Drop the Spray Can: Automotive Spray Painting Is a Different World
Finding the supplies to fix your own car is not that difficult, and if you need to repaint a section, you can find automotive spray paint to attempt the job on your own. But unless you really know what you're doing, attempting this job on your own is not a good idea. Someone who regularly restores cars on their own may be able to do a great job, but someone with little experience is facing a completely different situation. Automotive spray paint for home use may look like a regular spray paint job—but it is not, and you could end up with a blotchy car surface instead.
Automotive Spray Paint Is Meant to Last on Cars
This is the problem: Automotive spray paint is meant to last on cars. It's not something that's easy to remove without a lot of mess and the need for special respiratory equipment. If you mess up, you are stuck with that mistake (which will likely be very visible at least on sunny days and quite possibly on cloudy days as well) unless you undertake removing the paint. This, of course, could be another huge job that you aren't prepared for. If you're a former automotive tech or a major car hobbyist, that's one thing. You know how to work with cars and know what you're doing. But if you're just trying to save some money by attempting the painting yourself, stop.
The Crew Painting Your Car Are Better at Blending the Paint Edges
No disrespect meant, but if you need to repaint part of your car, the crew at the auto body shop will be better at it than you. They will make the automotive spray paint blend in if the colour is a standard option for your car model. The edges will be very visible if you don't blend them properly, and that can make your car look almost as bad as it does with the area of missing paint. And, even if other people can't see it, you'll know it's there.
DIY Painting Can Leave Streaks and Marks
You really need to have a steady hand with automotive spray paint, lest the paint end up with streaks and marks. Unfortunately, that also means you have to spray the paint relatively slowly, which in turn calls for respiratory protection. Even if the area you need to paint is small, the job itself is not small. If you attempt to do it quickly, you're not going to end up with a good result.
Contact auto body shops to ask about prices and what specials they may have. If the cost is still huge compared to what you can pay, ask them about the best way to get the painting done when you're dealing with an extremely tight budget.
Reach out to a professional to learn more about auto spray painting.