newbie with pre-vw questions...

i signed up a little while ago and have been lurking up til now, but it's time to come out of the woodwork - so hey everyone! i'm a uni student and compleat mechanical idiot keen to start a low-budget rolling resto of a beetle [ideally a super beetle] sometime this year. i have no tools, very little experience, and no garage or carport, so i'll be starting from scratch and working [for the most part] in the great outdoors, learning as i go... should be fun! i've been reading up about all this for a while now, and the rough idea is to buy a car with some work needed for roadworthy, do the work, get it regoed and run it as a somewhat ratty semi-regular drive for a while, and then gradually work to improve it. a labour of love, if you like.

first things first, though - before i can buy the project car i need to fix up and sell my current car, a 91 holden apollo. this needs a bonnet sand & respray [the clear coat seems to have developed some kind of disease - i'm assured that it isn't rust, just blistering in the clear] and a bit of panel work done on the front flange, as well as some other relatively minor stuff for a rwc. the key is to do it all decently but at low cost, because i want to get as much back on resale as i can in order to get a good start to the beetle project! on the painting front, my grandfather in perth has been restoring cars since he was younger than me, and apparently when he needs paintwork done on a budget he arranges it through a TAFE. this strikes me as an awesome idea, especially since i just want to get the car looking a bit nicer so i can sell it. just wondered if any aussieveedubbers in melbourne, especially in the south-east, have done this? anyone know how i could go about arranging it? or are there any other alternative options?

i'll have to do a few more things after the paintwork to get the car ready for sale, but i'm keen to find myself a beetle in the not-too-distant future, so any help is greatly appreciated!