Go out there one Saturday and scuff the entire car, mask it real carefully and paint the entire thing with a single good coat of flat black primer or hot rod black.  That way, you can take your time later and do one panel at a time, finishing the completed panel in flat black.  At least the entire car will match for the year it takes you to get it done one piece at a time.  You sacrifice one coat of black in order to have the entire car one color at all times.  Flat black hides defects, so you won't notice that much difference between the ratty parts and the perfect, completed parts.

Or do like Mr Tim, my friend Mike and I did to my 70 Mustang convertible many years ago.  The car was three different colors when I bought it.  I went to the paint store and bought 2 gallons of slightly different red enamels, then mixed the two together.  We sanded the car with 400, just enough to scuff it up.  Did not remove any emblems or chrome trim or anything else.  The car was painted and back on the road in EIGHT HOURS.  It was shiny red and all one color and, from 20 feet away, people thought it was a nice restored car.  What started out as my plan to just have it one color while I worked on it wound up lasting four years as a daily driver, then getting sold for a profit.  That paint job was great because I could drive the car anywhere without worrying about hurting the paint.  And it still looked pretty good.

Or, take it all apart and get to work, and be able to drive it again in two to three years, or maybe, like my recent F-100 fiasco, NEVER SEE IT TOGETHER AGAIN.

Depends on what you want the end result to be.  It's impossible to have a show car, or even a nice daily driver without taking the car apart.  If you don't want a perfect finish or a color change, do as Steve says and scuff it, (I would add that spraying a sealer before paint would be a wise move) and shoot it with a single state.  Your paint will only look as good as your masking care though.

If you start any bodywork,meaning bondo work you  have to remember that anything NOT professional grade that you topcoat it with will have to be sanded off later.  Most of the professional products (primer, epoxy, bondo, sealer) that you use to get a car ready to paint are not UV resistant.  That means you must paint within a window specified by the manufacturer or these products will turn to dust.  Also you simply can't 'handle' any of these finishes and expect to get the oils and debris off to paint it later.
 

If its a fastback I would take all the chrome off, lights and trim and take it to a professional that you know and trust and have it done right. 

Steve69

rmousir wrote:

nope.  my car isn't a fastback.. its not a show car its a driver and when I have it out, I drive it hard.

I have some info and pictures of my car here http://budgetrestomod.weebly.com/index.html

I think I will get the rear discs done this spring and a new radiator and schroud for this summer. 

I'm really tempted to just pull off the front end and do the cowl repairs needed.. then strip and SPI epoxy prime all of the front end parts.. But then if I put the windsheild back in after, I should also put in a new head liner.. which means pulling the back window.. and so on.  Its going to snow ball into a huge project.  I'm not sure I'm up for that right now.. but I could just keep it SPI Epoxy and work from front to back of the car and keep the car on the road.     HMMMMM.. such a tough call.

I bought mine as a 6cyl car with a decent shiny red paint job with the plan to convert it to a V8 and then make the body perfect. Ten years later its a V8 5spd with the same decent 20footer body and several 2nd place trophies from local car shows.