thanks fellas.
Keith all I can tell you is what I've been told to do and what I've realized in the process of being told what to do. haha.
tips (not professional, but noteworthy!)
1. Make sure you clean the surface good. (I use PRE from Eastwood)
2. Light coat first, the medium coats after that
3. A good air compressor that puts out at least 11 cfm. 100% duty cycle is preferred. Otherwise plan on sanding a lot of orange peel out. With my craftsman 26 gal 4ish CFM I had to use a HVLP gun it wouldn't handle a regular paint gun... and 3/4 of the way through that roof top is was pretty much done... hence the orange peel. (not enough pressure to atomize the paint) I'm not saying you can't do it with a puny compressor, but it makes for more work.
4. Let it dry, don't rush it. Epoxy I'll let dry 24 hours before I do body work on top of it, poly I let dry overnight, and paint I won't touch it for at least 2 days after I spray it.
5. Let the sandpaper do the work, pressing harder to try to sand faster is only going to clog the paper and/or cause deep scratches.
6. PROTECT YOUR LUNGS. you only have one set... a good coat of primer or paint on your lungs will make breathing difficult for a long, long, time... unless it kills you, then you won't have to worry about it.
When it comes to the job I do it in this order.
Starting with clean bare metal... which I usually hit with Eastwood Fast Etch and then PRE
Epoxy first. I'm just spraying the areas that need body work, do the body work and sand smooth with 80grit and follow up with some 180, then I feather out the epoxy to the bare metal. This is because I don't have time to do it all within that window that you have to spray the poly without having to go back and scratch up the epoxy. I would hate to go over the entire cab, all the nooks and crannys to do that.
Poly second just on top of body work and then I'll feather that out almost to the edge of the epoxy with 220.
When all the body work is done I'll spray everything with epoxy, wait 3 or 4 hours then spray it all with poly. (2 different colors is helpful, so when sanding you know when to stop.. I use black epoxy and gray poly.
At this point all the body work for the most part is done. It's time for blocking (I use Dura-blocks) to level/smooth out the panels, if I have to put on any filler to level anywhere I'll spray those spots with poly, sand, and then cover everything with epoxy sealer and paint. I also do it all by hand, I don't have a DA... though I may get one now that I have a good compressor. Not sure.
That might be more info than you wanted, but that's how I've been told to do things and it's worked out so far. I'm sure there are other ways to go about it as I think paint/body work is a "To each their own" trade.
Sorry for the long post but hope that helps someone... that's it in a nutshell.
It's Monday, I'm sure I left something out.