The invention relates to a method for the production and repair of multicoat special-effect coatings, in which the basecoat is produced exclusively by elecrostatic spraying, a coating material with a specific rheological behavior is employed as the basecoat and the repair is carried out with the aid of a spray application process in which a spray jet is produced which is distinguished in that at most 40% of the coating droplets passing a measurement point which lies at the center of the spray jet and 300 mm away from the nozzle have a diameter which is less than 20 .mu.m and at least 5% of the coating droplets have a diameter which is greater than 60 .mu.m, at least 20% of the coating droplets passing the measurement point have a speed which is less than 6 m/s and at most 30% of the coating droplets have a speed of more than 10 m/s, and the coating droplets have a momentum which is equal to at least 4.times.10.sup.-5 g cm s.sup.-1, the diameter and the speed having been determined with the aid of the Doppler phase anemometry method.