Any ideas on whether body panels/extras can be painted successfully at home? I'm interested in a rear spoiler (I'm shallow...I know ;) and there's quite a cost differential between painted/unpainted. I always believed than you needed an oven (?) to "bake" the paint onto car parts...am I right in this? What about a can of paint from Halfords?

My brother is a mini fanatic ( no, that doesn't mean he's a small freak :-> ) and is considering painting a new bonnet with a canned spray paint - then lacquering it. Is he as mad as we think? (2/00)
.. pretty mad to a bonnet of a mini to good standards .. small areas about 12" x 12" can be done with sprays .. after this it quickly gets more expensive than the paint .. you can get filled cans of paint for about 7 GBP to do the 12"x12".. or half a litre of paint for 12 GBP to do 1/4 car (needs thinners and some equipment) .. also depends on the colour .. white is a bad covering colour .. black needs lots of paint to cover and is very difficult to get right. .. A spoiler could be done with care as it is long and thin. Factory paint is baked on. Most respray/repairs use paint that chemically goes off to become hard but this means it does not fade/match original paint .. not sure how this works in the 'water based' paint era .. as the paint shops have been forced by the EU to use this stuff .. I suspect it is not great .. bit like the manufacturers efforts! Paint shops can/do use infra red heaters to cook the paint. So proceed with care .. and plastics require a special primer/undercoat .. easier getting them done by a paint shop. (2/00)
If you're gonna do that with spray cans, you'll spend as much as when you take it to the body shop. Also 'real' paint is a lot better. (2/00)