the tractor supply enamel I sprayed the month before that. The jobs are on a couple of ford mavericks that I couldn't bear to chop up. Did not know if I could still lay some paint since I don't have a paint room anymore and 20 years have passed. wes
 
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