No, the long wait is only at the end after you've put your clear lacquer coats on.
Normally recommended a maximum of three coats a day, with a 20-60 minute drying time in between each coat. After you've finished the primer coats, I'd wait maybe two days before it's hard enough to sand it down flat down nicely (If it's not hardened enough before you do this, the primmer will still be contracting as it dries further and after a bit more time the the surface won't be flat). Then once flat (you need to look at it with a light shining on it at a low angle to see any small hollows in the paint that still need removing), you can start to spray your top coats on.
If you see any obvious hairs or dust marks stuck to the finish, then do that light drag sand at the beginning of each day before spraying, so that the paint's hardened overnight.
Just FYI, the reason you don't sand a sunburst finish until it's covered in clear lacquer is that the actual fade/burst area is made up of millions of very small lacquer droplets. These will have come from the very edge of the spray, so won't have hit the surface very wet at all. so have very little solvent in them and so don't adhere to the paint below well. If you try and do any sanding on these areas, those small drops come away from the surface very easily, and instead of a 'burst, you are left with clearly defined edges between the different lacquer colours. I found this out the hard way!
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Originally Posted by Simon Barden
