Can I spray my own bike?

Q. I recently crashed my bike at low speed after a momentary loss of concentration. I’ve changed the few broken parts but the fairing needs either replacing or repairing.

I’ve always fancied learning to do some spray-painting but not sure if this is as easy as it looks.
John Woods, Maidstone

A. Spray painting is extremely skilled and you do need quite a lot of relatively expensive kit if you are to do it properly.

Unless you intend to do this regularly then it’s probably cheaper to take the damaged panel to a local paintshop and get them to sort it out. The finish is no doubt going to be better than your first attempts, too!