Great article on how to do that here:
Great paint from spray cans: Part I | Scale Auto Magazine
This guy got up to 3,200 and then 12,000 grit on the Ferrari he did. Ended up looking very sweet, but that's pretty hard core finishing.
I just disassembled my P3A to repair a little incident with a tree limb. The entire disassembly isn't super hard, but just be very organized about it. I took lots of pictures along the way to make sure I get it back together properly.
It is tricky to get the shell separated without damaging it. I ended up putting some dents in my old one, but I was replacing the shell anyway due to the crash damage.
I'm also painting it a bright yellow with invasion stripes on the arms to make it as visible as possible. I'm not planning on the show car finish, however, just a nice spray finish. Yes, masking off all the screw holes and the light covers and all is a pain. If you've ever painted scale model airplanes, it's no harder or easier than that.