I learned from British guy at a place I worked prior to my Air Force days, he was actually trained in antique restorations, learned al the polishing stuff too.
Never did a car, but I use to lay a finish down on furniture, stuff you see in the mall dept stores, wall units, tables and such. Most of (80%) of the stuff I did was a clear coat, with the occasional paint, IMO black is the hardest to do, every imperfection beems at you. Your exp'd friends probably know, but with the humidity inh Louisianna (where you're from?), if it's bad enough it'll get in the paint, looks like an oil slick when it dries, sucks when it happens. No worries, they make chemicals to counter it, bettet to just wait for normal conditions. It was 10 years ago when I worked at this place, and to us HVLP guns were expensive and fairly new, although I'm sure they'd been around for a whille. HVLP pay off in their reduced overspray, and material usage, but if they still cost anything like I remember, I'd just get the run of the mill siphon gun for a hobby.
Keep your gun clean, any spot on the needle will mess up the fan pattern. My guns had a vent coming outta the cup, I learned quick to wrap a rag around the open end of the vent, cause, well it'll vent, and then a drop a paint will fall on your fresh covered surface, then it's do it all over agian.
I learned pretty quick, due to the mass quantity we put out. Hardest thing to do is keep that nice even stroke. Pause for a split second with your finger ont he triiger, paint build up. Don't get the proper overlap, dry spots in the paint. But once yout get it down you can get stuff to look like glass.
Don't forget a viscosity cup, and filters...paper to run paint thru and a filter on the air in-line of your gun, keep that condensation out. Nice tack rags, all that stuff is sold at a finishing type store
Good luck man...and don't try a metal flake or pearl type finish first, they'll come with practice
