I would have never thought that a spray bomb could do such a good job, or myself for that matter. I've just about finished my paint job on my tank. I followed the instructions given by Frank Perreault on the xjcd, and I am amazed. I first sanded it to bare metal, primed with 4 coats of self-etching primer, 5 coats of high gloss black followed by 5 coats of clearcoat. Yesterday made about 12 days since it was painted. While the wife made turkey dinner, I spent 6 hours wet sanding and rubbing with polishing compound. I think even though there is really no need, I'm going to follow-up with the swirl remover before I put on the final coat of wax. I am really impressed, and relieved that it turned out to my satisfaction. If anyone out there has entertained the thought of doing this yourself, I say go for it. You'll be amazed too. Now all I need are some new emblems.

Had mine professionally done, I would love to see some pics of how it turned out, Cost me $375 to do the tank both fenders and both side covers. Mine is a dark red with pearl metallic flakes, not a color you'd typically find in the spray bomb. You are right though, the key to what you did is the prep work and the multiple layers of paint and clear coat, Some guys will even wet sand between every layer of paint and clear to get the smoothest job possible. I watched a friend of mine who has a body shop paint an old Pontiac GTO, tha cars worth about $40,000, but they put the original paint type and color on the car, before they wetsanded and buffed the paint you would have thought the car was ruined. I'm getting ready to paint a 49 Ford pickup as my first painting project next spring. B)

Here's the link for a picture of my tank, will post more later.
http://www.slygrin.net/xjpics/html/richard_blankenship.html

WOW - great job! I might have to try that too now that I know what the results can be.