Rattle can spraying for beginners...

[NiceCupOfTea]

I acquired a new bootlid for my e36 cab recently - the original has been sprayed poorly at some stage and looks absolutely horrendous. New one is much better but had the obligatory rust around the lock. I've rubbed it down, rust killer, hammerite, primer, top coat, lacquer, but realised I made a mistake masking it up so cleanly as there are really obvious masking lines where I've sprayed. Most of it is hidden by the numberplate light plinth, but there is a bit that is obvious above that.

I rubbed it back down to get rid of the lines, and decided to "freehand" spray over the top with a much larger section masked off to avoid masking lines. However, I still have "hard" masking lines over the much greater section of bootlid that was unmasked. I want to clean it off and think again (quite frankly a brush and some of my daughter's poster paints would look better) but white spirit isn't touching it and any time I look for cellulose thinners I just get pointed back to white spirit.

I know it's all in the prep, and I know rattle cans are st, and I know it takes years of expertise, and I know trying to do part of a panel will all end in tears, but is there anything I can do to make it look not totally st at a distance of 10 feet? I should have just put it on rust and all

[helix402]

You can get a good finish with spray cans, like most things it takes practice.

I think you may have to respray the whole lid to get the finish you want.

This was done with spray cans:

[jfdi]

Apply masking tape / paper with the paper over the area you are spraying then fold back over so the masking tape is like a hinge underneath the paper.
Peal back a fraction more between each coat and you won't end up with any hard masking lines.

[NiceCupOfTea]

Thanks guys.

I have rubbed it back to metal and put some etch primer down (well, some bilt hamber stuff I had). I still think it will be ropey but it's my third go and it's just killing me at the mo

[paintman]

NiceCupOfTea said:

I know trying to do part of a panel will all end in tears, but is there anything I can do to make it look not totally st at a distance of 10 feet? I should have just put it on rust and all

You are trying to do part of a panel that either needs to work to swage lines on the panel OR edge to edge.
Generally bonnet, roof & bootlid is a whole panel paint.

Even if you do backtape as suggested above the join between the new & the old is highly likely to be visible, either as a thin dull line or as a rainbowy effect. The darker the colour the more noticeable it will be.

Edited by paintman on Sunday 2nd June 20:24

[EarlofDrift]

You really need to do the whole panel and then flatten back the lacquer and polish with some cutting compound.

You can do it on your garage but it takes practice to get it right Theres a guy on Youtube called Retrorestore who resprayed a Vectra wing on his driveway.

Did a great job of it here's the ending.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3-tSdVLP0Y

[Andy 308GTB]

EarlofDrift said:

You really need to do the whole panel and then flatten back the lacquer and polish with some cutting compound.

You can do it on your garage but it takes practice to get it right Theres a guy on Youtube called Retrorestore who resprayed a Vectra wing on his driveway.

Did a great job of it here's the ending.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3-tSdVLP0Y

That's very good

[Fore Left]

EarlofDrift said:

You really need to do the whole panel and then flatten back the lacquer and polish with some cutting compound.

You can do it on your garage but it takes practice to get it right Theres a guy on Youtube called Retrorestore who resprayed a Vectra wing on his driveway.

Did a great job of it here's the ending.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3-tSdVLP0Y

Good stuff but he did use an air driven spray gun rather then rattle cans to be fair.