The lens is only really going to affect your zoom level champ. you're camera knows what it is and will switch which will just give you a crop factor, so your 35mm from a smaller format will look more like what you'd expect from a 50mm. the sharpness wouldn't change more than a bee's dick.
Silver is the easiest colour to light man, you don't need any tips from us, you just need to do that 3 hours of internet research to catch up
I did some painting on a black xr6 at lunch. will post some shots up over the weekend. Made a new lighting rig today and tried it out. Haven't viewed shots outside of cam lcd but it looks promosing