Michaelga said:
I don't completely understand the different terminologies for paint. The epoxy is primer. I assume I can spray the body and then paint it with Spraymax 1k paint (white or rally red) and then spray it with 2k polyurethane. My main concern is my lack of experience spraying paint and finishing in general.
Generally speaking, you don't use primers on wood. A primer is a conditioning coat, most often used with plastics, metals, and other hard/smooth surfaces that preps the surface to accept finish coats. They form a barrier to protect and/or separate surface conditions or differences in chemistry between the base and the finish material. In the case of hard/smooth surfaces, you need to create something for the finish coat to "bite" into and grab on, or it'll flake/peel off too easily. In the case of plastics and materials like that, you often need to isolate them from the solvents in the finish material. None of those conditions really exist with wood, so... no primer.
2K polyurethane is what's called a "catalyzed" finish. Rather than dry through the evaporation of solvents like many finishes do, polyurethane normally hardens through a curation process that starts with the exposure to oxygen. It's a chemical thing. Doesn't dry so much as it hardens. When they add a catalyst, it does the same thing, but much more quickly. In fact, it's so fast it has no shelf life and a very short open time. You mix it when you're going to use it, and you either use it or throw it away and clean the gun RFN, or throw the gun away as well.
The nice thing about catalyzed poly or enamel is it's pretty much a "fire and forget" finish. You generally only need one coat, and assuming all goes well, it cures up looking like wet glass. There's no multiple coats over time, no final finish sanding/buffing, none of that tiring time-consuming stuff. Plus, it's
very durable. That's why OEMs love it, and most guitars/basses are shot with it these days.
Downside is, it's generally toxic as hell, and I mean in evil ways you don't want to experience, so you can't just shoot it anywhere. Also, while it cures very quickly, it's not instantaneous, so you need a seriously clean booth. High quality breathing apparatus and a well-ventilated clean booth sourced with filtered air aren't things you often find in DIY situations, so you rarely hear of individuals using that finish. Also, there's almost no repairing the finish. It really doesn't sand - you almost need a grinder to tear into the stuff. You either shoot it right the first time, or you've got a deep, meaningful stripping job ahead of you so you can start over, not to mention the loss of some expensive finish material.
This is why most DIY finishers either do the polymerized oil thing, or lacquer. The oil finishes have the advantage of needing no special equipment, working conditions, or talent, with the downside being they're not very durable, nor do they come in colors. Lacquer is slightly more demanding in that you need a well-ventilated area to get rid of all the acetone and overspray, but it's a nicer finish that's pretty durable and comes in every color of the rainbow plus some.