Kennedy touch up paint - follow up

- D
- doc
  
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posted
12 years ago

Tue, Sep 13, 2011 9:32 PM

A while back I was asking if anyone knew where to get Kennedy touch up paint here in Canada.

Industrial supply companies here just said it wasn't available. Didn't seem to know why. Said maybe something about the border.

Got a similar reply from MSC.

I thought Kennedy would be more informative but just got something about the chemicals in the spray can... Huh??

So I went out and bought a can of Rust-Oleum MultiColour Textured in brown. The brown was a little too light so I also got a can of VHT Wrinkle Plus in black.

I mixed them about 60/40 to get just the right color. (Sprayed into a little cup.) Then I dabbed it on and ... Voilla! Problem solved.

But got to wondering what the real problem was.

Oh yeah! A few years back I had a similar problem with my favorite one part machinery paint - Hammerite. The problem had NOTHING to do with the chemistry, safety...

The problem was that the importer, and I suppose the manufacturer, did not want to go through the trouble of making up bilingual packaging!

In Canada, you get harassed by the "Language Police" if you try to sell consumer goods without bilingual packaging.

So my strong suspicion is that Kennedy has found that it's just not worth it to do a special run for bilingual packaging.

The Rust-Oleum and VHT are both made in the States and the cans are nicely bilingual. That's prolly because there's a large enough market here to bear the extra cost.

And for the bright boys in Ottawa who are currently wondering how come consumers in Canada pay a LOT more than in the States...

The need for bilingual packaging is certainly one of the reasons.

DOC

Plausible deniability status requested!

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- JR North
  
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posted
12 years ago

Wed, Sep 14, 2011 5:01 AM

A lot of it is 'new' shipping restrictions. Specially international. I need some urethane paint for the bodywork I'm doing on my Audi. Found a good deal on Ebay, but they're in jolly 'ol England, and can't ship it to the states. JR Dweller in the cellar

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- Bruce Bergman
  
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posted
12 years ago

Wed, Sep 14, 2011 5:13 AM

Send it to California, or worse L.A. County or the South Coast AQMD area, a= nd now any paint you order has to be water-based and/or Ultra LOW VOC - hal= f the stuff out there, we can't get.=20

I'm going to have to drive my Corvair out of state to get it painted, even = though all it needs is spot-patch and touch up and a good top coat or two -= because you simply can't get Acrylic Lacquer anywhere in California anymor= e. They won't even put it in a booth and shoot it if you bring the supplie= s.

Or I have to strip it to bare metal and start over with a water based paint= system. And I really don't want to do that when it just needs a freshenin= g-up.

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- PrecisionmachinisT
  
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posted
12 years ago

Wed, Sep 14, 2011 5:56 AM

Suggest do a bit more research before taking that plunge...last time I checked, pretty much all of the "magic mirror" colors were still readily available in acrylic lacquer at least on ebay but you do need to get the paint code off of your vin tag if your looking to get an exact match...and since acrylic lacquer is about as forgiving a finish you could wish for and so unless you are a terrible painter basically you can just about re-paint a

60's chevy outside in a dust storm with it and still get pretty damned good results.

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- stans4
  
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posted
12 years ago

Wed, Sep 14, 2011 3:23 PM

com...

IIRC, CARB fines are pretty stiff, there's just some things that CANNOT be shipped into California. It's NOT a problem with acrylic lacquer itself or color availability, it's a political/legal problem.

I like shooting lacquer but it's not as durable as the urethanes and the local paint suppliers I've dealt with have quit handling it because of lack of demand from the body shops. Last one I tried getting some from said thay hadn't carried it in 10 years, no demand.

Stan

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- Bruce Bergman
  
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posted
12 years ago

Thu, Sep 15, 2011 12:31 AM

Precision, it's not a basic color =3D but not too odd, it's 61 GM Fawn Beig= e Metallic. I'm sure if you can find someone with the right paint "tint ba= se" and a tinting rack and all the tints and the metallic additives (and no= t all way out-dated) they can do it - but if nobody uses an Acrylic Lacquer= system anymore...

FWIBT Stan's right, Acrylic Lacquer is rather forgiving - I'd go out of sta= te and carry it back, make a plastic tarp booth and shoot with a HVLP gun i= n the garage - but a Pro Shop with a real spray booth in Californication ca= n't touch it for liability reasons.

There are very close current colors in Lexus and Infiniti, I just saw them = parked side by side. =20

The bugaboo is that whole strip down and redo, which I'm loath to do becaus= e now you have to redo all the door-jambs, and strip and re-shoot everythin= g on the interior with flattener additive... It is a huge can of worms, an= d I can't even start on it with construction in the dumper...

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