Michael, not a goofy question. If you don't know body and paint, you are always learning something. It can be confusing and it seems everyone has their own "right" way. A guide coat is just a thin coat of a contrasting color of paint that you sand off to find high and low spots on the panel. One typical way to do paint and body work is to take the panels down to metal, hammer and dolly work, epoxy prime, filler work, cover filler with epoxy, two coats of high build primer and then spray a guide coat. There are paints made for this, others just use available spray cans. Then you start block sanding. The guide coat will remain in low spots and be sanded off on high spots. As you find these your work them with hammer or finishing putty. Ultimately you are looking to be able to block sand taking off the entire guide coat evenly. Wet sand, seal coat and ready for paint. This is one way, there are a lot of other opinions on the best way to paint a rig.
