There are alot of books on this. If you're on a budget you should try to get a good book, and read it thouroughly before even starting. If you've never painted before you should expect to fawk it up. Here is a rough guidline on painting.
1) Prep: This is the most important part!!! Every error you make while prepping will show in your final product. You need to decide how far you want to strip it. I wouldn't go to bare metal. Get a medium grit sand paper, and hit the paint with a da sander. You don't want bare metal. Hit the areas to remove all the gloss. You want the finish to be a good surface for which the primer can adhere to.

2. Body work: If you have any body work to do now is the time. Pull any dents and fill the holes.Dents should be sanded with heavy grit paper if you plan to use body filler. Remeber that less body filler is best. So try to pull dents as much as possible before adding filler. Add the filler and scrape it into a semi smooth surface. When the filler has dried sand with medium or medium fine paper until the surface is how you would like it to look. Make sure that the car is clean! Go over it with a tack cloth to pick up any dust/hair/bugs not that it will matter, but you'd be pissed to find a fly or something under your primer.
3. Prime: Use high build primer, as per your paint manufacturers reccomendations. Apply one coat. Don't go crazy!
4. Guide Coat: Body shops sell guide coat. It is a colorder primer designed to show high or low spots in you body work. Shoot your guide coat. Block sand the car with a medium grit to find low spots. If you find any fill them with body filler. Sand them even. Prime again. Guide coat again, unless you are feeling daring.
5. If you felt daring then the car shoulde be sanded one more time with medium fine paper. Wash the car.
6. Shoot your base coat sparingly! Better to have too little to start than too much. Let it dry about 45 min, and shoot a second coat. Ensure even coverage. Allow to dry as per manufacturers directions.
7. Tack cloth again, and shoot clear. Don't go crazy, runs suck.
8. Allow to dry.
9. When you're done you will want to wet sand. Super mega fine grit. Soak you paper in a bucket of water, and keep a sponge handy. Don't go apeshit with the paper. The goal is to remove fine imperfections you may have in the clear coat.
It's been a while since I have been around paint, and this is the best I can remember. Good luck.