I'm repainting a nice hood I picked up for my EG at the salvage yard. This is my first time attempting to DIY on a painting project this large. Does it sound like I'm on the right track? Here's what I've done so far:

-Sanded down to bare metal using coarse 80 grit sandpaper.
-Went over bare metal with 100, then 150, then 220 grit paper.
-Bondo'd a few small dings and imperfections and sanded the filler down to 220
-Applied numerous THIN layers of sandable primer and sanded down to 500 grit.
-Applied several thin coats of lacquer compatible primer-sealer

Here's what I plan on doing now:
Applying numerous thin layers of lacquer based color and lightly sanding down to 1000 grit
Applying a few thin coats of clear gloss, sanding with 1200 grit, and then polishing to finish.

Is there anything else I should be doing? Am I missing anything?

 

Im guessing you are doing this with rattle cans since you are saying lacquer. You shuold be sanding with a hard block not your hands. Dont sand the color before the clear, the scratches will show and look like crap. You should do the last coat of clear very wet and heavy, right on the barrier of having runs. Dont expect this paint job to last very long.

 

Yea, the Dupli-color Perfect Match rattle cans, which I'm guessing are lacquer. And yea, I'm using a sanding block. So just go right over the color with the clear coat? Are you saying the paint won't last long due to it being rattle cans? I kind of expected to have to do this again in a couple years anyway. By that time I'll have a lot more experience and hopefully an air compressor.

 

Yes spray the clear within the window after the color, usually like 10-15 min for rattle cans. Anything more than 1000 grit wont provide the paint sufficient mechanical grip and anything less will be seen through the clear and look crappy.

When spraying with rattle cans try to go for 60% overlap with each pass to help prevent the striping you normally get, also with color don't try to cover it one coat just let it go and cover in the next coat. For the clear do a light first coat then 2 heavy coats, for the twor heavy coats bump it up to something like 70% overlap. You are more likely to get runs from moving slower than from overlapping more, so if you want stuff to go on heavier its better to increase overlap rather than slow down or move the can closer to the hood.