Etching Primer and Paint Gun? Options

[9fourteen]

Before I start cutting into the longs and hell hole I was thinking about sand blasting the whole area first to see what I have and then prime it before making the repairs. (eventually I am going to strip the whole tub. just doing it in sections) I already bought a blaster from eastwood. Now I need to get setup for painting so I can prime it immediately after stripping it. I have made a list of the main things I need to buy. I think I got most of it figured out but have questions on the primer and a good paint gun. I have never sprayed paint so any advice is welcome or if there is something i need to add to my list, let me know.

Here is a list of what I think I will need

paint gun
etching primer
fresh air respirator
hood
throw away coveralls
gloves
metal prep

I am sure I will need stuff to mix the paint with. The paint shop guys will help with that.

I am also going to build a chamber to limit the mess from the blasting and over spray in my garage.

I went to the local paint shop and they sell three brands of etching primer, nason, ppg and dupont. They are in order of price. Nason appears to be a low priced dupont brand. It's about half the price. Can I use the cheap stuff or should I stick with the ppg or dupont. Obviously I want to save money but I don't have a problem buying the right stuff if it is worth it and will work better. Actual suggestion items numbers would be welcome.

I was also looking at paint guns. They had a nice 2 gun set from DeVilbiss, one for priming, one for painting, i think it was around $200. They had other guns that were half the price or lower. I think i have read on here that the DeVilbiss guns are the best. (or at least in somebody's opinion they were). Is it worth the extra money or will I get the same results with the cheap gun?

thanks

I know everybody likes post with pictures so here is one.

[rick 918-S]

I've posted this here before but I will mow this lawn again. First etch primer was brought about as a patch for a problem with adhesion. When car manufacturers started stamping econo boxes out of HSLA steel the standard refinishing materials no longer worked. The steel was thinner and much harder. In order to achive a machanical bond with HSLA steel you would need the equivalent of a 36 grit scratch. This obviously wouldn't work as this would cut half way through the panel in the thinner steel.

Hence the need for a chemical bond of the substrates. Because of the hotter solvents the old soft coatings couldn't prevent wicking and instant expansion, release and wrinkling of these old soft products.

So, If you are working on a car that has a repaint you will need to strip off all the soft product before applying any new modern substrates or top coats.

Another issue the factories had was when the EPA mandated the use of low VOC's they use a hot self etching sealer to lock a paintable surface to the HSLA steel. The probem came in when they base coat with it's weak low VOC solvent flashed too fast to get a grip on the sealer. We repaints dozens of these cars as the paint pealed off like reptile skin.