Allan,
Nice work, I would like any details you want to share,for example, did you make your decals, how you stripped the cars, etc.
I started out with the older NBA Car below.
I like this car because it has flat sides (no rivets), so decals go on smoothly. I did not strip the car. I just sprayed it with Primer and then went about painting the car. I did the roof/ends and doors first after masking the sides. Then I masked the roof/ends and put on several coats of white paint. Once done, the car looked like this (but with the Orange Roof, not the Gold Roof) - ignore the wheels:
After paining, you could vaguely see the outlines of the NBA Decals (not the decals themselves). That was ok because my new decals would cover them.
To do my decals, I went online and pulled down different images that I wanted. Then I mocked them up using an old car picture Lionel used to have on their website where you could print it out and color it in:
I did the Mock-up in PowerPoint as inserted images to let me figure out the size ratio. I then grouped the pictures and copied them into Word, resizing them to fit the actual car.
I've included the decals in the attachments. I then printed them out on Ink Jet Decal Paper I got from my local hobby store. The ones on the sides were done on Clear Decal Paper as I did not need a white background as I already had one. The decals for the door were done on White Decal Paper so I could get White Text and then I put it on an orange background that matched the decals. Once printed, I sprayed them with several coats of Glossy Clear Coat to set them so they wouldn't run in the water.
Following the directions of the decals, I put them on the car. Once they were installed, I sprayed with Glossy Clear Coat to set them in their final position.
After it was dried, I put the car back together and the results are what I showed in the first post. 
