DIY painting anyone?

Ok, so i think my next big purchace is going to be a paint gun and compressor. I don't plan to paint my car, but pricing it out, it seems like it's more worth my money to paint things like my lip, my wheels, etc, with a spray gun over time. I think i'm on my 3rd repaint of my lip, maybe 4th and it's about $20 a can for color matched paint. Anyway, if i get an oem lip kit, i'm trying to get that used too, another $60 minimum right there. Add another $20 because i need a new front lip, now i have a gun.

Has anyone tried this. I have recieved great advice from my paint shop (i read accouple books and they seem to say the same), and some good info on the net as well. But i want to hear from someone who is a hobbiest like me. How easy was it to pick up? How long did it take for you to feel like you really had it down to where you felt comfortable spraying something that would stay on your car? My goal is to eventually paint this old jag i have, if it turns out OK, huge improvement lol. But that is many years away.

ive got a couple of guns at home but havent used em yet hopefully this summer i can mess around with them.

how big of a compressor are you looking at?

I'm not sure, i need to learn more. I'm trying to get something second hand though since i know alot of people trying to get rid of that type of stuff. I don't know how big i really need, i gotta do more research and see what's out their second hand.

ahh...have you checked out craigslist? i always find good stuff on there

im curious...in your research, what do people say about the compressor turning on while spraying? good/bad/doesnt matter? i know theres regulators on them so theres no surge, but smaller ones might pose a problem

I have a bunch of info written down somewhere. The main thing i was told is to get something big enough that it could handle putting out a constant flow of air for a long period of time (ie big tank) rather than horsepower. The last thing you want is inconsistant pressure and especially to run out of air for obvious reasons.

I have decent info written down somewhere, and have read two books on this but i'm ultra newbie, i've never shot paint before so i'm only going off info, no experence. People have told me about what compressor size, etc, i should be looking at but i don't have it infront of me.

what do you guys think of painting the part of the door that surrounds the window. my car is white and that part is black. would it look weird painting it white. also the two moldings on top of the of the root of the car are black and i want them white too.

i got some paint for free from Ace (i got it like that) and primer, so i'm going to try to do the sidemoldings on the door, and the stock skirts i have. just want to white out the car.

I think painting anything besides the door moldings will look weird. A good way to test is to put masking tape on, paint it and stand back. They you can see without messing anything up. It seems like it's a waste of time and materials, since you have to mask everything off twice but if you don't like it, it's easy to take off.

well, my plans to paint the stock side skirts (these are the LX POS skirts) is because i want to make it all white. until i can get a decent skirt kit.

as far as the door and the moldings on top of the roof of the car, i don't know. it just bothers me because it's black and disturbs my eyes.

theres someone with a cavalier sedan here who had the car painted, including the door moldings between the windows...it looks HORRID.