Novice paint questions, ChromaBase color sanding Options

[Rleog]

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First, thanks to the pro's who frequent this board. Your suggestions to many have been invaluable as I progress with my projects. With regard to painting and posts on this board, I've seen Scotty's silver 930 work of art, and can only add that, for $12,000, that owner got a steal. I've also seen Eliot's adventure with orange peal, which evidently was due to bad paint. Please bear with me if my questions have been answered previously, and I haven't encountered them.

After stripping my car to bare metal and prepping, I sprayed etching primer, then sandable primer. When it was time for color, the DuPont ChromaBase went on thickly and resulted in coarse orange peal, coarse enough to make Eliot jealous. I figured that I'd have to start over. It was the last warm weekend of fall and I had no time then to sand down and spray another day, so I left the metal protected by my coarse paint job. I did not spray clear over it.

This summer, a body shop owner whom I chanced across told me to try color sanding and see where I would get. I've sanded 400, 600 , then 1000 grit, and now have a vastly improved smooth surface but have broken through to primer in several areas.

My questions:

1. Can I spray more color over the newly sanded color surface, and, if yes, what grit should I sand with before shooting more color?

2. There are a couple of areas where I'd like to do better prep of surface irregularities. I'm assuming that I'll have to go down to bare metal to hammer/dolly and/or body fill these areas, then go through the etch, prime, color process again. Body filler like Bondo should not be applied over color or primer, then a sealer attempted before final color coat. Correct?

Thanks in advance. I have incredible respect for you painting artisans.