Is it necessary to add thinner to auto paint before spraying?
Hi The answer is “very likely” but it depends on the paint. Very likely! It is not thinner, exactly, it is a catalyst that “activates” the paint and makes it dry. Using too much will make it dry powdery and dull, too little and your paint will stay tacky for an extremely long time – moreso than you would ever want! Read the instructions that came with the paint just to be sure, and when mixing its proportions – 50-50 for example, be very accurate! Small differences in measurement will make large differences on the car. Make sure your spraying temperature and pattern is right, too, or you’ll get running, orangepeeling, wasting of paint and a slew of other problems. Practice on a piece of cardboard or wood when you experiment with spray patterns. I digress, I know, but my experience says that the temperature of the room / car and the spray pattern are just as important as paint-catalyst mixing.
