I hear ya man i have two kids and work full time too. Not alot of spare time to spend in the garage
. Thats why i suggested sending your car in, you will be glad you did. It will save you SOOOOOOO much time and you dont have to buy all the stuff needed. Unless you plan on painting your own car you dont need a huge expensive compressor. I still dont have one, a grinder, sawzall, and 120 welder is all i ever use and i have done tons of work to my car. (built my own frame with exhaust cutouts, 6 point rollbar, quarter skins, and probly 30 or so small patches. I do wish i had a small compressor to run a mini die grinder and fill tires but thats it. A used up grinder disk is pretty small and it works
Good luck with you project ill try to post some picks of mine before and after media blasting
EDIT sorry all my old picks are to large in size it wont let me post them, unless its possible to shrink them