I also grabbed a '72 single tree neck with tuners off eBay for a good by it now price.
With all the hoopla about nitro and it being all the rage everywhere I look, I kind of fell for all the bullshit. I researched refinishing quite a bit and read through the reranch forums before making an order with them. From everything I read it sounded like the key is to be patient and not be in a hurry to get the guitar back together. Since this guitar never gets played, waiting shouldn't be a problem and I was once a commercial painter for 10 years. It all seemed so easy.
I decided on doing the body and headstock in Sherwood Green with a Seafoam Green competition stripe, just to be different.
I started by taking the guitar apart, sanding it down and spraying a white shellac based primer on it. As you can see from the pictures the guitar had the paint stripped off it (was originally Olympic White) and the previous owner put some kind of clear coat on it. Yet one more reason hippies shouldn't be allowed to touch musical instruments!
Right away there were a few problem areas where the primer wouldn't take too well. I let it fully dry, resanded those areas and reprimed.
At this point everything was going pretty well.
