have some Questions for body and painting experts

[beetlecrx]

Im having a few problems deciding what to do, im getting conflicting opinions on what to do and how to do things, first off i have a 74 super beetle with some minor boby rust showing , i plan on doing the body work myself and hopefully the priming & painting, do i need to go down to bare metal, or just sand and fix the rust spots showing, if i go to bare metal do i put epoxy primer then any body filler or the filler under the epoxy, also if i dont sand to bare metal can you still you epoxy primer over the old paint, i plan on using a single stage urethane , also would a 30 gallon compressor be good enough to do any painting, sorry for so many questions but i want to do thing right and i am getting different opinions on how to go about this, any help would be appreciated

[HomespunKustom]

rust can lurk underneath the paint. If you have some already at the surface, i would venture a guess that there is more where that came from. Before going all out, check a small area where rust is showing and see if it goes beyond what is out right now. that will give you a better idea of what you are up against. Any pics?
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[diy570]

first you have to ask yourself how far you actually wanna go with the project. dont get in over your head. do you want a show car or a nice driver. are you asking if you should strip the entire car to bare metal? i wouldnt unless the car has been repainted a couple times and the old paint has poor adhesion, lots of checking, etc. you can use filler over bare metal or over epoxy primer that you have applied onto bare metal. 30 gallon doesnt really tell you much about your compressor, what are the cfm ratings? being a 30 gallon im sure its fine, but without knowing what make/model its hard to tell.

[ROBVERT]

DO NOT* GO TO BARE METAL UNLESS NEEDED! SINCE YOU ARE A BEGINNER WORK WITH WHAT YOU HAVE-GRIND- DO BONDO FIRST THEN SEAL EVERYTHING WITH A QUALITY PRIMER- YOUR COMPRESSOR WILL MOS LIKELY WORK FOR EVERYTHING BUT PAINTING -COMPLETE- CARS

[willz0072002]

i have been using a craftsman 25 gallon at 45psi for years...professionally in my garage...works fine...

[Big Jim]

I think I'll have to side with HomespunKustom on this one. If you see some rust, there is a lot of rust. Maybe not severe but you need to deal with it. I'd strip it all down or, at the very least, a half a foot into solid metal anyplace there is a hint of rust. If this is going to be a bit of a long term project, strip to bare metal and apply a coat of epoxy primer. You can do that a section at a time and the primer will protect you from rust as you go along. Do your rust repair, you can bondo over the epoxy. When you are all done with the body work, scuff sand the whole car and shoot another coat of epoxy primer. That will seal and protect all your body repairs.