I'm back. Sorry for leaving you hanging for a few days. The tragedy I mentioned above was that I loaded the freshly painted and clear coated body into the car to take to my father's shop to show him the paint job. Upon arriving, his dog leapt into my car and dug his toenails through my beautifully finished guitar! He left deep gouges in the finish and sent me all the way back to square one. I don't have pics of the damaged body. It was just too traumatic.
But it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I learned from the experience that the Rustoleum clear I had used was neither especially hard, nor well adhered to the copper paint. A better clear coat solution would have to be found. Also, I had been thinking that the volume pot hole was too close to the pick guard, and this was a good opportunity to move that hole a bit. My father felt guilty about his dog messing up my paint job, and offered to do the body work to get the body back in shape. He filled holes and sanded. I moved the volume pot hole. He sprayed it with automotive primer. I sprayed it with Rustoleum copper again. He sprayed it with nitrocellulous. I was back in action!