Take my word for it, it was not a pretty sight. Had I been more patient, the end result would have been much better. But I was impatient and pressed on anyway. Here the body has been covered in color coats and then clear coat. I wasted a lot of paint being tentative during the first color coats, and then had a sand-through to the primer after I ran out of color paint.
Elbow grease is a vital component.
I polished the body outside in the shade, and found I missed a lot of subtle marks because I didn't change my viewing angle to try to catch them in the sunlight. Finally, after 3 weeks of work and waiting, I reassembled the guitar. I used a Carvin '62 Reissue style pickguard from the parts box to get back closer to the original look.