I don't know if this is home repair or not, but you are the best guys to ask, and I park my car right next to my home. My apologies if this is off topic.
If I "paint" metal with a black indelible marker, and it doesn't look good 6 months from now, will I still be able to paint it with real metal paint, like maybe I should do it now????? I'm feeling off-sorts, and it just seems so much easier to use a marker, and there's no chance of spilling the paint.
Details: The imitation louvers at the rear side of my car's hood are no longer all black. More than half of it is grey. I guess all the paint is gone. (AFAICR, it was all fine a year or 6 months ago, but I suppose that's unlikely.)
They are metal, and normally I would think to use metal paint, but in this case, it seems the easiest thing to do is use a black indelible marker, like a Sharpie. I've been using indelible markers for a lot of things in the last few years** but none as big as this. I have more than one brand of black marker. So I think I can match the color and I think the finish will match fine, or I'll just do the whole louver.
If it doesn't look good after a while, will I still be able to paint it?????
It's a 95 chrysler with hidden wipers so there is no need for real louvers. I expect to have the car another two years.
**I painted a brass and pot metal candelabra with a gold indelible marker and it still looks good years later. I only clean it under hot water, and the part I clean is real brass. The part I "painted" may never have gotten wet. (It was bought right after the war when brass items were hard to get. I had the pot metal part replated once already. I think maybe I only painted part that broke and I repaired with PC-7.)My grey synthetic cloth case for my small camera got dirty, as I knew it would, going in and out of my pocket over and over on my vacation, and I "painted" the whole thing black with a marker. So far, it looks good.
A couple other things I don't remember now.