Can paint go bad?

[Kens 50 PU]

Knowing absolutely nothing about paint other than it's impossible to get out of your favorite work shirt, I pose this question to the masses. I've got 2 gallons of paint to paint (or have painted) my 50 chevy 1/2 ton pickup. The paint was mixed by one of the local Dupont jobbers on 8-11-98. It is Dupont Lucite acrylic lacquer. It has been in the basement of my parents house since that day and have never been opened. My question is, given that it is 8 years old, is the paint still good or can it go bad sitting on the shelf. And secondly, if it is good, would 2 gallons be enough for someone who knows what they're doing to paint the truck?

 

[66 KUSTOM]

If The Temperature Of The Room Hasnt Caused Alot Of Condensation In The Paint, Watering It Down, It Should Be Fine, Made Sure You Use The Right Activator, 2 Gallons Should Be Good As Long As You Have A Good Primer And Not Painting Over A Color That Will Take Alot Of Coats To Cover It. As In "scuff And Shoot".

 

[William Bevins]

After working 55 years as a painter and a body man the acrylic lacquer
will be as good as the day it was mixed....I will give You a couple suggestions
though, and that is to "box the paint together" Thats to say get a 5 gal container from Your Dupont Rep. Then pour both gallons of paint into a
clean 5 gal. can. Do not thin....This is to insure no mis-matching of paint. I
also made 1000's of gallons of Dupont mixes during My 20 years there...
In My job there I built GM Concept cars for shows, did show car painting
for all the auto shows....even built NASCAR cars....plus a few super trucks..
WB

 

[Kens 50 PU]

WB, thanks for the input. Question for you. Why does acrylic lacquer get such a bad rap? I've heard of laquer crack, lack of durability etc. If properly applied, is it as good a paint as you can get or should i go with another type of paint? Or better question is: YOU are 6 months away from painting your truck, and you haven't bought paint for it, what would YOU do? Would you go with acrlyic laquer, enamel, or ...? Let me know

 

[William Bevins]

Ken, For many years the lacquer has been around for show cars...one of the best qualities of lacquer is the short time needed cure, before going back to
repair any mistakes...IF a person uses common sense using lacquer it will not
crack or crowsfoot....The common mistake is to stack lacquer paint using say
12 coats of color, then stack another 12 coats of clear on top of that....Now,
what is going to happen to all the thinners that are trapped under all that paint?
It has to get OUT !!!! and when it does be prepared to do some major stripping to start over again...Painting My truck, it is an original color of forester green,
(the standard production color) it took many coats to cover, so I ground-coated
the complete truck using Dupont's 99-L black lacquer, then one coat of forester
green covered fully...so 3 more coats of forester green, and I was ready for My
clear....Now, clear lacquer has no strenth at all, so I added a quart of color to My clear to obtain the strength I desired...I then gave it 4 coats of clear using a 2-quart pressure gun....Next I water sanded the complete truck using 1500 grit ultra-fine....which removes all orange-peel...and reduces the clear-coat to about 2 1/2 coats, then with a variable speed buffer the whole vehicle gets rubbed and polished..That will remove another coat of clear...Now, the truck ends up with a 1 1/2 coats of clear....and that will hold until the cows come home with NO Cracking or lifting...Acrylic Lacquer got a bad name only because people had not the knowledge to use it....I, have sprayed most all paints manufactured, and much that never made the market.. I really like the ureathanes in the color-coat, clear-coat systems...sadly the paint industry is trying to discourage painting by small time shop painters, and people painting out of their garages because of the damage to the enviroment... Now, one last suggestion of thinning lacquer....
I know when My color is thinned correctly by watching the paint run off My
stir stick, but to be on the money for those that aren't around paint that much....invest in a zahn cup to measure the viscosity of the paint...I think
the correct viscosity for lacquer would be 22 seconds using a zahn cup #2...
Hope I helped....WB

 

[cosmo1957]

Hey William,

I found your post very interesting information.
As an amature, I just used a solid colour Urethane shown in my gallery link below,
I layed it on pretty good for an amateur, but I did manage to get a small run in a couple spots while doing the interior and door jams etc...,

Is it possible to wet sand these out and polish/buff them?

I may tackle the exterior as well, so your advice is priceless,

Thanks
Shawn
https://talk.classicparts.com/photos/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=1420

 

[OLDIRON69]

The way the interior and underhood came out, I'd say YES! You did a helluva job. It's purty!

If the paint is a single stage I would think you could still wet sand the runs, if you have too, use a razor blade and slice the run off, scuff it a little and reshoot with an airbrush. We have done that before.