[niles]

First; find your local paint suppliers; not auto or bondo dealers.
The paint wholesalers are always in industrial type building off the main street!
I spent several months seeking these guys out and picking their brains and got great expert advise and I would'nt change a thing that I did based on my "reconing"
1. Get a pro board (about 15 in long) that takes the body strip paper.
1a. Buy a knock off of a good top fed spray gun; about $100. It was so much better that my old 20 yr old Binks, that I threw it out.
2. Sand the bare body twice as long as you think; don't worry so much about mold line(they take care of themselves) get the contours smooth and sand on lines always at 45 deg from contour.
3. Start with a quart of "expensive" black epozy primer. The stuff is great it oozes into all those pip holes that are invisible. I thought I had filled all of them. After the epozy about 300 appeared.
4. For filler I recommend, Rage gold. I went through two gals of the stuff.
5 Get high quality light colored high build primer; shoot two heavy wet coats, start block sanding and you will see the black coming thru on the high spots. Repeat, sand repeat, fill, prime, repeat, repeat,etc.
6 After about 80 hrs of wet sanding, you will magically develope an eye and you can start seeing how bad it is. Your now on your way to get it right.

Is it worth the time? YOUR BET, the paint is the first thing everybody notices and its real neat when the comments come; who did your paint and prep; you can say I did. It was the most time consuming and most rewarding. You just can't get impatient or do well on a tight schedule.
Shoot me a PM if you need more or encouagement
gn