Painting vinyl exterior siding

[healeybn7@aol.com]

All,
 
I am thinking about painting the outside of my house myself (my wife's idea).  
It's old vinyl siding.  Some questions:
prep of the vinyl for painting.  what to do and what to use for cleaning the 
siding?
type of paint to use
type of paint sprayer to rent/buy
I have quite a bit of area to paint when the garage is included.  
 
 
TIA
 
Dave