Well I am doing it now, and I don't have much experience. It is still expensive to do it yourself, but ALOT cheaper then to have another person do it. I can't give you really any painting tips because I am still in the learning process. I will tell you that you need a good gun (hvlp preferred) (I found for $80), a LARGE & oiless compressor (9cfm at 60 psi type of big) ($300 on sale at sears), air pressure regulator if the gun doesn't have it ($20 or so at sears), water separator ($20), air hoses (mine came free with compressor), air fittings. I learned this the hard way, get a good air resperator, sears has a couple $20-$30, if you go cheap the paint will go right through the mask or the sides of the mask. My nostrils turned black because I used a cheap one, I was blowing out black stuff for the next two days. It really isn't that hard to do all things considered, but, it takes practice, skill and lots of time. I bought all my paint at napa, cost about $250 for the paint I used, including primer, basecoat, clearcoat, reducer and hardener. They sell a cheaper single stage which mixes the basecoat and clearcoat together, I also found out the hard way that it is not as forgiving if you make a mistake. I ended up redoing the car with the basecoat/clearcoat and now find it much better.