Using this weekend to try and paint the sides. Removed the registration stickers, adhesive remnants, sanded and tacked today.
The registration numbers were easiest with a heat gun and scraper, but my mind wasn't in the zone initially, so I ended up making a mess on one side with a wire wheel and acetone before thinking of it.
For tacking, I tried acetone but that turned the dust into a smeared mess, xylene worked well to clean the surface but not melt it. Alcohol would play nicer with the breathing space but I didn't have any on hand right now.
Tomorrow I will mask and then prime with u-pol epoxy primer. Focus will be bare spots, but I have enough to cover quite a bit. I would have preferred to prime today immediately following sanding the bare spots, but time constraints prevented that. I think it should still be a suitable surface tomorrow. Sunday I will roll on a 2k polyurethane gloss black base, then spray a sky blue metallic flake streak, and silver Starcraft lettering.