Gather ’round, children, and let me tell you a tale of reasonable car restoration. In 2021 your boy was working two jobs: one a day role managing operations for a marketing agency for 8 hours, and the other as a dishwasher for a restaurant for the next 8 hours. In addition there was a 45 minute drive each way from where I live to the restaurant and back. So we are talking long hours. I slept maybe 4 or 5 hours a night. I had taken the restaurant job in an emergency situation (hey, 30K a year ain’t bad when nothing else is coming in) and was sticking with it while I was feeling the agency job out.So I was working 16 hours a day, in the summer heat, 5 or 6 days a week. Friday night, well Saturday morning, really, I got off the restaurant job after many sweaty hours (no cooling in that back of house!). I had parked my 2004 Camry in a hotel gararge a block away and was giving a less fortunate fellow employee a ride home. As we got into the car, which was parked next to a massive rectangular pillar, your boy was blathering away at his aquaintance. My Chatty Cathy mode was in full effect. Putting the car in reverse without paying attention at all, I scraped along the pillar with the passenger side door.I don’t drink or do drugs. I’m a good driver and don’t have any points on my license. But the fact is that I was basically intoxicated after several months of 16 hour days with physical labor and little sleep night after night. I would never have done this under normal circumstances. I would have carefully looked around and checked before starting to drive, especially in reverse. But now my car was deeply scraped and dented, with orange undercoat glaring along that door. Ick.A few weeks later I quit the restaurant job. Now I was dating and man that bunch of digs and scrapes was embarassing! Calling around to some shops, I found their pricing to fill and repair or replace with a junkyard door was way out of proportion to the value of the vehicle–a quarter of the blue book price. No way! I thought I was stuck with the ugly orange reminder forever.In the spring of 2023 I started looking for options. What can I say, I am both busy and slow. Enter this paint. I bought a can and sprayed it on. I was not professional. I did it outside, in my driveway, in the wind, without any PPE. This was an improvement, but I learned about this can. It * did * clog and sputter. It * was * hard to apply with just my finger. I got a lot of drip down the door and thought it was me. But I’ve ran a metal fab shop and know how to apply spraypaint, so what gives? Maybe that I could hang or sit the object down for better angles, and I can’t do that with the door?So the door was say 20% improved with this first pair of coats. You could still see a small bit of the orange, and somehow some purple, though. I waited a year, then got brave again. How about I learn, and this time get a respirator, a snap on spray handle that you squeeze with your whole hand instead of one finger, and another can of paint and try again?This spring, 2024, I tried again. The sun went in and out of clouds and pissed me off with the constant change of light and heat. The wind kicked up. I had taped the door off this time and still got some on the windows. The surface ended up kind of matte, a bit rough for my taste…but overall the experience was much improved. I got two coats out of this can, then snapped the above photo to send to a friend who has seen the car in person many times over the past several years.”Holy cow!” he said. “That is so much better!” He reminded me the purpose of this kind of work is to make your car or whatever look 8% better. It doesn’t need to be a masterpiece. He has been holding off improving his own car because of expecting and knowing he’ll be disappointed by wanting a 50% improvement.Look–this is say 3 or 4 coats total. I haven’t put clearcoat on it. Since May 2024 it has stood up to spring storms, heavy rain, hail, long trips back and forth from North Carolina to Virginia. We’ll see in a year or so if it needs further coats or what (remember, I am busy and slow). If you’re waiting on making an improvement to your car, and the listing says the color will match, it will well enough. Don’t expect perfection but do expect visible improvement. Invest in $30-50 of other supplies like the respirator (mine was $17) and the clip on handle (around $8) and you’ll get good results. For what I invested I feel this is a valuable and worthwhile improvement. I hope this was entertaining and informative for you.