Remember these touch-up paint bottles?

[atikovi]

Over 30 years old and still good. Today's $15 tubes are dried up after a year.

 

[Kira]

Actually good or just still liquid? Did you mix 'em up?

 

[atikovi]

Good. Just used it on an old Cadillac.

 

[AZjeff]

There was a rack with dozens and dozens of bottles.

 

[JC1]

The bottles outlasted most of the cars they were meant for. Much cheaper back then as well.

 

[atikovi]

The bottles outlasted most of the cars they were meant for.

I wonder if they have some toxic ingredients that made them last long but are now banned.

 

[spasm3]

Mostly lacquer, thats why its fast dry.

 

[JC1]

I wonder if they have some toxic ingredients that made them last long but are now banned.

Probably, but the amounts are so small. Did you buy them 30 years ago?

 

[atikovi]

Mostly lacquer, thats why its fast dry.

Isn't lacquer organic, like it's made from dried bugs or something?

 

[atikovi]

Probably, but the amounts are so small. Did you buy them 30 years ago?

Yes, it says 1985-91 Buick, Cadillac, Olds.

 

[spasm3]

Isn't lacquer organic, like it's made from dried bugs or something?

You are thinking of shellac, which is made from bug excretions. Lacquer is nitrocellulose. Flammable. Old ancient film bases before acetate bases were used, were nitrocellulose. Thats why you used to hear of old dried out films bursting into flames in a projector, or going off from static.

 

[Kira]

Watch the Italian movie, "Cimema Paradisio". It's real good and has a nitrocellulose film scene that'll make you cry.

 

[PeterGreen]

Here's an ad for a movie theater that boasted, "you probably won't burn to death."
https://moviessilently.com/2019/09/...o-death-at-our-theater-asbestos-ad-from-1914/

 

[Mazomopar]

And the movie house seen in Inglorious Basterds..

 

[RamFan]

Dr.Colorchip makes great touch up paint. They claim it’s only good for a year but I literally just used it on the Mazda (my amazing wife opened the hatch into the garage) and I bought it roughly four years ago.

Pricey, but works!

 

[Snowflake White]

Yes, the duplicolor from the 1970s and 1980s as long as the bottles were properly sealed would last decade!
The only thing you had to do was make sure to shake them up well. Cool to see some very rare unique colors from cars that
were maybe even 50 years old and you could still see the original like new color shades.

 

[nthach]

You are thinking of shellac, which is made from bug excretions. Lacquer is nitrocellulose. Flammable. Old ancient film bases before acetate bases were used, were nitrocellulose. Thats why you used to hear of old dried out films bursting into flames in a projector, or going off from static.

Traditional Japanese/Chinese lacquer was made from uroshirol, the same stuff that gives poison ivy/oak/sumac its rash.

GM used lacquer first, a specific DuPont formulation, while Ford and Chrysler/Dodge at the time used enamel paints. DuPont is no more for automotive paint, it’s now Axalta who’s part owned by Berkshire Hathaway(who also owns Benjamin Moore).

 

[nthach]

I wonder if they have some toxic ingredients that made them last long but are now banned.

Lead and other heavy metals(nickel, barium, chromium) were prevalent in car paint.

 

[Snowflake White]

Traditional Japanese/Chinese lacquer was made from uroshirol, the same stuff that gives poison ivy/oak/sumac its rash.

GM used lacquer first, a specific DuPont formulation, while Ford and Chrysler/Dodge at the time used enamel paints. DuPont is no more for automotive paint, it’s now Axalta who’s part owned by Berkshire Hathaway(who also owns Benjamin Moore).

Yes the paints division of DuPont was sold off to Axalta. My sister worked for them for a time and didn't think much of the way the new organization worked. DuPont was a great employer in most cases to work for. Axalta is horrible.