2/13/2016. I decided to get the underbody, engine compartment, and interior painted, and get the car back on it’s chassis before continuing on the exterior. I didn’t know if mounting the car would put any loads on the body that would affect door fit. Getting the doors to fit correctly would turn out to be a considerable challenge. But the body is very rigid—when it is suspended with the body harness, it moves like a giant model car. That said, getting the body with the sealed rear valence back on the chassis is difficult, and the possibility of damaging finished paint would have been high. In retrospect, what I should have done is get the body surfaced and primed nearly ready for paint, and then get the interior, engine compartment and underbody finished, then reunite chassis and body. I got impatient. Getting the interior and underside of the hood ready to start coating was very time consuming. 

This series of shots shows the interior and engine compartment nearly ready to start coating, and a couple of coats of high-build surfacer on the firewall. I used Evercoat Super Build and Evercoat Finish Sand. They are both 4:1 polyester high-build surfacers that worked very well.