Continuing the discussion from Etype photos - post some of your favorites!:
Has anyone ever attempted a rattle can paint job for fender and door? I can’t justify spending any money on this but don’t want to drive around with a green door and an unknown colour fender.
You can get a good job with rattle cans custom made up depending on your old paint but the paint generally won’t match because you have a defined paint line that your eye picks up It needs to be blended over a foot to trick your eyes
I’ve played with 1k B/C on a Kia and it was better than the factory no orange peel but I used a spray gun for the clear which was 2k
Good practice nothing to loose
I think I’ll give it a try.
Just try it…
I have two panels partly painted. If you know, you can tell in person. I can make it out in this picture. They were painted before, a few decades ago due to a few scratches. Total cost was about 30€ including the can, but do have it mixed based on the paint you have, don’t order the paint code.
It’s not the can’s fault if it looks bad.
Metallic paints are always much more difficult and for good results go to a professional and pay at least 1000€ for a good job.
Looks like there is a colour difference between passenger door and front fender, but hard to tell in the picture.
I’ll just give it a try. It can’t get any worse than it is right now 
It can get worse, but not with a rattle can and for the money!
Give them a try for compatibility before going all in. And you are correct, but the whole side is painted in a slightly off colour anyways, and so it shows… plus, the rear wheel arch is painted as well, below the crease 
The important bit is that 99% of people don’t notice it immediately. Yours will look much better if not good enough.
Let us know how it goes
So true. Most people aren’t looking at a colour mismatch, they only tend to notice bad paint quality, and even then, it often needs to be pointed out. As David says, not much to lose if it’s already bad. If it needs further work, removal of a bit of rattle can paint won’t be much of an issue.
I’ve just done some on my boot and front wing with a rattle can from Supercheap Autos
The boot is beginning to lose its clear coat so I thought what the heck;
I am losing the clear coat on the sunroof.
I’ll give it a go, cans are on order. We’ll see when I’ll find the time to do it. I need to make space in the garage first…
Looks good enough, from my house!
Luckily I took another “before” picture so I can at least try and convince myself I didn’t make things worse.
The blue base coat did look ok after it went on. I didn’t take any pictures of that.
But the clear coat would stay mate whatever I tried. Tried thin layers are first, and then went to thick layers which appeared glossy at first but made things even worse. I now have tears in some places and when dry out became mate again.
Maybe I’ll give it another try some day. Not sure where the problem lies.
Mate as you say is probably orange peel One reason I used my gun for clear and I had the clear Did you use rattle can clear common causes that may apply
Air pressure low
Crappy gun
To far away ( 6 inches )
To hot
To thin (dry needs to flow out )
Paint not compatible
Watch some you tubes Basically
Wet Sand it 600 with a block and try again if your not happy ,wouldn’t be the first painter to sand out a job
practice makes perfect
And if it’s good enough for you it’s good enough for the world
Cheers
You can also sand it (not down to the base) and then polish it. But with a machine, doing all that by hand would take half a day. Sometimes for me the clear just doesn’t want to look right with orange peel, runs and matte areas and on other days the same paint looks professional.
Looks better already!
I agree with David, it’s unlikely you’ll get a good shiny surface “out of the can”. Flat it off with 1000 grit or finer and then use swirl remover\fine cutting compound and I think you’ll be fine.
I have sanded a bit of the fender and polished it. Not perfect, but it looks much better.
So I went ahead and sanded the lot. I have run out of polish, but will get some more and post another picture when I am done.
Fender starts to shine, door not yet:
Polishing worked quite nicely in some areas
In others the paint was a bit too thin
The original green is showing 
so I stopped polishing.
I think the main problem with painting was the temperature. I did the mirror cap indoors and that worked much better.
So I will leave the paint as it is for now and maybe start another attempt in spring when it gets warm again.
Cheers,
Harald
Added the missing coach line and now I can live with it for the winter. It is a little too wide, but that kind of suits the rest of the paint job
By the way, does anyone know the width of the original coach line?
Cheers,
Harald
I can see what you mean about your ‘gloss troubles’.
But oohhhhh my friend…your paint job looks SO much better than before, with the non-matching door and all.
As a ‘recovering perfectionist’ I’ve tried to adopt a new way of looking at things-that-need-fixing/improvement. When I’ve finished a job, I ask myself: “Is it nicer / better now than before? Has there been significant improvement?” If I can honestly say “yes”, then yay for me and good enough (for now, at least).
I think you can definitely say yayy for you, and much improved ::. And, as others have mentioned, apparently clear coat is a bear, so don’t feel badly. If you want to give it another go sometime, you can always try a light sand-down and re-clear-ing. Or take it to a body shop and get a quote from them for a clear-coating.
Oh!
P.S. For some reason the photos you subsequently posted after your initial posting didn’t show up for me until I had written the above. So, now my encouragement is unnecessary 
And, we can see, that your polishing experiment has yielded lovely results! So, there you go. A good amateur job that you can be proud of. I wish I had your patience. Good for you!
