Those old tins of paint...

[david052]

I have two tins of NATO olive green matt paint, which, even after much stirring, fail to produce the correct effect when painted on. Instead the paint remains shiny and sticky for ages. As they are both almost full 5 litre tins at £35 each, I would like to use them rather than buy more. Is there anything I can do to rescue them? I did a quick search on here to see if the topic had been raised before with no luck, but as we spend a lot of time watching paint dry then it occurred to me that someone must have encountered this problem before?

 

Cheers

[da bomb]

If it is military spec Matt, defence equipment brushing, it should have a large amount of pigment settled in the bottom if it has not been stirred for a while.

 

Manufacturers now have a duty to provide a "Data sheet" this is for COSHH (Care of Substances Hazardous to Health) quite often if you go to the website, there will be data sheets on the paint etc, these should give times it takes to dry to touch, temperatures, thinners etc, if not you can e-mail them, and they should send the info straight to you.

 

The company that sold it should be able to provide the relevant spec sheet as well. :-)

[morris c8 fat]

;-) We had to mix it down with petrol but it was about 10 years old by the time the QM would let it out of stores before Elf nSafty though I dont think it helped the IRR but it got us through PRE inspections came out matt but a bit of petrol n oil mix gave a lovely finnish for about a week

[fv1609]

I would get one of those mixing attachments for the power drill & mix for at least 20 minutes. Once you are conviced all the pigment is fully cleared from the base decant it into jam jars so that you will always have the same 'mix' of paint each time you use some.

 

In service, tins of IRR paint were required to be inverted every 6 months & left to be turned again after 6 months.

[Tony B]

Seal tin lid down hard!!!! And put in an old concrete mixer. Add some dry sand to stop the cans splitting and switch on for 20 minutes or so.

[abn deuce]

Were NATO paints likely to be Carc paints (chemical agent resistant coatings? and have a catalyst ? if so thats why your paint has not hardened.

[fv1609]

Were Nato paints likely to be Carc paints (chemical agent resistant coatings? and have a catalist ? if so thats why your paint has not hardened.

 

 

If you have the NSN, I'll look it up in a COSA & see what it is classed as.

[LeeEnfield]

Seal tin lid down hard!!!! And put in an old concrete mixer. Add some dry sand to stop the cans splitting and switch on for 20 minutes or so.

 

 

 

 

failing that, the washing machine. :whistle: (just make doubly sure SWMBO is out. :sweat:)

[Topdog]

 

 

failing that, the washing machine. :whistle: (just make doubly sure SWMBO is out. :sweat:)

 

 

OUT? If the lid comes off she will need to be more than just out. :angry: :angry: :angry:

Just imagine trying to clean that lot up while knowing she is on the way home soon :shake:

[rambo1969]

I normally store my big tins of paint upside down, when they need stirring I atttach a home made l shape mixer to a drill and give it a good stir up. Sometimes I add a bit of white spirit to make it easier.

 

I use old paint for the inside of vehciles and wheels, on the out side I use fresh paint ALWAYS.

 

I know a couple of people who have bought paint from shows and have aggro with it, you just don't know what your buying.

 

My advice to anyone painting a motor is to go to the local car paint shop and get synthetic paint made up, they can mix any colour now.

[Simon Daymond]

you could always take the paint to your nearest car paint stockist, if they are decent folk, ask them to put your paint tins in the 'agitator' which will mix them up (safer than the washing machine' ! :-)

If they seem reluctant, tell them that you are considering having some more paint mixed to the shade in the tin, so in order to mix the new stuff to the original, they will need a decent 'wet' sample, i.e. your paint, which they would need to mix first in order to check the exact shade. Once they've mixed it, they can compare it to their colour charts, but you aren't obligated to buy any, just dutifully jot down what it is, and offer to come back later :-)

 

If after this the stuff still won't dry, and, if you think that it is synthetic paint, i.e. not 2 pack, then you can buy liquid driers, and add about 5ml to a litre, I'm sure a good decorators merchant should still sell it. Last bottle of driers that I had was purple in colour. Try a little bit first, but don't add it to the whole tin, better to waste a small amount of sample paint than the whole tin full. Hope it helps :-)

[N.O.S.]

you could always take the paint to your nearest car paint stockist, if they are decent folk, ask them to put your paint tins in the 'agitator' which will mix them up (safer than the washing machine' ! :-)

 

Or take the tins for a long ride in the back of an empty GMC? :whistle:

[david052]

Hi everyone

 

Thanks for all the tips - much appreciated. I was thinking about the car paint suppliers route anyway so that sounds like a good idea. I know for instance that the Land Rover colour number 540 is Deep Bronze Green, but does anyone know the code number for NATO green and any others that might be useful?

[sirhc]

David,

Nato green is BS285.

 

Chris