Paint Strategy

Never done this before, questions:

1) Can I just sand it down really smooth and use JD spray paint cans? Primer then top coat?

2) Can I get professional results doing it with spray cans?

3) If I opt to have a body shop do the painting can I at least get the pieces primed with a couple of cans of spray primer.

4) If I go the body shop route. What things should I tell them to do. What kind of paint? Clearcoat?

5) What do I do about the fact that the hood on this tractor is plastic? How do I prep/paint that?

I havea book on restoring JDs and it tells you all the steps to prepare metal for paint, but I don't want to have to buy a compressor and spray equip to do this, but I do want the results to be sharp.

Thanks in advance,
Joe

I think I will prep the metal and hood like you say and send it out for paint. I'll just touch up the frame with some flat black rustoleum.

Thanks for the advice. I was hoping that the John Deere spray paint might be reasonable quality, but I would rather have it done right.

Is there a number of coats of paint I should ask the body shop to do? We store it inside, but we do use it heavily.