How do I thin touch up paint?

[barrys]

I have a bottle of touch up paint from some body work about 2 years ago. It's about the consistency of peanut butter. It says it contains xylene and keytones.
I'm wondering if there's anything I might have or can easily buy in small quantities to thin it so I can use it for a rock chip on the hood.

Any ideas? Those chemicals sound like the ingredients to Berryman's B12 carb cleaner. Could that work?

I know that touch paint is a good color match for my aged truck so I'd really like to use it and would rather not ruin it.

 

[gwaii]

most touch up paints are lacquer-so use lacquer thinner.it's cheap and available at most hardware stores.

 

[barrys]

Thanks gwaii. I have lacquer thinner. But, I'm not sure if this is lacquer for these reasons.
1. It's no longer legal to shoot lacquer in any industrial volume in California (where I am).
2. The bottle itself says toluene and keytones. Those might be the ingredients of lacquer thinner, but I don't think so.
3. It doesn't smell like lacquer and I'd know since I just love the smell of lacquer.

Maybe I'll try a little bit just to check.

 

[barrys]

OK, I tried a bit of lacquer thinner. It did thin the paint. But, it left it a bit marbled with a layer of clear on top which tells me it didn't fully blend. So, for anyone else reading this, perhaps that's not the way to go if those other solvents are listed on the paint bottle.

But, for the incredibly small spot I'm going to paint, it looks like it will work fine.

 

[barrys]

OK, more info to support gwaii and consistent for his request for "just the facts, ma-am..."

From the MSDS of Kleen-Strip Lacquer thinner which is what I happened to have:
Hazardous Components (Chemical Name) CAS # Percentage OSHA TWA
1. Methanol 67-56-1 20.0 -25.0 % 200 ppm 200 ppm
2. Toluene 108-88-3 5.0 -10.0 % 200 ppm 50 ppm
3. Acetone 67-64-1 5.0 -20.0 % 1000 ppm 500 ppm
4. Acetic acid, Ethyl ester 141-78-6 5.0 -15.0 % 400 ppm 400 ppm
5. Hexane, Light aliphatic naptha 64742-89-8 30.0 -50.0 %
6. Methyl ethyl ketone 78-93-3 5.0 -10.0 % 200 ppm 200 ppm
7. Ethanol, 2-Butoxy- 111-76-2 1.0 -5.0 % 50 ppm 20 ppm

So, it seems that lacquer thinner contains the listed chemicals and is probably good enough. I'm no chemist, so I have no idea if those relative amounts are correct. But, again it seemed to work fine.

Thanks gwaii.

 

[kimcrwbr1]

Try a little acetone and xylene mix, is it a 2 part

 

[kimcrwbr1]

If it is an enamel try some mineral spirits and has a longer cure time

 

[The_Dealer]

i vote xylene(acetone evaperates kinda quickly, and will cause bubbles) or mineral spirits. either one would be fine, mix 50/50