[OrrieG]

Go to your local automotive paint supply store. Find the oldest guy there and make him you new best friend. Pick his brain on the different options. Most important is knowing which primers, fillers, sealer, base/clear or single stage materials are compatible. As my guy says, they live by the numbers on the can. Use incompatible materials and you will have problems later on. My guy directed me to Everclear products for primers, Nason for sealer and base and Chromacolor for clear. Nason and Chroma system are Dupont and compatible. All of the major paint companies have good online information and data sheets that list compatible materials. As was said you need to decide what your end result is going to be. Take some time and look through different message board paint and body sections to get an idea of the advantages and limitations of each type.

A guy using MartinSR has a good series articles on body and paint topics, he is an experienced paint and body guy. What you will find is the actual painting is the quickest step. Preparation and compatibility is key, more time spent on prep, better the paint job. I just posted a photo in my build thread of my newly painted firewall. Took 10 minutes to shoot the final coat. 10 hours to weld grind and bump, another 8-10 to finish with plastic, sand, do it again, prime and sand, then another 3-4 hours to prime again and block it down until I was happy. I haven't kept track of the hours on the body so far but I'm sure I am in the hundreds and mine was relatively rust free.

Also critical is understanding the health and safety problems associated with modern coatings. They are basically air borne plastics that can literally coat the inside of your lungs and nasal passages. Never sand or paint without an agressive mask made specifically for automotive paint and dust. Need to also look at the environment you will be working in. Most primer can be done is a garage, a few bugs and dust specks won't hurt. You can retro fit your garage act like a booth but in most places its illegal because of EPA clean air laws. I live in a neighborhood of gearheads so an occasional wiff of paint is not a big deal (plus there is a breeze most of the time to dispurse it). I could never get my shop clean enough to do a final job and am going to rent a real booth when I do the final seal/base/clear.