"old" Floquil revival...

[swampsavage]

...got about 100 bottles of the old original Floquil I stashed away almost 30 years ago. I realize that the original Diosol thinner is no longer available but would try to revive and use the paint. Any tips on solvent/thinner to put it buck into commission. The pigments have separated from the solvent but I seem to remember that was common even when new.

 

[Espeefan]

You can thin old style Floquil with Xylene, Xylol, or lacquer thinner.

If you have access to an ultrasonic cleaner you can put the bottles in it and it will do a nice job of breaking up solids. That little battery powered paint mixer Badger and Micromark offer works also. You might want to strain the paint before spraying just to be sure.

 

[bigford]

i thin all my floquil with zippo fuel. and never had a problem

 

[swampsavage]

Thanks Alan,

Maybe there's hope for it then. I do remember how well it worked with an airbrush.

 

[flh80]

Salvage them if you can. I prefere that over anything today. I still have many jars and colors, I look for old ones a swapmeets. I thin with lacquer thinner (Dupont Automotive) to spray it, but to nenew it again you may have to add some of the other solvents as said above. Some colors act different I've found.

 

[iomalley]

Really? Can you resurrect an old Floquil bottle with that layer of brown shellac in it? If Zippo fluid works, then I've unnecessarily thrown out alot of bottles...

 

[wheeler1963]

Really? Can you resurrect an old Floquil bottle with that layer of brown shellac in it? If Zippo fluid works, then I've unnecessarily thrown out alot of bottles...

There's nothing wrong with the brown shellac in it. I've got bottles from the mid 80's that still spray perfect. Just shake it up good is all. The lowest price tag I found on one of the bottles last week when I was sorting them all out was $1.39. Much better than the $4.59 I pay now!!!

 

[kenw]

a quart of lacquer thinner from Home Depot is all you need.

 

[swampsavage]

I have some Home Depot lacquer thinner already. Seems Toluol and Ether are already in it so may just be close to original Diosol as is. I will try it and see how it goes.

 

[flh80]

John, If that won't work you could try, some MEK (methyl ethyl ketone), nasty stuff but strong, use in well vented area or you'll be flying.
Use just enough to get it gooey and stirable, then add your Lacquer thinner. I also learned that Automotive (Dupont or other brand name) Lacquer thinner is stronger than the store brand, which is reconstituted. It is about three times as expensive though but dries faster. You can get it at an auto parts store that sells Automotive Paint Supplies.

 

[Cjcrescent]

Diosol was mainly a mixture of Tuolol, (Tuolene), and Xylol, (Xylene). I found out that Xylol was the majority of the two percentage wise. The original Scalecoat thinner was a mixture of the same two solvents as well, but with the Tuolol being the majority.

When I lived in Mobile, Al. one of our club members there was a chemical engineer. He took samples of each to his lab where he worked and analyzed them for us. IIRC, the ratio for Diosol was 55% Xylol and 45% Tulol. For Scalecoat it was 60% Tuolol and 40% Xylol. Since then I have always tried to get both solvents and mix the two for each paint I was using at the time. Its now gotten very difficult to get Tuolol around here, but Xylol is readily available.

The other ingredients were things like stabilizers and other solvents. These were often in such small amounts as to be unimportant when mixing your own.