Hi guys, my silver Polo currently has a white quarter panel and a very rough quality silver front bumper, both of which I will be looking to re-spray myself.

My Polo is a 2002 9N 1.2E in standard LA7W reflex silver, the paint quality is very questionable over the whole car, with subtly different shades of silver from past repairs, a few dents, scratches, thin paint on the bonnet, swirl marks all over, it is awful.

For this reason, I am not looking to spray the parts to be "factory perfect", I just want to spray them so that they look presentable, so that when you look at the car, you aren't instantly aware that a couple of bits have been hand sprayed, but if you inspect it closely, you will probably be able to tell.

Any tutorials I have found online involve cleaning, de-greasing, sanding down the panel with various grades of sandpaper, rubbing it with fine grade finishing paper, applying several layers of primer with intervals in-between, then doing the same with basecoat, then the same again - but with a slightly different spraying method - for the clear-coat/lacquer.

I don't have much time, I am lazy, I have two big cans of primer, two big cans of basecoat, and a big can of lacquer... What is the easiest method I can get away with?

Plastidip £60 for 5l and just need spraygun no prep etc. :)

sand with wet n dry 600-800 and hot soapy water - sand until its all dull and dead smooth , any deep marks need filling , take your time here and keep sanding until its all smooth

degrease with panel wiip

3-4 decent coats of primer - let it sit at least 24 hrs or idealy more in the warm and dry not outside in the rain

sand the primer with 800 wet - again keep on until its all smooth

basecoat until its covered and looks all uniform and streak free

let the basecoat sit 15-20mins and then on with 3-4 coats on clear coat

this all needs doing somewhere warm and dry -not outside this time of year

and place the cans in some hot water before hand , they will spray nicer

This site is quite useful http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/spray-painting.htm

Do you mean it has a white wing? If so you will need to get some paint around the edges or it will shop up.

If it's already paint you shouldn't need to use primer. Use a single light coat if necessary.

Scotch brute pads are very useful. A note regarding wet sanding and keying, you don't want the surface to be super smooth. If you want to flat it do so as above, but then go over with a scotch brute pad afterwards. You want as many tiny little scratches as possible, other wise the paint will not bond. The cleaner the better, take your time preparing the panels, the painting is easy but if you rush the prep it will show.

Also, if you get the panels off and prepped then I would bring them to a body shop and have them paint it. The most I would use a rattle can on is a bumper. It's perfect for handles, mirror and trims etc but will really look like you've used a can if you are not fir iliac with using them especially on the wing and it has a (presumably) properly painted panel right next to it. Ideally if you are painting the wing, then you want to blend it into the bonnet an door as its a metallic and will almost defiantly be a different shade. But as you say you just want to smarten it up a bit, so go for it. Worst case is it looks crap, but you learned to do it yourself, which is worth more then a shiner panel really.

no need to scotch pad over 800 sanding - its plenty enough key

If dry then yes, but when done wet I find it makes it too smooth. Many different ways to do it, end of the day if it turns out good, stick with it.

I do my spraying in spare room but i leave the heating/radiators on for 30 mins before hand to get the room nice and warm. Make sure you wear a mask , and cover up anything that you dont want over spray on =)

Lucky! I can just about blag my way into the veranda ha.