I took Buly's advice and painted what I could now. Here's why I painted way before it was called for in the plans...
1) the earlier in the process the lighter the fuselage, and a good paint job pretty much requires having the plane upside down for a while.
2) I don't want paint all over the cables and wires
3) Suddenly my family starts to see the airplane

I'll split this into several entries, and this is about process....

Why roll-on finishes. I ran through the list of recommended choices. The local airplane painter (Hawke) declined to quote on a disassembled airplane. I looked for but did not find a moonlighting auto painter who would come to my place. The fuse is too large to fit into the paint booths of the small local shops. A shop with a large booth wanted $8500 for me to be the airplane guinea pig. I went the DIY route and rolled everything. I am satisfied for now, but somewhere down the road I will again disassemble and use the fiberglass cutting compound, then get a professional shop to spray a clear coat.

I painted parts, not the plane. Parts was a _long_ process. The section "Sanding" describes the fill and shaping, ending in multiple coats of pure epoxy. I then worked through all the same parts, bringing each up through a minimum of two coats of primer, then a minimum of 3 coats of top coat. I have now done with the big push in finishing. There are still some parts to do: I need to build fairings, wheel pants, cowling and whatever is required by repairs after installing landing lights, gap seals around windows, et al. I'm not necessarily recommending this, but the slow and steady picking away at the task worked for me. See below and the attached photos.

Process. Big fill, guide coats, Bird epoxy wipe, sand to 180. 2-part Awlgrip primer, 2 coats. Wet sand at 360, clean with isopropyl, then degreaser, then tack cloth, then three insanely thin coats of 2-part Alexseal, wet sanding and cleaning between coats. Finish with a polish intended for fiberglass. Everything was done in the garage, where dust and pollen and bugs all affect the quality of the work. And it's Florida, so we also fight sweat running off the painter and into the paint.

Products.
- I had resisted filling with anything other than micro, but at the end used 2-part Bondo "glazing and spot filler". A phenomenal product that fills, smooths and sands really easily. Two 5 oz tubes were used, most of it sanded off and some still on hand.
- The group discussions arrived at an endorsement of Awlgrip as a reliable primer. Awlgrip is a 2-part primer with slow and fast reducers, and can be rolled or sprayed. Success rolling the Awlgrip made me look into whether I really needed to spray the top coat.
- Internet time + talking to local boat shops persuaded me _not_ to finish coat with JetGlo or an automotive. I went with an updated formulation of a marine paint (Alexseal 501) that has both converter and reducer intended for brushing and rolling. I've already found that it repairs well (I backed the gear leg into a bench and !@#$!). The product is highly resistant to UV and chemicals (up to and including acetone). Interlux Perfection is now available in a similar chemistry and from the same company as AwlGrip. I might look hard at that alternative; both are expensive but the Interlux is widely available at marine retailers.
- The final polish was Meguiar's #67. It smooths the orange peel on the surface but flattens the gloss and leaves swirl marks - I skipped using it on later parts. I came to think of it as a cutting compound intended for fiberglass.
- Miscellaneous products were a degreaser intended for fiberglass (Interlux 202), 6” mini mohair rollers from Redtree, and a fair number of disposable measuring cups and paint pans. The rollers were special order while the pans and filters came from Home Depot.


Learnings.
1) allow for the slow evaporation of cleaning products, which will otherwise give an orange peel.
2) if rolling, use only the Redtree brand mini mohair rollers.
3) A little goes a long way – 300 cc's of product (base + converter + reducer) was more than enough to fully cover the top of the fuse. A single gallon of base is considerably more than you need for the whole project.
4) Each new coat looks even more wonderful and raises the standard. When do you stop? A 3rd party has a useful voice.

Cost. My hands hurt from sanding and I'm using my wife's clear polish to save what's left of my fingernails. I probably gave up some IQ points while huffing paint around the mask seals. The total spend will come out to $800 or so – 3 quarts of Awlgrip + 1 gallon of Alexseal + the related converters and reducers + a lot of paper, mohair rollers and other supplies. Rolling gave me the convenience of working steadily at the project, solving problems and learning the process one part at a time.

Bottom line, if you can find a paint shop that will do the work by all means spend the money and have them do it. If you know how to spray, put on a respirator and go auto paint. But if both of those don't work, consider rolling a high quality marine paint. Now let me get back at it….