You da man! Thanks for all the time & advice. Now to reread 10 times and let this soak for a few before more questions....
Anyone have any aspirin?
yeah, hey my apologies... here's one more for ya to constempate...
I'm waiting for the day when someone gets me babbling about sandpaper folding....
I'll just leave a couple more now that I get the feel for what your doing... I would definitely advise at this point if you are going to throw a couple coats of primer at the whole rig, that you be a fair bit more aggressive with the DA work.... primer likes to be applied to stuff in the 220 range, even 180.... so i'd be buying a roll of 220 and going off....
as far as what to look for in your bodywork.... in a situation like that you are looking to get most of the rig to whatever layer is coming up as the best overall. that could be the factory paint, or it could be it's primer, with some raw metal, and factory paint mixed in here and there... the idea is to limit the amount of featheredging you have going on..... palomino pony = bad juju..
that's a situation where guys get in trouble with a DA.. they get all on the edge cuz it cuts quicker, than they get a "step" in the paint transition... and that shows thru your coats.. FLATPAD, FLATPAD, FLATPAD guys... sure kill the paper edged up to plow into some stuff... but when your featheredging, and finishing up the panel, big no-no... heck, my one collision shop boss had banned DA's in the shop, and made ya use palm sanders for all that.. it's much safer, foolproof method... albeit much slower....
I generally like to get it most to the factory primer, that's usually a great substrate for new primer......
as far as how that affects your "worry about rusting" .. i would approach it as.. "ok, leave myself a couple hr's at the end of the day to prime. get as far i can till 1 pm, than clean up and get ready to prime".... it may be the kind of deal where you prep a whole side, but the hoods taking some time to sand... leave the other side for the next weekend and get this spot primed deals...
first thing i'd be looking at is what kind/brand of primer you are going to run.... any fill primer will do... you can thin it a bit, to make a sealer too.. I would prolly look at epoxy as it'll help with the raw steel.... epoxy tends to stick to raw a bit better than urethane, and sands nearly as well...