Hey everyone, Ive just spent the last few hours reading through the stickys and through various other threads. Im in the process of repainting my 1983 K10. Ive decided I want this to be as nice as possible so Im taking my time and trying to gain as much knowledge as possible. Ive been going to my local auto paint store and i have been lisening to the owners word very carefully. As directed by him i purchased "sem world class dtm primer" to use over the bare metal. His advice to me was to sand this with 200, 400, 600. Fill as needed with the dolphin putty he sold me and then shoot Bc/Cc. After reading the stickys Ive com to the conclusion that Im missing many steps here to get a good looking base to lay my paint down that will last a and will be straight. Any advice?

I'm no expert, but for openers you'd need to prime over your filler, then guide coat and sand to get everything level and straight.

For now I've been sanding my initial two coats with 200 grit, and with the use of a guide coat I've found low spots and high spots. Unfortunately I also found a big area of bondo that I missed before. Wile sanding I've also burned through to bare metal. Do I apply filler now? Then respray my primer?

When you want it perfect it takes a few more steps. There are a number of ways to do this so I'll give you mine and then if others provide something better in your opinion do it their way.

Strip to bare metal.
Do any metal patching, welding, hammer and dolly work.
Sand with 80 grit on a DA to provide scratch.
Shoot two coats of black epoxy primer (inside and out) (inside of fenders and underside can be left this way or apply an undercoating material)
Wait 24 hours and then lightly block sand the epoxy primer. This will reveal any low spots that need attention.
Apply filler where needed and feather into epoxy primer (no need to sand the epoxy primer before the filler as long as you are in the recoat window of the epoxy primer)
Spray three coats of 2k build primer once filler work is done.
Block sand this wit 80 grit until you start to see the black epoxy primer show through.
Spray three more coats of 2k build primer.
Apply guide coat and block sand with 180 - 220 just until guide coat is gone.
Apply more guide coat and wet sand with 400 grit just until guide goat is gone.
For metallic or pearl paints I suggested you repeat the above step with 600 grit.