Hello, I am back again with questions about a capacitor that I just purchased. it is a 30 uF capacitor. Should I reuse the original resistor that came off the old capacitor or is it not necessary. Also, should I paint the capacitor or is that gonna destroy it?

Thanks for reading!

The resistor is not essential for the capacitor operation, but depending on the circuit where the capacitor is used, it may provide wanted features :

 - Discharge the capacitor to prevent a shock if you touch its terminals later

 - Prevent a situation where a charged capacitor is reconnected to line voltage in reverse polarity (it is random, depending n the moment when you connected it), which will make 2x the inrush current and 2x the arcing respectively

 - Prevent a situation where such inrush current is going through a lamp (in CWA and similar circuits)

So long as the resistor is at its nominal value, it is ok for now. (There have been cases where those resistors eventually burn out)

Prevent the paint and solvents from entering into the capacitor. In metal can capacitors this mean the terminal bushings. In plastic capacitors this means all case openings, like all around the cap, along the wires etc

Good to know. the ballast type in mine is one of those 2 WDG. XFRMR ballasts. I asked if these can be painted cause I want to make it look a bit like either a matte grey or light red capacitor that were used in street lights of the era.

"2 WDG. XFRMR" may stand for a huge range of ballasts from PerfektStart to CWA... This really does not define what your ballast is

Depending on how you paint it, do what's needed to prevent paint or solvent from getting to the terminal bushings or flowing into the capacitor