Some 20 years ago, my little brother painted some stripes on his car using old house paint and a paint brush. It looked like craap and I still make fun of him to this day for doing something so hillbilly. But now after reading these posts and seeing the results you all have posted, I'm seriously concidering trying this on my truck. I've read this current version of this thread from the beginning, but still have some questions.

My 86 ram has some pretty bad surface rust problems, including a left front fender that has a pretty big rust hole and a left rocker panel that has a small hole. I have a fender to replace with that has been stripped to bare metal and needs just some minor massaging.

A local body/paint guy here suggested that I sand everthing with 180 grit to knock down the rust, then use an epoxy primer to seal it. A quart of epoxy primer and a quart of the catalyst will cost me about $60, so I'm concidering other options, that being rustoleum. I checked at the local Home Depot and the quarts are going for about $8. There was also a rustoleum clean metal primer and a rusty metal primer.

My current thinking is to do like the body guy said and sand the truck with 180 paper, then covering the whole truck and the good fender with the rusty metal primer, mainly because I'm not going to buy a quart of primer just to do one fender. What is everyones opinion about that? Does that sound like the right thing to do?

Another issue is that I will be doing some minor bondo work, which will require more sanding and primering. Can I do the bondo work over the rusto primer or do I need to take it down to bare metal first? Then when I'm doing the bondo work and trying to smooth it out, should I use the rusto primer or use the rattle can primers to sand with then finish with the rusto? I had planned on using a hvlp gun to spray the paint, will that work for the primer also?

Thanks to everyone for your opinions. I hope my truck will look as good as what y'all have done.