Had spray can and sawed off shotgun in inventory we had also both painted the stocks of our guns. COnsidering these are new features they may be part of the problem?
Update as of 1.24.2014: After playing for around 2 hours my character has reappeared in the forest back from where I was. All loot etc still on him and now is in the servers I join that previously had my fresh start character in it. Weird delay.