Got you beat, Banger. 40+ years in new car dealers, all in service (mechanical) and collision repair.
Ha…!
Many years ago, I did the same thing on the bonnet of my BMW 318i… painted it with a roller.
Fast, inexpensive and It turned out quite decent indeed!
Actually, I think a decent result could be had by brushing or roller if you were to use an old fashioned enamel with a retarder to allow it to flow. Couldn’t use lacquer or urethane as they dry way too fast.
I remember with Scrapper (my black/black '96 X-300), many years ago, when she had badly lost her clearcoat of her boot lid, I was looking around at different potential “candidates” to take care of her at Lowe’s. I was hoping just to come up with something that looked better than what she currently looked like. 
IIRC, I had already used one of those sponge “brushes” with some matching base color paint from one of the usual suspects, but now needed something akin to a clear coat substance. However, as I was reading all the warnings about using those “combine two into one” OEM-style clear coat spray cans, I decided against same. It mentioned a need to wear a respirator and great dangers of inhaling the fumes (I had heard that the combining process actually generates hydro-cyanic gas - i.e. cyanide gas! 
) 
So, looking through Lowe’s that day I happened to walk past the floor sealant products section. There was a product sold there (I forget the name) that is the clear stuff you pour on your garage floor after cleaning and prepping to seal it from contaminants, the weather, etc. I got to thinking this stuff might be just the ticket, as it dries clear (the kit comes with color metal flakes you can throw in, if you want that look instead) and supposedly is even more durable than clear coat, impervious to just about everything. I bought a can of it and applied it with a sponge brush also to Scrapper’s boot lid. At first it looked pretty good, but not so good after drying. 
If I had a buffing machine, I might have been able to buff it out mirror smooth, but who knows as this stuff is supposedly so tough. Anyway, it didn’t matter, b/c in just a few months the stuff started coming off her base coat (i.e. peeling), just like clear coat does after several years. wth??? 
I remember I wrote the co. and asked what was up with it, since it is supposedly SO durable and warrantied to last for many years in use on a garage floor. 
Predictably, they wrote me back and informed me that “our product is not intended for use on motor vehicles”, and left it at that … 
That was probably Thompson’s. I think it’s supposed to be used on porous surfaces like a concrete floor or wood deck.
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No, I did see Thompson’s also but for some reason passed it up in favor of the stuff that I used … This stuff was definitely for concrete floors (only), too … Maybe b/c our base color coats aren’t “porous”, that’s why it didn’t stay “stuck” …
Was it maybe the epoxy floor coating?
That sounds about right … I’ll see if I can find it on the Lowe’s website and report back here.
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