Ok, you PM'ed and I will answer...

Welding up the holes would be better... However that is not the cheapest option to have a body shop do the work.

You have a good start the way you have it now. Yes you will eventually get hairline cracks around where the holes where. Not really a huge issue though, it will be covered in vinyl right?

From your last pic, as far as I can tell... Your fresh paint is built up quite a bit, and you will be able to see the edge lines. Those need to be feathered and blended into the original paint... Use a fine paper and with light pressure, wet sand it until you can spray it with water, and not see any trace of a line, pit, or bubble. Use a semi pliable (but stiff) block and either spray glue or use adhesive paper to do it. (One thing I have found works great is an old credit card type card with no raised letters.)
Using a 1800-2000 grit paper, dont be too afraid to go outside the lines and onto the factory paint, you actually are going to need to about 1/4 to 1/2 inch to get it to blend. Then once that is like glass smooth, you are going to need to buff it (the whole hatch) with a mid to heavy cut compound, then a good wax also using the buffer, and a final hand wax for good measure.

Your vinyl guy should be able to take it from there.

 

Alright then - I didn't realize that you blend by sanding. Gonna hit this today and see what happens.

Any idea why the 4th coat of clear came out matte-like when the 3rd coat was pretty glossy?

 

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I've taken off all of the clear... and then some. At this point, I think I just want to re-prime (since I'm down to bare metal again) and re-spray with paint only, wet sand smooth and get it covered with the vinyl. There's still some clear on there, but the entire area is very smooth - a can't feel any unevenness when I run my hand over it. I'm wondering if leaving a little clear coat on is a problem or not.

I didn't really know what to expect with the wet sanding. When I started to sand the edge, I thought I was "blending" but in reality I'm pretty sure I was going way too far.

 

Well, to make a long story short, my hatch is beyond what buffing can solve. I've given it 2 good efforts, but today I dropped it off at the body shop. Going to respray the hatch and have the stripe painted...

Will be picking it up the week before Labor Day and then hopefully making it up to Lime Rock for the Historic Festival.

 

Done!