So I have a 1983 280zx and it has some fading clear coat around the top of the hood and around the T-Tops, do I need to repaint the whole car or can I just fix the clear coat with a spray can of clear? I don't have lots of money and I just want to make my car look a little better. Thanks

 

Just respraying a clear coat won't make it look any better. You need to clean and prep the surface, and repaint. You'll need to do the whole panel if you want it to look good. Auto painting isn't as easy as "spraying on some paint".

On the bright side, painting your car isn't all that expensive these days. If you have access to an HVLP spray guy, you can have an auto paint supply store mix you up some single stage (one stage) paint for ~$20/pt (will usually take ~1/2 gal to paint a car once over), and paint it in a clean garage.

Or an even cheaper route is plasti-dipping.

But no matter what you do, once you start on the paint, expect to pay $200 - $1000 to finish it correctly. If you don't have the cash, don't touch it.

 

No money - leave the paint. Best you can do for a hack job fix is sand down the clear coat and try not to touch the paint underneath then spray it with some new clear. You'll want to use very fine sand paper, sand in an "x" pattern, etc. Watch some youtube videos...