Alot has to do with the type of paint your using, how you mix it. A lacquer will usually come out really nice and smooth over small spots that you didnt sand out evenly. But it will require an ass load of buffing and rubbing out to get it to shine and requires at least 12 hour in between coats. Urethane paints are the cheapest and easiest to apply. They will be dry to the touch within 15 mins and can apply coats within 2 - 3 hours. You can mask and tape it within 6 hours with out fear of pulling the paint off with the tape. Enamels are also easy to apply but only need about 15 mins between coats. They look great when you first apply them but shine best when using a base coat/clear coat set up.

Brighter colors whites, yellows, lime green, orange, bright reds are easy colors to paint. They dont show waves or ripples in body work that you didnt quite get straight before you applied the paint as badly as darker colors will. Block sanding with primer will show you high and low spots. Used spotting filler to fill in these spots. Your supposed to use spotting filler over bondo as well but I have seen many who will paint directly on top of bondo. Bondo always has tiny little bubbles in it that with out the right paint will show through in a paint job.

I am by no means an expert on paint and body work. And some of what I posted above could be wrong. Use it only as a guide. If you want to try it experiment on an old hood or car door first. Examine how it comes out when done. Experiment with different techniques. I'm sure there are forums online to help folks learn who have never done it before. I painted my first car back in 1994 and got my motivation by reading an article from HotRodding magazine.

Hurst