Rustbucket,
I appreciate your input, as I do the others that have replied. I am quite sure that I will invest in a HVLP unit, just not sure where my money will be best spent.
I thought about just having my car painted by a pro. But the way I see it is like this...
My '59 Type 1, daily driver, needs minimal body work and a fresh paint job. I can spend the $1000-$2000 to have it painted, but since its a daily driver it will get rock chips, scratches, and eventualy a shopping cart smashed into the door or something. If I have it painted by a shop, I have to take it back to the shop to get the required spot repair/color match work done. If I invest in the HVLP system and learn to paint by shooting the car myself, I can repair the paint myself.
I also have a '58 that I will be restoring. Body work and paint are to be the first things done, I'm modding a bike, my brother has a sweet Norton 750 Comando bobber (in primer), and I have a rock crawling Jeep that I am always ripping the paint, and other things, off of. I always have some type of project going on. If I dont learn to paint I'm going to go broke!
I've found a site that did a test on 5 HVLP systems, under $500, and found that informative.
Click Here to see that page.
The tests done at that site found the Wagner SoftSpray Model 2600 to be the best out of the tested systems. I've also seen quite a few BB's where the Wagner line of HVLP units were praised.
... the jury is still out, for now.