Nah, they just don't get too excited about keeping her pretty before they do a final blast and coat. I've explained this before, but when you keep the hull coated like you see with QE, you end up having to remove a lot of that to join sections. It's a fire hazard, a health hazard, and environmental hazard, etc., etc., etc. Now, it's a fair argument to say that it may not be any of those things, but in the evolution of ship building and repair in the US in the late-20th and early-21st Centuries, the Green folks and health and safety Nazis hold sway. So, to save on the money that would be spent removing the coatings just to do a joining process ("weld" to you and me), they just wait until they are all done before doing the coatings all at once.
Going by my past experience, the hull plating in Gerald R. Ford will be 7/8 inch HY-80 carbon steel. It's designed to flex and give to avoid self-propagating expansion joints (or "cracks" as we mere mortals call them) due to hogging and sagging. There will most likely be one inch of HY-100 plating around the magazines and steering gear. I don't know what is around the reactor compartments because I don't have need to know; but generally speaking, there's a lot of shielding there. Also, I am told there will be some kevlar here and there around some areas for defense against cheap mission kills. Finally, look at all of the double- and even triple-bottoms and floodable voids she has. She can take a hit; it's just a different way of going about it from WWII.
