Hi, I’m trying to repaint the front bumper between the headlights metallic blue but can’t seem to be able to blend into existing paint, I have done this sort of work with non metallic un lacquered finishes no problems and also a complete respray on a motorcycle tank with metallic + laquer no blending required, so please what are the correct procedures ?
Thanks in advance Dave
To be honest it’s difficult enough using touch up paint with stone chips. 
You probably never will due to some cars needing the under coat first then the metallic colour paint and then the clear top coat. (Mine needed all 3).
I picked my car up from Inverness knowing about the front bumper needed doing which they were going to sort out.
They ended up repainting the whole bumper, as otherwise it “REALLY WILL LOOK CRAP”.
Best advice?
Take it to a paint shop.
Plenty of good independent ones out there.
A matter for your good self. 
PS-I damaged a sill and bottom of the front door on my Golf once. The ONLY way, (the paint shop) was to paint the whole sill, wing and door. It did look as good as the original afterwards.
Hi Scarlettpimpernel and thanks for the response.
I bought the car with the paint damage with a view to getting it done professionally but would giv it a go myself first, there was no damage to the body just scratche paint and flaked lacquer so I rubbed down and sprayed with plastic primer and flatter it to a dead smooth blended finish with 3000 grit to a mirror finish, the top coat went on well with but it was as I tried to blend it where the masking tape had been the problems started with a strange effect from different angles it varies also I tried flatting and lacquering a small area and flattering metallic seems to be a no-no, as I said if it had been nonmetallic and without a lacquer I’ve no doubt it would have turned out great (doing similar work on our 1985 VW campervan and it’s turning out great fairly easily), I shall have one more try spraying and lacquering without tape and misting the lacquer with thinners to blend it, if it doesn’t work I shall follow your advice and take it to a pro. Thanks very much for your advice it helps to know wether I chasing rainbows or making a technical error. Again thanks for your sound advice.
Kind regards Dave.
From a keen amateurs point of view metallic paint finish is difficult to get right. I had a door painted some years ago, it stuck out like a sore thumb against the rest of the car. It was done again but again not perfect.
I’ve tried myself over the years on various projects, solid colours seem to go on better than metallics.
Are we talking rattle cans or a decent spray gun, either way difficult to DIY
As said if it’s a good finish you’re after then see the pros for advice.
Thanks Dave.
As you have got that far give it a go!
As you know solid colours can be achieved, but metallics are another story in my opinion.
Let us know how it goes perhaps?
All the best.
Ok chaps a quick update. I flatted and blended what I had painted with 1500 then 3000 and cleaned / panel wiped the bumper beyond the repair area masked off the headlights and sprayed colour coat without any masking tape therefore allowing the paint to finish naturally this seems to have given a reasonable result so I then gave it 4 costs of lacquer which started to go to gloss in some areas, so a major improvement but not perfect yet! The next step is to apply 6more clear coats then cut it back with cutting compound to get rid of the orange peel then finally polish it to get a mirror finish, so far if I look at the car from the front the bumper it looks darker than the bonnet but similar to the tops of the wings, looked at from the side the wing tops and bonnet look the same and the top of the bumper looks darker, I am guessing that may be a feature of metallic paint so once cut back and polished I shall make a further assesment, if the finish is good but the colour is wrong due to fading I shall get some paint mixed to the current colour and re do the job, I guess the off the shelf rattle can is the colour the car was painted originally and doesn’t account for 18 years of fading Ho hum ! Sorry I rambled on, any thoughts, opinions or questions welcomed. I will post an update after the next stage.
I can definitely tell you it fades and thus changes colour. My once owned Mk2 import had stickers on the rear panel, peeled them off and under a lovely deeper richer paint finish. That was Racing Bronze, the bonnet and boot had definitely faded compared to the sides of the car but not as noticeable as it was a gentle fade in if you know what I mean. I guess as soon as you add new paint it hits you straight off
I fell foul of the DIY Metallic paint problem, I have a Silver MK3 and decided to rub down and re spray a small rust bubble area by the the bottom of the wheel arch below the side indicator, it was filled rubbed down under coated spray painted ( Halfords mixed colour ) and Lacquered, several coats , the area got bigger and bigger and I now have an area the size of a plate which is a slightly different shade to the rest of the body work , and there is a faint join line between the old and the new , which is still there after using compound/polish/wax.
