Originally Posted by twinring

Painting a car is a chore, You need to know how to prepare the surface to be painted which includes wet sanding the car etc. you need to learn how to use a viscosity cup and to clean and adjust your gun. Clear coat isnt really necessary if you know how to paint. The gun must spray constant velocity as full as possible. The paint must be saturated onto the surface and applied very wet. If not, the car will have a dull finish. In addition to this the temperature and humidity of the atmosphere is important and only an experienced painter would know. There might be some additives that need to be used to avoid many common paint flaws, fisheyes, orange peel etc and is dependant on the type of paint you choose. parts of the car need to be masked. Your equipment must be up to the task, a small compressor wont cut it if it cant supply you with the pressure needed constantly. Pressure drops will cause variation in the application. Ive never painted a car myself but Ive helped my close friend paint cars and he does this for a living. Ive seen him spend 2 weeks prepping cars and painting them only to have dust or sweat ruin his entire project forcing him to resand and buy more paint.