I am going to hire my girlfriend's high school aged brother and keep him busy for the rest of the summer working on my 65' PV and getting it ready for body work and paint. I want to pay him for about 120 hours worth of labor over the course of about 6 weeks. He is a smart guy and works hard, so I am hoping to make some headway on this project and for my money go towards his goal of saving up for a car. I would like to add that my end goal for the PV is a respectable daily driver done with my college sized budget with most of the work done by the two of us with help from our local Volvo gurus. The car has some rust issues and I will try to include some photos in a subsequent post to show you what I am working with.

I talked with Shannon about it today (sdewolfe around these parts) and he suggested a panel by panel approach to stripping and priming. I have a 5" electric DA sander (Porter Cable 7424XL) that I just ordered sandpaper for. I purchased 25 each of 40 grit, 100 grit, and 180 grit paper. I also sourced suitable simi-rigid backing plates and dust masks.

A couple of questions:

1.) What can we use as a suitable stand to work on each piece? Ive seen the body shop folding stands, but I sure someone on the board might have a more cost effective and sturdy solution that keeps the piece in place while we are working. I am wondering if the best bet is to leave the panel in place for some of the work and then remove it for the corners and such.

2.) What should I treat the bare metal with before I prime? There is an overwhelming amount of information regarding this on the web and I need some suggestions. Keep in mind: I am in Houston, the birth place of humidity.

3.) I do not have a powerful air compressor, so I can not shoot the primer on. I think this rules out all the PPG DLP stuff I've read about. What is a good primer that I can roll on piece by piece and will be compatible with a decent paint? Is this a bad approach as I will be putting body filler over this primer later?

4.) What is the best way to tackle the rust and bondo issues we are sure to discover? Should we just poke the bondo out and start over or sand it smooth and just go with it? I assume the later, but don't want problems down the road. When we encounter substantial rust, what is the best policy for containment until I can get the body shop to weld in new pieces. The rear of inside lip of the trunk is non-existent, but oddly the spare wheel well is pretty solid. The floors look good enough too.

Whew, this was a long one, but I need some serious direction. Thanks!

Tyler