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.