No pics at the moment, but thinning the primer (two parts primer, one part water) is turning out much smoother. I've tried a couple of different brushes and find its working best with a small foam brush. Runs where an issue when using a normal brush.
This is turning out to be a learning process indeed!

I'm still working out which parts I have spare to put on it. I'm thinking of using a set of 650A wheels I have so I can get better fender clearance for using it in the Winter. The tires on them are old, but look to be intact and my research has been turning up available tires for replacements online - wheelchair racers use the same sized rims (26x1-3/8) which is pretty cool.
I just need to get the Shimano 333 freewheel off of it so I can replace a missing spoke and extract the dork-disk and put a newer freewheel on it. I'm leaning towards running it as a 5 or 6 speed with RD only. It's going to be a grocery bike ridden short distances with no real big hills to speak of.