Hello all

This is my first post.

I am a hobbyist who attended auto painting classes in high school long ago. I am not a professional painter nor do I paint frequently. Ive only done some school and personal small project attempts in the past and own some paint guns that I don't use yet. I want to do some small projects (spot repair soon and maybe paint some aluminum wheels in the near future)
My question: How do I correctly thin small bottles of automotive touch up paint for air brushing because I am going to try to touch up chipped spots and scratches on my car. Isn't touch up paint too thick to run through an airbrush?

For the paint, I purchased 2 very small touch up paint bottles.
They are from Automotivetouchup.com. by microfinishes llc
1.(factory color coded base coat) and
2.(bottle of clear coat)

I called the company and asked what type of paint the touch up bottles are and what I could thin it with. The person (didn't or couldn't) give me the answer on what type of paint it is but told me I could "make sure you thin with automotive grade lacquer thinner".

So with the above said, I purchased a can of regular cleaning lacquer thinner by accident. The can says not to clean sprayers or use on automotive products (its clean strip brand with a k for clean. The computer won't let me spell klean) Im guessing some of the chemicals in the clean strip lacquer thinner will contaminate my paint when I use it.

I looked up rust oleum prograde lacquer thinner tech sheet since its affordable. First, is this going to be the correct lacquer thinner? I compared data sheets and the rust oleum seems to have a 60 % bulk content of Toluene versus the clean strip has a 60% bulk content of acetone with methanol (I think) that was not present at all in the rust oleum brand L thinner.

Since this post is getting long,
Can I thin with Rust oleum prograde lacquer thinner? What lacquer thinner do I need and how do I thin this base and clear product? I appreciate anyones experience here. Thanks

Thingswithwelding wrote:Can I thin with Rust oleum prograde lacquer thinner?

Yes

Thingswithwelding wrote:How do I correctly thin small bottles of automotive touch up paint for air brushing because I am going to try to touch up chipped spots and scratches on my car.

Don't. If you have chips and scratches put paint in them with a brush. You want paint just inside the damage, not on the surrounding undamaged paint.

If possible it's best to repair chips/scratches with full strength paint, i.e. not thinned. But, most people thin it a bit, usually at a 1:1 ratio. Thinned thus you may need 2 or 3 coats to fill the chip. Fill by touching the end corner of the brush into the chip. Add extra coats until the top is slightly domed above the surrounding paint. It will shrink as it dries, hopefully to the right level, but you can always add a bit later if you want.

The paint is most likely acrylic lacquer. That's fine, it works best for this type of job. Generally acrylic does not need clear but if they've mixed basecoat then it will. Test a little in one or two chips. If it dries dull and looks a bit lighter then it's basecoat and will need an application of the clear over the top, i.e.as the last coat.

Mix the paint in the bottle really well. Any flake will sink to the bottom and you want to mix that back in. I usually stick the bottle in my pants packet for a while before to heat it up so it mixes properly. Measure out into a small container - something like a thimble works well. About 8 drops of paint and 8 drops of thinner. For me, that's enough to do most cars. Take your time, if the paint thickens and won't flow off the end of the brush then add a bit more thinner.

Thingswithwelding wrote:Isn't touch up paint too thick to run through an airbrush?

Yes, it is. However, a flow pencil enables you to use full strength paint when doing touch ups. Mine is a Paasche link here. Great if you're doing hundreds of cars, a bit exxy if you're just doing one. It's a lot faster than a brush since you usually only need to do it once. Takes a bit of practice, but you can put the end of the nib right into the chip and deliver just the right amount of paint with a single pull of the trigger.

NFT5 wrote:However, a flow pencil enables you to use full strength paint when doing touch ups. Mine is a Paasche link here. Great if you're doing hundreds of cars, a bit exxy if you're just doing one. It's a lot faster than a brush since you usually only need to do it once. Takes a bit of practice, but you can put the end of the nib right into the chip and deliver just the right amount of paint with a single pull of the trigger.

That looks really neat, never heard of it. Don't have a real need for it but, I want it none the less, LOL.