body work, what to do?

If you have no experiance with body work, I assume you have none of the tools either. If your car has rust, just sanding will not remove it. It will need to be blasted or cut out and patched...or replaced totally. If you do decide to sand it down yourself...doing it by hand will give you arms like Popeye and will take you forever. So...to "just sand it down and put some prmer on her", you will need: sanders, sand paper, air compressor, spray gun, trim tools to remove chrome trim...and then tape, making paper, primer, reducer, activator, resporator (primer is not good to breath in). In most areas it is illegal to paint outside...and then when you take it to your bodyshop they will take it all back off to start their bodywork. Your best bet is to save your money and just have the shop do the whole job. You will be happier and get a better job. In my shop, I have done quite a few cars that were strated by the owner and needed to be completely done over because they did not do things the right way. So...my suggestion, put a barrier type of paint on the rust (like Master coat, POR 15, rust encapsulator.etc.) and save up for the body shop.