Spray can advice for metallic paint...

[RunTMCfan]

My 72' K5 is painted Light Autumnwood Metallic (sounds preciouse doesn't it). One of the mistakes I made when I purchased this out of state blazer was letting the PO paint it for me. Well...he didn't paint the bed rails and many other things. Lesson learned life goes on and here I am reaching out to the brother hood of Blazer owners!!!

Imagine having a metallic brown blazer with orange bed rails.

So I'm a handy guy...I can paint this...

Body work/prep went very well. The rails look great. Primed them with some good ol' Rustoleum spray can automotive primer. Lookin' good so far. I then purchased those aerosol cans that you can load up your paint into. It Sprayed on fine but the color doesn't match. My buddy says I need to thin the paint with lacquer thinner WAY down.

The metallic paint I painted on looks much darker. I have done some internet searching (not a lot) and they say I need to blend better. Sure, I'll do that, once my color is closer.

Any tips guys? I'll sand this paint down and paint over. But I need tips on how to properly mix metallic paint with lacquer and possibly a hardener???