I think I used about 10 rolls of the blue tape and about 2 or 3 rolls of 24" paper and 1or 2 rolls of the 6" paper. 6 rolls of the cheap plastic drop cloth stuff. 2 gallons of acetone (maybe more I have been painting alot of stuff so I have a bunch laying around) for cleaning and thinning.
A bus bus is very large so me being all alone I was unable to get the whole bus done on one day. I spent the first day scrubbing the bus with the brown scotchbright and the water hose (6 or8 of them) all day and into the evening, all those rivets and screws are a pain but it must be done. I was very sore for a couple days so I concentrated on patching the holes for the red and yellow lights and stop sign things. don't try to bondo these up you will just make a mess screw sheet metal to it. I used a can of spray primer to cover anything that was bare metal (old paint that is good makes great primer) so I goofed off a few days and then got up at the crack of dawn and washed the front of the bus and the left side with acetone and a bunch of rags (many, many). Then I began taping out all the glass. "a wrinkle is a leak". I premade my paper squares for windows about 2" wider than window. no fumbling with the roll on a ladder. It took me all day to do the left side so I had to cover all that work with plastic overnight to prevent the dew from getting to it. the next morning I flipped the plastic over to the right side of the bus to keep the overspray from getting on the glass on right side of bus. I wiped the bus down again with acetone, fixed any tape issues that I missed. I was painting out in the yard so I didn't bother with a tack rag wipe down and it was time to paint. I had bought the best sprayer they had at Home depot and it was junk so I used my Sata that was my primer gun for when I painted racecars. YOU NEED A GOOD COMPRESSOR !!!! or you will be waiting for air (I had to wait, it works but slow). I mixed the paint for spraying just like it says on the can in a new 5 gallon bucket with a top so that all that was done at one time and would have same mix all the way around, yup no big secret here. So I started painting top to bottom about a 6' section at a time, that's all I could reach from the ladder and still be pointing sprayer at the work. Watch some videos on youtube to see how to do this, that's how I learned before I started painting Winston cup cars (that is a secret, lol). The paint dries fast so if you want you can pull the paper, i left mine and went strait to taping the back and right side of the bus, same thing I taped into the evening covered it in plastic and just did right side next day. If I had 1 or 2 helpers I could have done the whole bus in one day. The next couple of days I worked on the dark brown stripes with a good quality brush, yup a brush and it is fabulous. I painted the vw emblem with some mettalic spraycan stuff I saw at Walmart it looks just like chrome if you lay it on thick and let it drip off. (another secret). 75 degrees was a good temp to paint in so think about that too. I only have found 1 bug that got on the paint so I am happy, he is entombed.
If you have any questions I will try to help, but dont be ferfraid, practice a little with your sprayer on a 55 gallon drum or something when you fell good, GO FOR IT ! If you get a run it is personality. Most people wont even notice. Wait for the air pressure to build up, don't rush. I know a guy who used a Wagner power painter He used the sprayer to lay down the paint and his wife flattened it with a brush and It looks great too. Thats about it man.
Almost forgot to get the gloss paint in gallon cans I had to order it from Home depot online, If you go into the store you cant get gallons of gloss except for some goofy colors.