I am in a similar situation. I have read through all of this and did this to my son's 1988 Honda Accord. I will include some images, but first the story.

We purchase the car for $1000 and had the windshield replaced (was cracked) for $150. I looked into Maaco options and was going to just prep the car and then take it there. I called a friend who restores and paints cars. Well it started out that if I would prep the car and prime it then he would spray it for me. This was just going to cost me materials (about $120) at that time. Well that quickly increased to $300 in material then I did not have the right size compressor and my body work was wrong and on and on. Then I was ready to have it sprayed and then after 3-4 weeks of either it not being a good time or the weather turning to cold or raining I was very frustrated. I then ran across this post and read through the entire thing.

What a GREAT way to paint a car and without the mess and COST of the spray on material. It takes a lot of elbow grease to make this work especially with black, but the results are great. Once we decided to got at this ourselves (myself and my son) it took about 5 days to paint, wetsand (two coats of paint and then wetsand) three times and then polish to get our finished product. I did need to upgrade from a $20 orbital waxer to a $30 (on sale at Harbor Freight) polisher/sander. You MUST be carful with this machine!! Anyway thanks to all - now the pics!