It takes a lot of time and a good amount of money [for supplies] assuming you don't have the equipment already. I would recommend having someone do it for you. In the end if you did it yourself you wouldn't save yourself that much dough and if you weren't happy with the results you would probably end up paying someone to finish the job that you started...

Sound like that is what I when through... kinda

Edit: If you plan on polishing more parts down the road then buying the equipment is a no brainer. The stuff [compounds] lasts pretty much forever.