Is it necessary to sand my car back down to bare metal and start over? The car was (and is) in its filler primer stage. I was as close to spraying the base coat as you can be. All that remained was to finish sanding a portion of the trunk lid. Unfortunately I did not finish and was not able to paint my car before my wedding. Because my wife wanted to drive away in it after the ceremony I was forced to drive it 300 miles to the wedding site, then wash it with soap and water to clean it up. Then it was parked outside in the weather for 2 weeks while we were away on our honeymoon. When I got back I saw that it had rained and it had covered my car in dirt and leaves from the tree it was parked under. I then had to drive it another 300 miles back home. So the question is (and I think I know the answer but don't want to come to the realization) do I need to;

1.) Sand it all the way back down and start from scratch

2.) Sand the top layer off and respray filler primer and sand that back down

3.) Or wash off the dirt and leaves and spray my base/clear.

The problem here is that primer is porous like a sponge and even thogh we wet sand the primer its not in the wet stage too long as we dry it or bake it sometimes seal the primer and then go to paint.I f the car came to my shop I would tell the customer to start all over again knowing that you have a solid foundation to start with and not have the car come back with problems.the best thing to do is if anyone feels that they are not ready to paint the car right away always seal it in an epoxy primer it seals out the water,great sealer and if you missed a spot to do bodywork go right over the epoxy and when ready to paint a good scuff,prep,tac and paint.

Congrats on the wedding. It just goes to show you "Love Is Blind" A Limo would have been the way to go but now #1 Sounds like the best answer. At least you already have something against the new Wife :-) Good Luck with your new life, new wife and of course your new prep/paint.

Cool cars and weddings go hand in hand IMO, Limos are for people who like Limos... Congrats on the marriage and good luck! Fifteen years ago I had a candy purple 69 Nova SS to leave the church in and the rest of the wedding party was in a mid eighties Monte SS and a Candy Blue 81 Monte all painted by me. It made for some awesome additions to the memories from that day and an excellent video. Although passing champagne through the car windows at highway speed was foolish/stupid it was all caught on film and we had a great time. The local law didn't mind tire smoke on that day.

As far as the primer contamination goes, what exact products were used on the car? If you've got epoxy primer over the bare metal you'll be safe corrosionwise, and if the surfacer is a urethane you'll only need to sand some of the surface off, apply another coat and final sand for paint.

I'm not a paint chemical expert, but I believe the only porosity issues with primer is for the old laquer primer. I'm sure you used some sort of 2K primer in which case I would scuff and shoot. I can't imagine the base metal being contaminated to the point it needs to be taken back to bare metal. Just my .02 but I'm sure others will help as well.

Primer is cheap and there is acid in the leafs, so I would take out a cheap insurance policy and strip it down and reprime jmo

After I took it down to bare metal I sprayed an epoxy sealant on to seal up the metal before the urethane filler primer. Will the dirt (or even the car wash soap) contaminate the filler primer no matter how well I wash it off? and will it keep the paint from adhering?