Okay, I think I get it now. So basically with the base coat you're only concentrating on getting a nice, even finish right? Any tips on applying the clear? How many coats of clear are you guys doing?

When spraying a whole car(body, engine bay, door jams, trunk), what's the easier way of doing it? Painting everything seperately, then assembling it? Or assembling the car, painting the engine bay/door jams/trunk, then going back and painting the body after?

Also, a question about metal prep. I've been thinking I might want to use chemical paint stripper on my engine bay and the area between my core support and grill, there are several layers of paint, seems a previous owner repainted the engine bay red when he did the car and decided not to sand the old paint first . There are a lot of weird angles in there and no real way to effectively get sandpaper in there all that well, at least not enough to get through all the layers of old paint. If I do this and end up with large areas of bare metal, should they be etch primed before being hit with the surfacer?