I painted my Legacy in my home workshop, using single-stage PPG Delstar.  Like another poster said, painting your airplane is a huge project that no sane person would do.  However, no sane person would build their own airplane either, so I guess we've all failed that test.

 

Like any of the three part paints, you need a new activated carbon filter respirator* or fresh air mask, and cover as much of your body as possible.  I wore a cheap painter's coverall, gloves, and a hat, which worked well.  When I sprayed the belly, I wore a face shield to keep all the overspray from landing on my face and in my eyes.  I have an industrial exhaust fan in my shop, which was nice.

 

I chose the PPG Delstar specifically because it tolerates aggressive sanding and buffing.  I knew that I would end up with every insect in the neighborhood entombed in my paint, as well as dust.  You would think that as I bald as I'm becoming, hair falling into the wet paint wouldn't be a problem, but it was.  The Delstar allows wet sanding as much as you need to do to totally eliminate the dust nibs and bugs, as well as the inevitable runs and sags and orange peel.  Hosing down the floor immediately before spraying was the single most effective thing I did to reduce the number of dust nibs that ended up in the paint.  But make sure you don't accidentally get even one drop of water on what you're going to spray.

 

To remove light orange peel and minor bugs and dust nibs, I use P1500 grit wet sandpaper.  (The "P" means the sandpaper uses the European scale, which is much different at finer grits than the US scale.)  If I had more patience, I'd use P2000 because it's easier to buff out the scratches.  I buy them from Klingspoor with peel-and-stick backing:  www.woodworkingshop.com  If the paint balls up and clogs your sandpaper, it's not cured enough.  Wait another day or two, or even more in cold weather. 

 

After wet sanding, power buff with compound designed to remove P1500 scratches, then power polish with compound designed to remove the swirls left behind by the previous compound.  You can get these from your local automotive paint store.  Harbor Freight sells power buffers that are adequate for a single airplane, and incredibly low cost.

 

For sags and runs, start with P800 grit paper.  If you're the impatient type, you can use coarser paper, even P400, but you might make scratches that are hard to remove.  Of course, the more you sand, the more likely you'll cut through to the underlying primer or carbon.  Work your way up through the grits to P1500.  Avoid sanding any edges, where you're almost certain to cut through faster than you can say, aw _____! 

 

So the good news is that Delstar single stage (and similar paints from other companies) is well suited to spraying in a home shop.  However, when the single stage paints cure, the parts of the paint that make it glossy migrate to the surface while it's curing, giving it the "wet look" that doesn't need waxing.  So the bad news is that sanding off this top, glossy, layer means you'll have to wax the surface to get it to look really shiny.  There's no free lunch.

 

On the other hand, I've seen Chris Zavatson's and Mike Reinath's painted airplanes, which are way better than mine, so you might want to follow their advice instead.

 

Dennis Johnson, Legacy #257   

 

*I may be wrong, but I believe activated charcoal respirators safely remove the toxic materials from these paints, but since the toxic material has no smell, you have no way of knowing when your filter is used up.  This is why they are not recommended.  I used a fresh air mask from Aircraft Spruce.  If you use a charcoal respirator, you might want to open a new filter each time you spray and only spray in a well ventilated area.  If the spray area looks like you're in the fog, it's not well ventilated.