Brush painting with decanted aerosol paint?

[Nickey Line]

Has anyone on here attempted to use decanted aerosol paint (e.g. Halfords) for brush painting?

I assume a retardant and/or thinner would be required. What would one use?

[Chas Levin]

Hi, I do this regularly with Halfords, Tamiya acrylics, art sprays etc. I take the can (well shaken) outside and spray for a few seconds (depending on how much I need for the job) into the unside-down plastic lid, aiming down into the join between the flat top and the sides. A pool of paint will form and, keeping the lid at an angle to stop it spreading out over the flat surface of the upturned lid and drying out too quickly, you can then use a brush on it.

It'll tend to dry out quicker than can paint - I assume because the propellants are deliberately far more volatile - but it's certainly do-able. I do it for those situations where you need to touch in small areas on something where the same paint has been previously used to spray, for instances after gluing detail to a painted vehicle: touching in with anything other than the sprayed paint would be too visible.

One thing - it's worth wearing a disposable latex glove on the hand holding the plastic top, as it'll inevitably get 'spray-back' on it...

As to brush cleaning: some cans tell you which solvents can be used to clean the paint; otherwise, I resort to cellulose thinners which deal with most things. I also keep a couple of small brushes just for this purpose, in case I use a spray paint I cannot afterwards clean from the brush properly.

Hope this helps, Chas

[Nickey Line]

Thanks Chas, it's a start... I was beginning to think I wouldn't get a reply!

 

It would seem though that some way to retard the drying would be advantageous. Perhaps some experimentation is required...

[101]

Some car paints actually come with a little brush in the cap so that you can decant a bit and use it as touch up paint.

[PatB]

Once upon a time such companies as Holts sold the same range of paints as in their spray cans in small tins with brush caps, for small touch up jobs. Sadly, nothing so useful has been available for decades. I last saw such things in, probably, the mid-80s.

[57xx]

On 29/09/2019 at 05:52, PatB said:

Once upon a time such companies as Holts sold the same range of paints as in their spray cans in small tins with brush caps, for small touch up jobs. Sadly, nothing so useful has been available for decades. I last saw such things in, probably, the mid-80s.

 

What colour do you want? https://www.halfords.com/motoring/paints-body-repair/scratch-repair-paint-restorers