[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by clown

I must have been greatly miss informed as I was told stripping to bare metal was the best way to get maximum quality paint color and straightness. The paint that was chosen (from a survey of family and friends)

As for the car it is just going to be a fun to drive summer car, not perfect as it was a first time restoration by me. I will be putting in a bigger engine later on, once this one has run its course or the restoration is complete and more money shows up. My main concern is if I do have to strip it can it sit with primer on or is that no good as well? If I don't have to strip it how do prep the current paint for primer?

there are several ways to go about it, sanding dow to bare metal (with out destroying the factory leading and such) should be done right before you are going to paint. so sanding with the final grit in the morning then clean, bondo, sand, clean and spraying a primer in the afternoon type thing.

you can't just use any primer you have to find one that is rated to be left as the only coverage for an extended period of time, normal primers will oxidize also, but there are ones for your situation even clear ones but I wouldn't recommend going with a clear primer.

couple problems with going to bare metal, the first being is you have now taking the smoothing layer of bondo off. it is very very rare to have a bare metal surface that is flat or smooth enough to result in a decent paint job. what you normally do is put on a very thin layer of bondo, then sand it until it is smooth and you stop sanding when you just start to see steel.

as it is now you have made a horrible amount of extra work for your self as you need to get something on there before it starts to rust, so go out and buy a primer that you can apply bondo over (go to a local body shop and ask them what to use but probably an epoxy primer) and practice your spraying. then you have time. what I did with the last car I restored was left the paint alone and fixed any dints and such in the small areas where they were, then when I was ready to paint the whole car I did a complete sanding then repainted.

oh take the time also and do some reading on what you want to do, just like fish tanks there are ways the pro's do it that save time/money and give a first rate result and there all out there for the reading.

Steve