I guess it depends on how good you are with a rattle can...
LOL!
"...Dumb all over, A little ugly on the side... "...Frank Zappa...
I have done plenty of rattle can work, but not on something important as body work
It's an 18 year old truck, hit it with sand paper and rattle can it. I've seen really nice paint jobs with spray paint before. Use duplicolor, it's better for automotive.
I've painted my last 2 plow trucks with Rustoleum oil enamel thinned with laquer thinner and a spray gun. But then again I already had the gun. A well done cheap spray job will usually hold up better than a rattle can. That being said my dad and I painted my first car with rattle cans and it held up pretty damn good because we used appliance paint. Down side to appliance paint is limited colors. I'd say it depends on what kind of results you're after. Price wise if you have access to a spray gun it can be done cheaper than spray cans, you'll always need a lot more of them than you'd think. Rattle cans it's easy to do spot repairs in the future and get a good match. Yup I'm not helping much here other than give a little info.
Do you already have an air compressor? Because if you do, then I think buying a cheap spray gun would be cheaper than using rattle cans. If not, the cans will probably be cheaper. Another thing you should consider is if you expect to have a use for a spray gun again later. It may be worth the initial investment if you expect to use it more than once.
TBCS 5TB Club :: coilgun :: bench PSU :: mightyMite :: Zeus :: E15 Magna EVThat we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours, and this we should do freely and generously.
--Benjamin Franklin
Every modder should own a compressor imo lol - every computer nut should - they pay for themselves in cans of air in no time at all. I'd definitely go with the gun method - rattle cans have woefully small amounts of paint in them. Having said all of that, please bear in mind that, from my point of view it's a no-brainer because I already have the compressor, guns, thinners, clear etc so I could literally do a full respray and it'd cost me about $100 (well the first one - after that I'd have some restocking to do lol)
Current Projects: Lobo | Unimatrix | High Voltage | Antec 900 Revamp (Phase 2)
Completed Projects: General Lee | Synergy Green | Liquid Yellow
Planned Projects: K-9-PC | Limey
Regardless of what you do sand the hell out of it. Do what they used to do back in the 60's and have a sanding party! Throw some down some beers with your boys and sand away.