I'm planning on painting my car soon and I got some advise from some guys at O'reilly's that preping your car at home is much easier and more cost effective then getting it done professionally.

I was just wondering, what steps it would take to get this done?
Was planning on getting this done by myself and help from my cousins over the weekend and getting the 1-day paint job at MAACO.

It takes quite a while to sand down a car. Some people take even 4 , 16 hour days of straight sanding. You want to get down the the base but no need to get to bare metal.. if you have little dents, that is extra work and you'll have to use filler. When I paint panels, I usually use 60-80grit. Will you be primering it yourself? Or just sanding it down? Also, I don't know if you would be able to do this but, removing all lights and trim pieces helps as well. Also, taping over windows, wheels, etc helps. I've heard of Maaco techs carelessly painting over trim and rubber pieces.