The paint on my aluminum hood is fading really badly. Ive been thinking about spray painting it black. Is this a good idea? Will spray paint hold up to the elements? Any input is appreciated. Thanx!

 

By "spray painting", I assume you mean rattle canning it.

Depending on the amount/extent of your prep, it might be OK for a while but it's never going to equal a proper job.
The hood has one of the toughest environments to deal with- it gets cooked from the underside and baked from the top.

 

Yeah...i mean rattle can. I dont mind respraying once in awhile. I was planning on cleaning the hood then just spraying over top of the red (only on the top...no point in painting the under side of the hood)

 

Allow me to play Devil's advocate...

The hood is the largest (and essentially, flattest) panel on the car, so any flaws will be glaringly apparent.
Black (especially gloss) magnifies any flaws.

It doesn't make any sense to say you're willing to go back later and fix problems you know about now or are about to create.
Maybe you could work a deal with a paint shop to do most of the prep yourself and have them shoot the paint.
Or you could look into vinyl skinning the hood.

 

For the price of paint, you could buy another hood locally and only spend a few bucks more. Steel n/a hoods are a dime a dozen, and I see people giving away nice ones all the time. In fact, I've got a sunrise red one that I'll give you for free But I'm in GA... lol

 

The problem with rattle-canning it is that later you will have to remove all that enamel/lacquer or whatever before you can paint it with a proper automotive paint. The proper job becomes much more labor intensive.

I personally would never buy a car that has rattle-can paint on it. It tells me how you have cared for/maintained/modded the car. IOW, if you half-*** what I can see, I know that you will half asses everything I can't see.

By half-assing it now, you also reduce the likelihood that you will ever muster up the motivation to do the job right. If you don't have the nads to do it properly now, you won't have the nads to do it right when the job gets harder.

Most things in life are exactly like this. Do it right once is hard. Do it wrong over and over is much harder.

 

Im not too concerned with having it look super clean....this is a 22 yr old car thats battled with the elements over the years. my car has its fair share of dings and scratches (including the hood). I just want something that looks better than what i have now....if the spray paint were to fade a bit over time (which im sure it would) i dont have a problem respraying it ocassionally.... But if you say spray painting isnt worth it then ill def take that into consideration


BTW, my hood is aluminum not steel...from what i hear those are a bit hard to find, so id rather work with the hood i have now

 

It's not a question of "if", rather it's "how soon" will the paint fade.
Look at your hood now, even the factory paint has faded and they had perfect conditions to work under.
As jackhild pointed out, the approach you take now could make any future work that much more difficult.

Besides, let's assume that you paint the hood and it comes out OK...now what does the rest of the car look like in comparison?

 

the rest of the car is in pretty decent shape.....minor dings and scratches here and there as to be expected. I think a flat black hood on a red car would look nice....i appreciate all the input btw.....thats why i asked b4 actually painting the hood

 

Just get the hood painted properly, theres enough ghetto FC's out there.

 

Ah, now it comes out..."flat black".

Flat- and to a lesser extent, satin- paint looks like it does cause it doesn't have the skin of a gloss paint.
It's essentially color with no protection.
Basically, flat black is the flimsiest coating you could possibly apply.

It will absorb any contaminate that touches it (God forbid you get a trace of wax or oil on there) and, because it's skinless, will scuff/scratch at the lightest touch.

You'll be repainting that hood every month.