My First Can of Bad Spray Paint

[Bill Anderson]

I went to the garage to spray a '67 Corvette, using a new rattle can of Testor's #1152 Metallic Red.  I shook the can for some time (producing a solid rattle) , and gave it a test "squirt", and it seemed fine.  My first pass was the underside of the hood, and suddenly the can is throwing out blobs of paint.   I re-shoke the can and tried again, and the blobs continued to shoot out.   I managed to clean the paint off with some thinner, and then threw the can away in disgust.

I've been using spray cans (for all kinds of stuff) since the late '50s, and this never happened before.  

I just ordered a can of similar color from Tamiya, which should be fine.

[stavanzer]

Don't feel bad. I have had this happen too.

Last time it happened it was an irreplaceable colour that I'll never be able to find again. 

It's lousy when it does occur.

[Dave G.]

There have been a few ( at least a few) reports of bad Testors spray cans at the site here. And not always old stock. We can tack your report on to the list of unhappy customers. So it just may be that it's good to make an entire switch to the Tamiya lineup of spray cans, if spray cans are how you prefer to paint your models.

[Ace-Garageguy]

I'd never had a problem with any Testors product up until fairly recently.

It started with one can of dark red enamel that bubbled instantly no matter how you shot it or shook it or warmed it...and then the cans started leaking at the lower seam.

And then the line was slashed and dumbed down, with the excellent buffing metalizers gone forever.

With the apparent cheapening and offshoring of everything everywhere, it's no real surprise, and I refuse to buy anything Testors offers at this point.

[slusher]

I have trown away many leaky cans o lacquer cans of Testors paint, I have some Rustoleum flat Testors that’s like water I need to toss out…..

[Rodent]

I like Dullcote spray and their rubber black in the bottle as much as Tamiya. Otherwise, they are dead to me.

[TECHMAN]

4 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

I'd never had a problem with any Testors product up until fairly recently.

 

I hadn't either.......BUT.....  I had one that "sputtered" paint out, and, like BILL, had tried everything that "usually worked" (including heating the can) with all failed results.  My "complaint" tho, also includes their little square bottles of brush paint.  I have some that are 20yrs old (that were opened and resealed) that are still completely 'useable', while several of the recent purchased bottles, after a SHORT time, develop a thick "rubber film" on top, rendering them completely useless.......  Took a phillips screwdriver and poked a hole in one, pulled the "rubber plug" off the top to get to "what was hiding underneath", tried thinning it down (as have done hundreds of times), few days later, same old nonsense.  And yes, the top was sealed.......   Any ideas?????

DJ

[Ace-Garageguy]

7 minutes ago, TECHMAN said:

... Any ideas?????

Reformulation to save money or phase out "toxic" materials, resulting in a product that "goes off" quickly, in a planned-obsolescence kind of way?

It's SOP now, ya know?

Edited July 25 by Ace-Garageguy

[Mike 1017]

One of the oldest tricks is to put the can in warm water. No more clumps or spitting

[TonyK]

Brand new can of Testors white did some spitting yesterday. I can understand that happening with a used can but not brand new. I like to use Tamiya but didn't need a pristine paint job on this car so went with Testors. Disappointing.

[TECHMAN]

Sorry to hear......  I had heated mine up to around 120-125` (where our hot-water heater is set) and no change......  Guess it's like BILL said, reformulation.......  The new stuff is NOT the same quality as the old stuff.......☹️

DJ

[Bill Anderson]

Got two cans of Tamiya delivered yesterday - Mica Red for the '67 Vette, and Titanium Gold for the "62 Vette.   I have a question, and the answer may be staring me in the face.   How can I tell if these are enamel or lacquer???

[stitchdup]

Just now, Bill Anderson said:

Got two cans of Tamiya delivered yesterday - Mica Red for the '67 Vette, and Titanium Gold for the "62 Vette.   I have a question, and the answer may be staring me in the face.   How can I tell if these are enamel or lacquer???

what does it say under the tamiya logo?

[Bainford]

1 hour ago, Bill Anderson said:

Got two cans of Tamiya delivered yesterday - Mica Red for the '67 Vette, and Titanium Gold for the "62 Vette.   I have a question, and the answer may be staring me in the face.   How can I tell if these are enamel or lacquer???

They are lacquer. It is my understanding that all Tamiya spray paints are lacquer.

Tamiya uses a naming-code to identify their various paints;
Spray cans with the 'TS' paint code are standard hobby lacquers.
Spray cans with 'PS' code are hotter lacquers for polycarbonate RC car bodies.
Glass bottles with the 'LP' paint code are standard hobby lacquers.
Now, for reasons that I really don't understand, the usually pragmatic Tamiya has chosen to use the code 'X' and 'XF' (for flat paints) to identify both their Acrylic line of paints, and their new Enamel line. Why could they not have used a new letter to mark their enamel paints? Perhaps the world would just make too much sense, otherwise. Anyway, the Acrylic and Enamel can be identified from each other by differently shaped glass bottles. The Acrylic is in the typical Tamiya round glass bottle, and the enamels use a square glass bottle, not very un-like the old Testors bottles.

Edited 12 hours ago by Bainford
clarification

[bytownshaker]

New Tamiya Enamel line? Are these the same as the one's we had with the small square enamel bottles back in 80's or they new to the US?

[Bainford]

17 minutes ago, bytownshaker said:

New Tamiya Enamel line? Are these the same as the one's we had with the small square enamel bottles back in 80's or they new to the US?

Interesting question. I wasn't aware of Tamiya enamels in the 80s. They seemed to appear a few years ago in both the US and Canada, and I thought they were a new product then. People discussed them as a new product, but perhaps they already existed in other parts of the world. 

[Bill Anderson]

OK, both are "TS" (ts87 and ts 39) which means they are lacquer.  

And nowhere on the cans does it say lacquer - at least not in English.

[Janice Berry]

Yeah! Hope Tamiya should treat you better — their spray quality is usually spot on.