Hello Ernie,
I went through a spell of trial and error with Alclad - fabulous product, but not without it's pitfalls to the unwary!
The prime lesson I learnt is that there are basically 2 types - high shine and 'normal'. The high shine are obvious ones like chrome but also some less obvious like airframe aluminium - I think you can check on their website which is which - despite what people say - the high shine are VERY delicate and you can't mask over or you'll just pull the paint off (which I discovered to my cost right at the end of a nice Mustang build
). The base for the high shine has to be flawless - preferably with gloss black undercoat (they sell their own black primer). With the non high shine this is not so critical. Polishing cloths are very useful - you can get some beautiful effects - but be very gentle.
Sealing in the Alclad is an option -but really defeats the object - as it takes all the metallic lustre away from the finish - applying decals then produces a problem, as they are difficult to blend in and just look like 'stickers'. The ideal solution would be to paint the markings on - but you can't mask! I haven't had any problems using Micro Sol or Set.
So in summary - brilliant product, but delicate - high shine much trickier - I'd spend a lot of time practicing first before putting on your latest pride & joy..
Cheers
Guy