Rookie Painter

Prep, prep and more prep. That is the key.
Honestly though unless you plan on doing a lot of painting I would not recommend it. To do the job properly you really need a paint booth, a good gun, etc By the time you buy everything you need you can have someone else do it for you and do a better job. And BTW, good paint is pretty damn toxic stuff that you may not want to handle.

x2.

Practice on something less "important" for your first. You'll cause alot of labor intensive problems if you hack it up. Find a beater and experiment first. Surely you can find someone who wants a cheap job, hell might make a few bucks at it even.