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Good luck on the project Rich! I assume you picked the acrylic enamel route. If so, a couple of suggestions.
Find a good counter man or auto painter to review your plans. Most of the enamels recommend a medium coat, some drying time, followed by a full coat. You can add a 3rd coat, but you have to allow enough drying time to get pretty "tacky" or you run the risk of (1) experiencing the dreaded "sag" or (2) if you apply the 3rd coat too soon, you can get tiny "pin holes" in your top coat due to the 2nd coat continueing its drying process. Unfortunately, I experienced both problems in my project. The only solution is let it dry, resand, and reshoot! Also, don't overlook the value of the "fisheye" additive for enamel.

A good water separator placed at least 25' from your compressor followed by a water filter will reduce the chance of moisture in your spray.

One thing for sure, if you can get a paint job you're happy with, you can really take pride in the accomplishment!

Actually, I have chosen the urethane enamel. I know it is nastier, but I figure that I can do 20 air changes per hour in the garage, seal up all openings and install some filter material to let air in and exhaust out the back door. I have a chemical cartridge respirator. Actual spray time should not bee too long. I have already mixed up a sample batch for a color check and it does not seem too difficult to apply. I did sand and polish the sample panel just to see how that would work and that too was okay. Granted, my sample is only a couple of square feet, but I feel that I can deal with this material.

After I finished with the sample panel, I looked at a reflection of a straight line in the panel and saw very minor waves along the edge. I then went to my wife's new 2008 car and looked at a reflection of a straight line in the factory paint and I believe that my sample was at worst equal, but likely slightly better. It won't be "show" quality, but I expect it will be very presentable.

Rich

Sounds like you've really done your homework! No reason that you can't do a very presentable job.

As far as the little "waves", the panels from the factory were not perfect. On my '52, some areas, that had no damage, required multiple "skim" coats to eliminate the imperfections that showed up in the block sanding.

God luck,