Here's a picture of my far too thick guide coat - waste of paint as I sanded most of it all off again... The point of the exercise was to identify where the dents and uneven surfaces on the bonnet were. The white colour is the self echting primer which is under the brown colour coat.
It has taken me quite a long time to get the feeling that perhaps I'm almost getting a vague idea of what I'm doing - so far I've probably used about four times as much paint as a professional would and I've lost count of the hours I've put into this - but I'm enjoying myself and think I stand a good chance of getting a finish that I'll be happy with for my future daily driver.
I plan to tape off the garage and spray the top clear coat in a more sterile environment than my outdoor efforts I've shown so far. Painting outside isn't ideal but I can report it is much better to paint outside in the spring and not in the autumn: there's much less junk in the air at this time of the year!