Wow! What an undertaking - it looks like it came out great. Thanks for sharing pictures!

This will be a bit of a long process, but certainly do-able! Start with a good paint store - even better if the people at the counter are willing to help. Bring the reference images as a direction, and ask to see popular alternates or chips / sample book in whatever line you plan to spray. House of Kolor (HOK) is a good starting point, and PPG's Vibrance Collection is the other one to look at. Many manufacturers (akzo, etc) aren't going to have something like this right off the shelf or in a variant deck. But, if you find a color you like in Vibrance or HOK, you can certainly scan that chip with a spectrophotometer at the paint store to establish a baseline starting point in whichever like you'd like to spray. But, above all else, get the body straight before you worry about any of this. A dark metallic or candy will show everything on the corvette. Estimate the bodywork, the spray outs, and the color development time as separate sections, and plan for lots of time getting it right. If you don't have a great booth that is clean, temperature controlled, and can bake, I might not recommend Superior 250 as it's one of the more challenging clears to work with. It is super durable and phenomenal when it goes right. Hope this helps 😎

Slick Sand and Featherfill G2 are both good options. I prefer the G2 for how it sprays, but both will work. Before any primer goes on though, the key on is getting the existing paint and old bodywork off so you can see what you're really working with. I've uncovered a lot of prior work on Corvettes, including part of a front clip that had been replaced on a mostly original '65! One that has been wrecked and repaired by a shop that wasn't thorough may have some surprises underneath. If I was taking it on, I'd strip it down to a stable substrate and confirm there aren't major structural issues before starting on everything. From there, go to a high build polyester of your choosing and start blocking it out. Being in California, you might also consider Duratec vinylester primer. On the clears: Pro Air is on the soft side. It's a good factory replacement clear, and in the Lesonal line, EcoClear LV and Universal Clear are even softer. For a car that gets driven and washed a lot, that's worth knowing going in. Superior 250 is the best clear in my opinion, but it is very challenging to spray. What you're describing, self healing, gloss retention, lays out without a cut and buff, is attainable, but it takes great equipment, skill, and money, not just a good gallon of clear. The grand helps with the material, but expect things will add up quickly - both materials and time. If this were my job, that's the order I'd run it in: strip it, confirm it's a good base to work with, high build polyester, lots of blocking, then pick the paint materials based on budget and realistic expectations.

Welcome - glad you're here! Hope you're able to learn a few things to make your work at Honda easier!

In this case, with SPI epoxy and how much bare metal you have showing, I'd definitely plan on sanding everything back down before proceeding. You'll want to stay on the coarser side at this stage so everything has plenty of mechanical adhesion. With a repair this large, there's still quite a bit of priming and blocking to do before I'd worry about the final paint steps. If this were my project and I were going for the best possible finish, I'd start with epoxy, then apply some sort of vinylester or polyester primer and block everything flat. From there, I'd spray a coat or two of high-build urethane primer, block that out to P400, then move on to urethane sealer, basecoat, and clearcoat. If the car isn't going for absolute perfection, you can certainly simplify things and go from epoxy straight into high-build urethane primer. Just keep in mind there's a little more risk of shrinkage down the road, especially with a repair this large. That's one of the reasons I like having the polyester or vinylester step in there when I'm trying to get everything really straight. So I wouldn't get too hung up on the P320 vs. P400 question yet. P400 is where I'd want to end up on that final urethane primer before sealer, but you're not really at that stage yet. As far as false-edge masking goes, I usually reserve that for the final paint stages: a think coat of urethane sealer, basecoat, and clear. It doesn't work particularly well with heavier primer layers because you'll still end up building a substantial edge. And yes, if SPI says you can apply basecoat directly over their 2K urethane, you certainly can. I just tend to prefer that final sealer coat, especially when there's a mix of substrates underneath. It gives you one consistent surface before you start laying down color.

I tend to go a bit overkill with this stuff. My preference is to keep everything wet-on-wet from bare metal whenever possible for maximum chemical adhesion. I generally start with epoxy primer sprayed as a sealer. I use a 1.4 tip on my SATA 1500 Solv B for areas that aren't going to be sanded, particularly internal areas where I'm going directly over bare metal. From there, I'll usually topcoat it with one of a few things depending on the area: - Single-stage SEM Hot Rod Black (2K), PPG equivalent, or something similar - Basecoat/clearcoat where I want it body color (either Gloss or Matte Clear) - Tinted or black U-POL Raptor or USC Defender where I want more protection and texture (outside of floor pans, etc) I generally shy away from 1K products for this kind of work. If I'm going through all the trouble of taking a car down this far, I'd rather use catalyzed products wherever I can. Then, once everything is painted and fully cured, I go pretty heavy with cavity wax anywhere I can get it. I prefer the 3M stuff. Probably more involved than strictly necessary, but that's the process I've settled on for cars I want to protect for the long haul and it's worked great every time