Replacing strat pickups - What do I need?

I ordered two new pickups (BG Bucker and a Voodoo ST-70 Single Coil). I'm planning on putting them into my strat with a S x H pick guard. I've never replace a pickup before, let alone two. Should I even do it myself or just skip it and have it done at a shop? Also, what should the pot situation be? I heard I need to replace my 'bucker pot to be 500k (from the standard 250k). Keep the 5-way switch or get a 3-way switch? I dunno.

So, what do I need to know? What do I need to get? Where can I find it?

The Saymour Duncan website has a {censored}load of schematics. You should find what you need there.

You can, and should, do this yourself.

Get a soldering iron, desoldering braid and solder at radio shack.

Learn to solder (plenty of info on the net.

Get some wire cutters (small), phillips head screw driver, tweezers and a straight edge razor blade.

Loosen, or remove the strings.

Unscrew the pick guard.

Flip the pick guard over.

Find where the first pup to be replaced is soldered to. Odds are one wire goes to the back of a pot and the other to the switch. The one going to the back of the pot is the ground and the other wire is the "hot" wire. Unsolder them, remove the pickup.

Replace the pup with your new one, measure the wire distance, twice, cut once. Expose the wiring, solder the ground to the pot, the hot to the switch.

Repeat.

Re-assemble. String up one string and plug into an amp, make sure all the pups still work.

Don't worry about the pot at this point, try your ax out and see how you like it.

Yes, do it yourself.

I did it for the first time a few months ago.

I had no previous soldering experience.

Keep the 5; you should be able to do some parrallel / series type stuff.

Practice soldering on a few spare components first. Its not hard, just takes a little finesse.

So my dad does have a soldering iron, and he said that he'd help me with it. I'm not so worried about the soldering as I am raising and lowering and {censored}. What's the deal with that?