Well, for once I have not seen anything here about SPRAY PAINTING, and surely, older cars need a bit of that kind of TLC too from time to time...
So starting with a short introduction to spray-painting I get to the most difficult part I had to spray paint so far: The trunk (boot)-lid of a X308:
Trust me that IS different!

And: Do not hold me responsible for giving you ideas, which somehow or other result in damage or injury...



While I successfully spray-painted already several huge section of various cars, I had massive problems of spray painting the boot-lid of my X308.
I estimate that counting all the layers of paint I put on there meanwhile (paint. paint, paint, clear coat, clear coat, clear coat, and then from scratch again...) I have now probably 20 to 30 layers of paint on there (thus, it is definitely never going to rust there... ) Until finally the penny dropped, of what I was doing wrong...:

My problem on that trunk lid only (nowhere else) was, that the top of the trunk lid always turned out to be very rough - I could feel the roughness - and obviously that would look horrible - it has to be smooth to look shiny...

But first, the basics of spray painting, which are very well explained in this youtube video:


And explained on my own spray gun, which looks slightly different:


Use a spray gun with the reservoir on top (not below). Press handle and adjust fluid control to wide open (point, where you hit the pressed handle), then another turn clockwise. Fan control: Probably 1 or 2 turns clockwise from wide open (test on cardboard before spraying car). I got myself a bag of 250 seals for the inner spray nozzle - use each time a new seal.


The green regulator knob on the bottom of the gun always remains fully open. Adjust the regulator knob to about 25 psi. And use an air filter, plus before spraying, purge the oily water from your air-compressor.


My gun came with all those parts, but without manual - and initially I thought they are just identical spare-parts, but no: They are 3 sets of each 3 parts (do not mix up) for a 1.3, 1.7 and 2mm nozzle.


I made a nice box for them.

These are the basics, which allowed me to successfully spray a few big sections on various cars already, But the mystery of the permanent rough surfaces on the X308 boot lid was a riddle to me for a long time. I normally use wet sandpaper grid 1200 after the 2 or 3 paint layers and before the clear coat layers.
The rear section of the lid (where the number plate is mounted turned out fine from the very beginning - but not the top surface...)



And when I finally searched the net for an answer, as to why there is a rough surface, I got the following:
"If you spray too far away from the substrate you are painting, the paint will atomise and dry before it actually hits the substrate."
Well, OK, but I sprayed (as always) close to the surface: The correct distance is the distance between your pinky and your thumb, when you do the wind-surfer's "Hang Loose" greeting with your hand (pinky and thumb spread and the other 3 fingers curled inwards). BUT then it dawned to me:
My problem is that what already killed a lot of paragliders, who jumped down from the wind-lee-side of a mountain, thinking the wind comes from the front, when it is really only a turbulence wave caused by the wind hitting the mountain from the other side - from their back. See:



I have drawn this mountain intentionally in the shape of the X308 boot-lid, because this exact same thing happens there: When I spray the surface where the number plate is, some of the sprayed paint with go over the Jaguar-crest of the boot lid, end up in a turbulence and then, long after paint has atomized, set down somewhere on the upper boot-lid surface. This is how "spraying too far away from the substrate" comes into play, and this problem is uniquely created by the special crest-shape of the X308 boot-lid:



So once I recognized WHAT the problem was, I could fix it. Two ways of fixing it:
1. use the wet 1200 grid sandpaper after EVERY layer on the top surface, or (probably better)
2. cover not only all surfaces, which shall not be painted at all, but also the top surface, while you spray the surface, where number plate is...

PS:
I just remembered that I took pix while spray painting:


Important: Cover up every surface, which you do not spray paint! I had plenty of old sun-shade, as that stuff does not last for 5 minutes for it's supposed purpose...


Here you see what have been fighting with: that rough surface caused by paint particles, which atomised before settling down...


...which was, as described above due to the prolonged time they were meandering around for a long time before making contact...