I'm in the throws of finishing up a paint job. Thus far I have used a combination of different products including 3 different primers and at the moment have used two different kinds of paint with a third type of paint awaiting the next masking round.

To be a little more specific, the model was first primed with a dark Dupli-Color (DC) sandable primer. The model was filled with Bondo spot putty where required and the primer and Bondo wet sanded down. This was done in a couple of coats:

http://duplicolor.com/products/sandablePrimer/

I then proceeded with a DC polyester resin based high build primer - great stuff:

http://duplicolor.com/products/fillerPrimer/

This primer was also wet sanded down to smooth uniformity in a couple of thin coats. Some minor imperfections were spotted after the first coat of primer so more Bondo was used and wet sanded down with the primer. This particular primer leaves the surface akin to a baby's bum. Being gray, not having much texture and also being a polyester resin based primer I was a little concerned in how well an epoxy white base coat would adhere to it so I proceeded to shoot the model with Krylon white primer prior to shooting the white epoxy. Here are the two products used:

http://krylon.com/products/indooroutdoor_primer

http://krylon.com/products/appliance_epoxy_paints/

The base coat white was done in three coats wet sanding in between and turned out peachy. It wet sands very nicely and is very close match to MK Jet White. I let it dry for several days and I don't feel like there will be any issues with the epoxy white base coat. I would now like to do two things:

1) Shoot some trim colors with DC Perfect Match metallic paint which is an acrylic lacquer type paint:

http://duplicolor.com/products/perfectMatch/

2) Wet sand the whole fuse and apply DC Perfect Match clear coat.

Some concerns:

1) Will the metallic DC paint take to the epoxy white base coat or should I re-prime the surface prior to applying the DC?

2) I understand that metallic paint can't be successfully wet sanded without adversely affecting the texture. How does one go about clear coating metallic paint - does one just shoot without sanding? If so, is there anyway to even out the paint lines if one can't sand? Will clear coating actually change the texture as well? I want to think not as otherwise one could not achieve the result of the intended purpose of this paint - fixing areas that have been damaged in automotive applications.

3) Will there be issues if I shoot the DC clear atop the white epoxy base coat? Would it be preferable to use an epoxy enamel based clear instead of the automotive acrylic lacquer?

Any suggestions or recommendations are much appreciated.

I think next time I will just stick to one brand and/or system of paint - unfortunately I was unable to find DC white or red tones to suit my application.

TIA, David.