Hey guys,
I've been reading things on these forums considering painting my 89 Honda CRX autocross car myself this spring. It's nothing more than an autocross car that never sees snow or rain, and lives in the garage on a battery charger when not at an autocross event, so paint doesn't need to be anything great (doesn't make it go around corners faster!) It had some rocker panel rust, so I cut all that out and welded a new rocker in this winter, which is why I now want to clean up the old battered paint job and getting it looking decent. I was honestly going to go to Maaco, they would paint the car with a single stage scratch and spray job for $450 out the door right now (including sanding,masking, seal, spray) but after stopping at a local paint shop and pricing some shop line plus stuff, It would probably cost me around $600 in supplies when all is said and done, so a few questions...

The car has two spots of bare metal, the new rocker panel, and the sunroof panel. Otherwise some small dents around the car that I plan to work out and then fill using evercoat rage. Here was my plan of attack, looking for advice if i'm using the right products in the right order for what i'm trying to achieve, or if there is any steps/products anyone here would recommend adding along the way (like any adhesion promoters needed for the bumpers?)

-Scratch entire car
-Epoxy primer over bare panels (sunroof and rocker)
-2K primer surfacer, whole car (JP202)
-Shopline plus base (JBP)
-Shopline clear (JC630,based on price and air dry friendly)

I have a decent shop to work in, decent HVLP guns to use, decent compressor, and a bunch of the tools and materials needed already which makes me tempted to not be lazy and hand it to Maaco and do a half decent job that will last a good couple years (especially how little sun/weather the car sees)

Thanks in advance!

In a nutshell, yes your plan in pretty well the basics of what you'll be doing. As you stated, you're going to start by sanding the entire car down, I'd recommend 320 for the initial scuff. The areas where you'll be doing filler work, you'll want to prep for filler with ~80 grit.

Epoxy the bare metal spots, and you can epoxy your filler too if you'd like but your surfacer will work there too.

After you've primed the whole car with your build Primer, you'll want to dust on a guide coat . then you'll block the car out and problem areas will be brought to your attention.

Once you have the body straight and ready for paint, I would Seal it using a MP series sealer. I've never used the Shopline Clears, but all of PPG clears lay down nicely if you know what you're doing.

You'll have better more durable results if you pay attention and do your homework; doing it yourself versus taking it to the M word!