This is my fault. I hung a door on my 1974 Trans Am with a really nice, tight gap between the door and the fender. When I loaded the door with the power windows and power door locks they sagged just enough for the door to make contact with the fender when opening and break the paint.

I'll fix the gap issue but my question to the pros here is what's the right set of steps for fixing this and repainting the door?

Being a white you may be able to get away with panel painting it. When was it painted and with what? I would guess it's single stage by the pic, but could be wrong.

Buy the paint and do a spray out first!
Feather the damage out, spray epoxy primer, spray basecoat (or single stage) then clear it. You're better off doing the entire door.

Of course this can change if there's color match issues.

If you are having a hard time matching it spray base on the damage and you'll need to blend the fender and the door then clear both panels completely.

There shouldn't be a matching problem. I'll have base coat from the original gallon we painted the car with. This is a fresh repaint. The base clear is Tamco base and 2104 clear.

I will be able to paint the entire door. So that's not a problem.

How far back do I sand it? What steps/grades of sandpaper do folks recommend? I figure I'll scuff the entire panel with 600 grit and then respray with base/clear. Sound about right?

Yes, that’s fine for prep - but you have a small repair to take care of obviously, by feathering around the damage, and primering over any breaks through clearcoat. You may be able to just apply base around the repair - but if you are more confident just rebasing the entire door don’t let me steer you off that plan.

Sand the damage down with 80, then 150-180, then prime then block with 180 then 220 then 400. I'm guessing Tamco is ok going over 400 scratches. Just make sure you can't feel any changes from the damage to the paint.

Also, I'd back tape that gap or your going to get primer in the jamb. Sorry if that seems obvious, didn’t want to leave anything out.

No need for apologies. I've done exactly 2 paint jobs in my life. A single stage on another car I owned and this one. So I need all the advice I can get.

I did intend to back tape. I'll have to get the wife and her little hands in a few places but she's a good sport about it. And I bought her a couple of nice Christmas presents so maybe I'll be safe.

Fresh white.....should be a good easy fix. Nothing like doing a garage door hit right in the front middle of a fiberglass tilt nose..... truck had coasted about a quarter inch forward after my cut and buff. Old manual garage door lock was sticking out just enough......

I am curious ?????
Does that go all the way to Bare metal?
Hard to tell from the flash in that Pic but it appears to be down to bare metal?

As I recall You had stripped that whole car down to bare metal and applied Epoxy to begin with, then did all the primer work your self before having some one else help you you Paint it in a real booth and then you still ended up spraying some of the Base clear on some small parts yourself. This was a very Meticulous build you were very careful in what and how you did things.

If I am correct in the above I would like to know WHY the Epoxy failed and not stay adhered to the panel to protect the metal? this damage would not be much different than any other normal Rock Chip the front end will take during normal driving conditions.

Dennis, the amount of torque at that spot when the door is pinched by the fender is thousands of times more than a rock chip even at 60 MPH. No surprise it carved whatever was there, off.

I wondered about it as well. I did some sanding today and as I feathered it back you could see the epoxy was thin right on that edge. Also, as Chris noted, the way that thing pinched was like taking knife blade to the edge with a ton of stress on it. Kind of like hooking a fingernail under it and flicking it back. As I sanded everything else looks pretty solid so I'm not going to sweat it.