How hard is it to really paint a car?
 

If you have a good air tank, good spray guns, quality paint, primer and clear, and every type of sand paper imaginable, how hard is it to paint a car if you've never done it before? I understand not spraying a ton so theres no drips or runs (like holding an aerosol paint can far enough from something) and I understand the whole overlapping your spray patterns by a little. I would think the only part about that it that you would have to perfect is the technique of holding and fanning the spray gun from the car. Other than that, how hard could it really be if you're just looking to paint and not achieve a world class show car paint job?

It's a skill like anything else. Most skimp on the prep. Prep is the most important, however, you don't just fan on the paint. Think of it as laying the paint on. If your fanning, your overspraying the f*ck out of it. Overspraying results in cloudy, non glossy blotches in your paint. Room temp, humidity, gun pressure, mix ratio with your paint and hardners, fan size, overlap, gun speed and trigger control all come into play as well.