First Finish, A Few Q's

[guitarmonky55]

I've been wanting to my own custom finish for a loooong time and after months of reading and gathering materials(and a guitar!) i finally am in the process of doing it. its a fairly cheap body that i added a flamed maple veneer top to, so im covering the back and sides with solid blue. im following the re-ranch tuts for spraying colors and im on day 2 of the solid, and alls going VERY well so far

anyway, after i do a cool design on the top with a stain technique ive been practicing, im gonna move on to clear coating, and i have a few q's.

1)im using a paasche airbrush and a 5-gallon portable airtank from sears(just big enough to give me one good wet coat of paint so its perfect), but i only have one paint cup for the airbrush(its an old model, i got it from my grandfather and i dont know if i can get another). is it alright to use this for my clear too? i clean it thoroughly after each use with lacquer solvent and then hot soapy water and such, and it looks spotless. but ive heard its best to use alternate containers for clear.

2)what should my final surface prep be on my color coats before applying clear? should i leave it alone, sand it up to a high gloss, scuff sand? im not too clear on this.

any help would be greatly appreciated! im really enjoying doing this so far, and so far its going very well, no hitches, and its looking great!