I've never done any car painting before. To get the bonnet to fit my new induction, I had to cut a big hole in the bonnet. I now want to paint the exposed f/g and filler to approximately the same colour as the rest of the car. I'm not after concours, just something that doesn't look pants from 5m away. Where do I start? What do I need?

You need a bit more work with the 1200 wet and dry on a block for a start!
Then a good clean with panel wipe (or a tiny bit of thinners on a cloth) and a couple of coats of spray putty (spray high build filler). Then a dusting of black paint and then back to the wet and dry. It'll show up any irregularities. Keep going until all the black has gone and then another couple of coats of the spray putty. Another rub with the wet and dry to make sure there's no ripples, hole, scratches, etc and then a few coats of primer. If you want, you can give it another rub with wet and dry or just go straight to the colour. Put it on in a few coats with a few minutes inbetween.
Post up the results so we can count how many bugs you're managed to catch.

As the car is metalic, that looks like an ideal candidate for a vinyl stripe!

Work smarter, not harder!

(or put a bulge over it and paint the whole bonnet)

Al

Thanks for the info owelly. I'm going to have a crack at painting it as a vinyl stripe would be too wide to look good and I'm trying to avoid making a bulge. I quite like the idea that my engine is too big to fit in the car If it all goes wrong (and to be honest it can't look a lot worse than it currently does), I'll pay someone to do it properly.

Regards,
Dave