[Foot Stomper]

THE MOST important coating you can ever put on bare steel is epoxy primer. No substitutes are allowed. You can buy it in Spray Max 2K aerosol cans or in gallon kits. Any brand in gallon kit is fine. Epoxy primer goes on before any other primer. It's the only primer that prevents rust. Doesn't matter what you put on after epoxy... use whatever you want. So, this is first step before "you get it right".

Yes, rattlecan primer from the dollar store is certainly not what you should use.

On an aside, most painters won't work on vehicles that other folks have prepared for a multitude of reasons. I mention this because you may not even bother starting it unless you are sure your painter will accept what you've done to prepare it for paint. Some painters will spray the paint, but you will own the bodywork if you did it. Some painters won't spray the paint because they will get blamed for the imperfections in the body work.