Painting a Car

[Daniel1]

I hope this is the right forum for this.

My dad has a good sized compressor and some spray guns lurking in his shed and has said I can have them. Not looking for a career change, more of a hobby so I thought I'd see if I can paint sone old doors from a scrappy before attacking one of my old 3-series sheds.

I'm googling at the minute, but they tend to bring up either rattle cans or very generic how to's. I'm looking for a bit more detail so without joining more forums I'd thought I'd ask here. So here we go...

Prepping the car.
How much do I need to prep the original paint on the car? What grades of paper? How deep do I need to go assuming there is no rust? What if I want fill and skim those annoying tiny dents, what do I use use and what do I do to the paint underneath?

What types of paint and primer? How many coats of each? What to do between the prime and paint?

What do I do after painting? Do I wet sand? Do I lacquer? How much and what with? When do i polish? What If I wanted a matt finish?

Any help is appreciated.

[Daniel1]

Thank you for all the replies.

There is a local body shop who is near me who is friendly (he has had loads of business from me over the years due to my OCD about dents) and is willing to show the basics.

I'll research courses and depending on price and my interest decide if I go on one. I'll also continue to look on google and see what information I can glean.

Thanks