The prep work always looks good when it's in primer. When it's in primer it looks perfect. You can even sand with 600 or 800 for your last step and you might still see some scratches, or deeper sracthes in other spots you missed. When you lay the paint, especially black it bites into the car, and really makes those areas noticeable. The scratches I'm actaully talking about are so fine, you can't feel them, but you can see them. The clear will sink into those too. It will wetsand out, but it will probably shrink up later. I said earlier to paint, wetsand that, dry it all off, paint acouple more coats then clear it. You only need to do these steps if you choose not to go with a sealer. If you use a sealer, you won't have to do this, because the sealer is so thick, it sinks into those fine scratches and fills them in. I'm pretty anal with black paint, because people always can point out bad spots in black, and it makes you want to punch them....
You just want to take every extra step to make it as perfect as you can.
The Basemaker is what you thin the paint with. I use large mixing cups when I mix the paint. Look at the charts on them, they are there to help. The paint is 1:1. If you pour 12oz. of paint, pour 12oz. of Basemaker (thinner). Mix that together with a stir stick. Strain it as you pour it into the gun. (Strain everything for that matter) For clearcoat I used a Nason brand that says mix 4:1. 4 parts clear, 1 part activator/hardener. If you pour in 16oz of clear, pour 4oz. of the activator.
Getting the mixute right is important. Once, I was in a hurry because I ran out of clear and I still had a door and fender to paint. I rushed to mix it, and put in too much activator, and it started doing some really funky stuff in the gun. It was so thick, it wouldn't spray, so I had to add more clear. I then finished what I had to do. What I dod now is mix up a bnuch of clear and keep it in a 1 gallon container (covering it with paper towel while I paint) and if I run out in the middle of a coat, I can quickly run over and dump it in the gun.
BTW..I see you are in Arizona...(very hot)...and the paint and clear will dry very very fast. Are you painting it yourself? If so, ask for a high temp basemaker. It is good for temps above 75+ degrees. Ask for an Overall Clearcoat, (instead of the Spot and Panel) and match that with a high temp activator. In the summer, I use the high temp basemaker, the Overall Clearcoat, and a high temp activator. Using these products together will make the paint and clear dry slower. In hot weather, that is what you want. Say you used mid temp basemaker, Spot and Panel Clearcoat, and a mid temp clearcoat activator, it would dry so fast in hot weather that it will just fog up the paint, giving it a rough look and rough to the touch. The clear will also start drying really fast. If you start at the front, move down the side, do the roof, the back, then by the time you get to the other side and to the front, everything is drying and the overspray will land on that and fog it up. That rough look will be hard to wetsand out.
ANymore questions just ask.