Semi-dried paint in spray can

Intelligent advice will be "Do NOT Puncture Can". You don't know how much propellent is left in the can or pressure. If you have another nozzle that will fit the can do this. Remove the spray tip, or drill it out with small drill. You want a large pattern for the paint to come thru. Shake up the can, shake some more, shake some more. Then try it. The idea is to get the thick separated paint from the feed tube out. Normally it would clog the nozzle, that's why we made it larger. Do this until the paint appears to be normal thickness. Now you are good to go.

My advice is if cleaning the spray nozzle don't work then get a new can of paint! Do not puncture the can or try to open it as it may explode and injure or kill you.

Lee Fritz

I doubt it would explode and seriously hurt you, but it could create the mother of all messes!  phillyreading's advice to pitch it is good.  

If you wish to proceed anyway to get the paint out, I'd recommend putting it in the refrigerator for a while to cool it down/reduce the pressure, then taking it outside away from anything that you don't want possibly messed up.  If it were me, while it was ice cold, I'd stand it up and firmly brace the can, maybe even bury it up to the top inch, then stand back and hit it squarely near the top with a pellet gun (mine will pierce metal cans, i assume most will). That should put a nice hole in it and the pressurization will release but hopefully not too much of the paint.  Drain and strain it well, etc. 

That's a lot of work/potentially a lot of mess for a little bit of paint.

Throw the cans out and buy some new paint.

......of what is already of questionable value.

Toss it out before you end up on the local news as a recipient of a Darwin Award.

Lee I used to do that with my .22 when I was 15 or so,............................ of course the object of that deal was not to SAVE the paint.............. And then my Dad would want to know what happened to the can of paint..........

What a way to start your day! CW, I hope the OP follows your suggestion. Any attempt to get to those few drops of paint could be lethal at best.

Mr. Hiawatha,

A few more suggestions would be. 1) Find a supplier that carries the same brand and the same color. 2) If you have a piece of rolling stock, a automotive paint supplier can color match your sample. In most cases the retailer that matched your sample can load & charge a few cans for a nominal fee.

After all your life is worth more than the cost of one can of spray paint. 

Yeah I gotta side with the guys saying toss it.  The ONLY thing I would try is removing the nozzle and soak it in paint thinner or something to see if you can free it up.  Messing with the tube coming out of the top or the can in any way is just begging for a complete MESS!  

Before messing with the can, which is pressurized, better to take the numbers off the can and select a new one. Better to go with caution then risk a little mess or a big one, in my book. Or you could try to sell it on EBay!

Mike Maurice

Not worth the mess or safety risk!

Throw it out.

My guess is the can has lost most of the pressure, and that's why you're getting the results you are getting.

FWIW, I've never been successful at making a spray can work if cleaning the nozzle won't fix it.  From the responses here, I see that most other folks have the same luck.

Toss it, it's not worth the effort.

Seriously, did this question even need to be asked for what is at best a $3.00 can of paint.

He did say Collector Color paint, so it may no longer be available.  I believe this is the outfit that makes specific model train colors.  Henning's has collector colors, but not in spray paints.  Harry told me there was an outfit that produced similar paint in spray cans, don't know if they're still around.

I took the nozzle off a can once and soaked it upside down in a jar of Mineral Spirits.  I was able to then clean out the nozzle with a thin wire and get the spray can to work again.  It may not have been in as bad shape as yours though.

.....

Dennis

Is Collector Color the same as Train Enamel, made by Charlie Woods? The paint came in spray cans with plain orange labels.

If so, here is the Trainenamel web page.

I have some rather old, never used cans of Train Enamel, purchased for a project that never got done. The paint is over twenty years old, so I asked the Train Enamel folks whether the paint would still be any good. They told me the paint would be fine as long as the can still rattled, and sprayed. That was probably more than five years ago, and I still have not gotten around to the project. The cab was all stripped and ready to paint!

George Tebolt carries this paint.

Newer rattle cans will go bad quickly.  Older cans can be resuscitated by shaking and putting them in sunlight.  Nozzles can be cleaned with very, very small drills.  Once coagulated paint gets stuck in the tube inside the can, it is time to pitch it.

I have a can of zinc chromate from 1999 that works great, and a six month old can of Krylon primer that is dead with a full can of paint.  I am having way better luck with Rustoleum.

I have punctured spray cans before. All they do is go poof. Stab it with a knife and then you can cut the can with tin snips.

Send it to the cornfield...