I can’t afford to get a pro respray so thats it, I’ll live with it, but I’ll think twice before trying it again.
I’m sure some people are very good with aerosols , but its a real knack to get it spot on.
Hi there Bosley,
You hit the nail on the head, two small 50p sized areas and i now have sprayed to appx. the headlight centres ! My biggest problem was that I was masking off the spray area then trying to blend the step the tape left, this totally ruins the fresh paint and I have concluded that the only answer is to not use tape and not go near it with any abrasive even rubbing compound but to spray lacquer straight on, again with no tape, doing this I have achieved a stepless finish that looks half reasonable and hopefully when I polish/ buff and bend the lacquer it will be a decent finish (though I am not totally confident), that leaves me with the next problem that you mentioned that from different angles and distances the colour looks different one moment it looks like chalk and cheese from another a good match, it may be that when it’s polished it will refract differently. To summarize, if I get a good finish with only a difference in colour I shall redo the job with paint colour matched to the car as it is now, fading and all. I have used a company before called "Cars paints " who have a few outlets Essex/ London area that do an amazing job of matching colour and metallic effect, do Halfords blend paints? Thanks for your response to my thread it all helps.
Kind regards Dave.
Hi again an update regarding my attempt to repaint the bumper of my crystal blue 2.5, I lightly cut back the paint and blended edges with 600 1500 and finally 3000 wet and dry again which gave a mirror finish but unsightly base coat, I then resprayed the area without any masking tape except for the headlights, after half a dozen coats I then gave it appx six of the best clear lacquer coats (going beyond the area sprayed with base colour by a couple of inches) which didnt give a great finish until I cut it back with rubbing compound then auto glim restorer finally polish and wax, doing this I was able to get a good finish with no steps or damaged base colour coat due to not trying to flat the basecoat, the finish is such that the colour has lightened (due I assume to the prismatic effect) and looks much nearer the colour of the old paintwork, there are still one or two small imperfections but the job is sufficiently good that I will leave it for a while to see how I feel about it after seeing it in different light conditions settings etc. If I redo it I shall do it with colour matched cans and am confident I can get a near bodyshop finish, it certainly looks very good as it is though, I shall now fix the other minor blemishes now I have sussed the technique. Thanks for all your help and inputs and if you want more details of the process I used I am glad to provide them.
Regards Dave.
You must have the patience of a saint!
Well done.
Glad you are happy.
I may have the patience of a Saint but none of the other virtues 
. Well I can say that i am glad not to be out there with wet and dry and rattle cans for a while ! Thanks and take care, Dave.
Oh incidentally, when I add a post to the thread do you as a contributor get an automatic notification ?
If someone replies direct to me then I get an email.
Otherwise, I see a blue circle on the right hand side of the post.
Which I believe indicates that I have visited/read that post?
Not 100% sure on that mind.
great thanks.
You can change what happens when someone replies by clicking on the “tracking” button at the bottom of the topic. It can be tracking, watching, normal or mute.
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Hi
Just read your spraying update, I think I will try doing the same with my spray paint Tide mark, It can’t look any worse and might improve it.
I had my paint mixed at Halfords, it took a few days and is quite a good match considering the original paintwork is 13 years old, although MX5 parts also have their own spray paint version.
Boz
Thanks Robbie I will have a play around with that👍
Well Box If you’re not happy with it then there’s not much to lose and possibly a lot to gain, I would say go for it and I would be interested in the technique you use and results thereof, Halfords workshop lacquer is supposed to be much superior to there standard lacquer though it was out of stock everywhere. Good luck with it, let us know how you get on. Dave
Hi, as you probably know I am 87 years old and it was about 15 years ago since I painted all my car with Two Part pack paints using a spray gun attached to a decent compressor. I read up about spraying as much as possible, and the beauty about two part pack is that it is a nice hard coat when it is dry.
The hard part was smoothing the paint down by hand using wet and dry paper from P100 , P150, P200 P500, P1000, P1500. with plenty of water as a lubricant. When that is finished I used cutting paste on a pad that fits onto a backing pad that can be used in an electric drill. There are different grades of this paste too . I only used two of them. This should if done correctly give the paint a nice shine. I could never get away with spraying on gloss protecting coat so I waxed mine instead. If you try a drill and pad be very careful about using at corners and edges of the body work as you can very quickly cut through the top coat.