[knomadd]

First let me say I'm not a paint and body expert. It's been a while since I did this for a job, and it wasn't for very long. I've done a little for my own projects on the side, but I'm no professional. And this will be LONG... sorry for that, but it's necessary if you have no idea. If you have some idea, this may be a waste of time. I hope this helps, even if only a little.

Second, good job getting all the spray paint off. That's a major item in my experience.

I would have to say the answer to your questions is purely up to how confident you are in your ability, and how deep your pockets are. If you're a confident guy and feel like you can tackle almost anything, go for it. It's not terribly difficult, but it does take a lot of patience and time, and it also takes a touch to get it really really nice. But, if you're not sure you can do it, you'll need to weigh the cost of a body shop to do the labor vs your confidence or determination on what you want done. You can always go by a shop and talk to them and see if they can give you a quote, or some ideas of what products to use. Be up front with them. Tell them what you're after, driver quality, show quality, somewhere in between? Ask them if they'd paint it for you after you've done the bodywork, or if you can start that process and have them finish it, then paint it? Not all shops want to deal with classics, so if they give you a hard time, move on. Find a shop with someone you can talk to and feel confident in. Once you have that, it should be pretty easy to figure out where you want to go from there.

If you do it yourself, you need to be sure anything you put on the sheet metal will stick and not flake off. If anything flakes, especially the first layer, you'll be taking it all back off again.

You will be sanding everything many times, so patience is a NECESSITY. Sand, sand, sand, sand, sand, then sand some more. Reapply filler and sand, sand, sand, sand, reapply, sand, sand, sand, and keep sanding. Every coat of whatever you put on. Do not put a coat of filler over another coat if you haven't first sanded it out. Once you feel good about your filler, finish it off with a glaze/finish filler, sand that too, then you can prime it. You can always add filler again if your primer didn't fill any imperfections, but you don't want more than 1/4" of filler overall. Too much filler will crack over time. If you need more than that to fix an imperfection, you'll need to do some metal working before adding any filler.

Once you have sanded your primer and recoated, sanded some more and feel good about your work, take it to your shop/painter. They can take if further or just scuff and shoot (if they'll do that). That is completely up to you and the shop. Just be sure to check with whatever shop you want to use if they'll do what you want, before you do any more work. Some shops wont touch another guys work (it's not too common, but still happens). If they will, ask what products they use or recommend, and if there are any products you can't use if they are to paint it. If they don't know, don't use that shop. Any painter worth a penny will know what products they use and at least tell you to stick with those products.

That's about all I have. Just know, the body work is roughly 90% of the cost of a shop providing a paint job. The more you do yourself, the cheaper that shop's bill will be.