Guide on, Guide off

The guide coat will tell the truth

At some point, body work has to finish, and since this project is a driver and not a show car (a level of which I could never achieve with my skill set), I've reached a point that is satisfactory to me.
After months of welding, filling, sanding, and primering, it was time to shoot a guide coat on to see what dips and bumps remained. It's impossible to see the very minor imperfections without this coat.
I have a half gallon of some black chassis paint that I first used years ago on my first attempt at restoring the frame. I'm glad that I removed old paint and repainted using the epoxy, because even after sitting in a covered space for 15 years, rust had started to work it's way through the paint. Therefore, I had no reservation about using this stuff as a sacrificial coat to sand off as a guide coat. It also sprays on right out of the can, making it easy to apply.
My only mistake (after the fact, of course) was not thinning it a bit, so it was a little difficult getting it off.

The black spots shot the low areas

The first guide coat revealed what I expected--lots of little spots that were not apparent to the naked eye or the hand, but would've showed up terribly on the
final product. A couple  more days of lightly block sanding showed me what needed a little more attention, to which I applied successive layers of glazing putty until I was satisfied.
As a side note, while I was working on this step, a paint and body guy from the shop next door stopped by and was surprised to see someone using glazing putty. He said he hadn't used the stuff in twenty years. I have no idea what is used in today's auto body world, so I'm sticking with the old school way.
After the first guide coat was removed, and the numerous blemishes filled and smoothed, I applied a second, more aggressive coat of filler primer. It's not possible to catch all of
the little pin holes with the glazing putty, and on this car there were a lot of them after sitting outside for so many years. Once the primer was down again, I shot another guide coat on, this time thinned out a bit and less heavy in the application.
I wanted to get the roof painted with the final finish of India Ivory before I left town for the Christmas holiday, so I was really pleased when the second guide coat came off the roof with only as few tiny imperfections remaining. Last week, in my improvised "paint booth" and perfect evening weather and temperature, I shot the final coat on the roof, then closed the doors and went out of town.

Finished roof

This week, I hope to get the final sanding done on the rest of the body and, weather permitting, shoot the final coat of Harvest Gold on. Then it will finally be time to reinstall the body on the frame.