I really like all of Carl's articles. I almost always learn a thing or two from his technical contributions. I have been tempted to take his paint how tos and try painting my own car, but don't really have a victim yet. My Rallycross Subaru will likely become my first after some heavy mods which push it into modified class.
I also have a nice 94 Laguna blue Miata. It is starting to shed it's clear coat in places. I've seen some articles on how blend 4k rattle can clear into existing clear. It's not perfect, but it looks great from 10 ft in videos and photos that I have seen. I know ideally the car would be stripped and re-cleared. I guess I could try that for my first project.
Does Carl H have any insights or recommendations? Being an R titled Miata I'm not sure it's worth the cost of a full respray, but maybe a DIY clear coat or some clear coat repair would be in order.
Paging Carl, paging Carl. 
In reply to AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) :
You're making me blush! Thanks for the kind words.
Unfortunately, I have little experience in clearcoat repair. I'm more of a bare-metal full respray kind of person and honestly leave paint repairs and blends to my favorite body shop down the street. I know they usually sand it back and blend it in, usually respraying and blending the basecoat underneath as well.
One of my sons has a 2007 Civic Si with the famous clearcoat issues, so we'll probably do some experimenting this summer, but until then, I guess I'm useless to you.
I have one hint: If you have an air compressor, I'd step up to a $15 HF paint gun over a rattle can. We bought a couple of them at Eclectic thinking they're cheaper to throw away than to clean, but they worked so well we clean them and use them. We haven't done a complete paint job with them, but we have painted lots of brackets, axles, etc., and really like the quality.
I do really appreciate your tech articles on various garage things. I like the no nonsense here is what I try and what did and did not work approach. For my 10 year anniversary at my previous job gift to myself I got a 60 gallon vertical Quincy compressor. It's amazing what Amazon gift cards can get you. (not trying to make anyone blush)
I did it with an eye to possibly painting someday. I keep waiting for a sale on a Miller Mig too. I had two 230V outlets and breakers added to the garage at the same time.
I will definitely get a HF gun. I am definitely repainting or doing paint work on the Rally cross Subaru at some point, but I don't want to let the cat out of the bag early. I'm going to race it in stock class this year. The next year it'll run in prepared. After that it's going to get some pretty extensive surgery and go in modified. I bought it cheap so I could do crazy things to it. These crazy things will require some paint work.
I pretty much taught myself how to paint when I was a teenager by just doing it. If I screwed up, I asked around, especially at the paint supply shop, and then I sanded it back and did it again using the advice I got. Paint and sandpaper are a lot more expensive now, but there are some lower-cost materials out there that work pretty well. So go for it. It's really hard to get perfect results, but it's not that hard to get decent results. Good luck!
Carl Heideman said:
I pretty much taught myself how to paint when I was a teenager by just doing it. If I screwed up, I asked around, especially at the paint supply shop, and then I sanded it back and did it again using the advice I got. Paint and sandpaper are a lot more expensive now, but there are some lower-cost materials out there that work pretty well. So go for it. It's really hard to get perfect results, but it's not that hard to get decent results. Good luck!
I painted my MGTD with rattle cans. All I can say is it changed the color. At 14 that was good enough. When I actually spray painted it ( after stripping it to bare metal) a decade later. I bought one cheap Sears paint gun and one high dollar Devilbus gun. That paint job still looks good more than a Half century later 
