I am just about to begin tackle the body work and I am wondering how much paint do I need to remove before a primer of any sort is applied. There is a few coats of paint on the body and a few areas that need some filler and patch panels. Do I need to strip the entire car down to the metal or can I sand down the old paint and use a building primer to feather the "low" areas? I am thinking I may just take it down to bare metal. Any advise would be appreciated. Thanks.

Mike

best bet is bare metal.. Do a panel at a time, finish your metalwork then scuff again then prime.. if you work each body panel till it is ready for prime you won't get behind and have surface rust start forming..

Do as Normie says. Strip all the way, and you will know whats underneath, and you wont have problems with different paints interacting with each other. And you wont waste time trying to feather it all together. I did a car, one panel at a time using aircraft stripper, cleaned it well afterwards with lacquer thinner then epoxy primed, repaired and then high build primed , and then block sand.

X3.......get it to bare metal without a doubt.

I was thinking the same thing, but wasn't sure being this is my first restoration project. As for the primer, I have been told to use an etching primer. I know everyone has their preferences on this, but what would be the best product to use on bare metal? Do I want a high build primer? Obviously I want something that will fill and can be sanded, am I correct? Thanks for all the input.

Mike

Epoxy primer on bare metal is best. Etching primer is old school technology. You'll need to sand the bare metal with 80 grit to provide "tooth" for the epoxy to grip. You can put filler on top of epoxy primer, then the high-build primer goes on the filler and/or epoxy primer. After blocking/priming/blocking it straight, a couple coats of sealer readies it for paint.