So the paint job took a lot more time than I originally anticipated. In total, I probably have 150 hours into this body work and respray project, and I still need to finish the final polish/swirl removal. But it looks GREAT!
The first couple of photos show the base/color coat (two coats). I ended up having to respray the hood and driver side fender because I didn't allow enough flash time before spraying the clear coat and got the dreaded "paint pop" -- which required me to sand down to the primer and start over. I covered the base/color coat with three coats of clearcoat. One lesson learned: push the volume on the clear coat on the second and third coats -- just on the verge of running.
The third picture shows the car during the initial cut/buff stage, where you use (expensive) finishing sandpaper to knock down the orange peel and any dust nibs. I blew it and waited too long to start this process, so it took a LONG time to break through. When the instructions say to begin cutting (also called "color sanding") between 24 hours and 48 hours, don't wait two weeks like I did...
I used Meguiar's wet/finishing paper: 1000 for the initial cut, and then several more stages to remove sanding marks (1200, 2000, 2500 and finally 3000). I literally wore off my fingerprints holding the 1000 paper onto a small rubber sanding block; the latter stages only required a few passes to remove the previous paper's marks. In essence, you start sanding until the little low spots are gone, constantly squeegeeing off the water to see your work. The Meguiar's finishing paper ain't cheap -- between $25 to $35 per package of 25 sheets -- but it is very high quality. Everything I read on-line says to not scrimp on the finishing paper.
The fourth and fifth pictures show what happens when you sand through the clear coat -- because I sprayed it on a little too thin on the passenger side wheel arch. So I roughed it up with 600 wet/dry 3M paper, and reshot the clear coat. But I learned my lesson and began finish sanding within 48 hours, and I cannot say how much easier it is to do when the clear coat hasn't fully set-up like granite! Anyway, this rework required about 10 hours to fix.
What I didn't show is me having to repaint the roof, driver quarter panel, and the driver door because of "moisture splats" that only showed up during the buffing process. Apparently, my two-year old desiccant "whip" between the Harbor Freight canister filter and the hose, as well as the little "pumpkin" filters that I used right at the spray gun, didn't remove all the moisture, and I ended up with a few atomized water droplets in the base coat.
So I bought a new desiccant whip and used the orange Motor Guard see-through desiccant filters (the desiccant beads start out blue but turn pink as the moisture collects), which did the trick. There goes another 15 hours of sanding, based coat, clear coat, cutting and buffing...