cracks my back and streches to prep for a long answer.......
hi! and welcome to the boards here. you will find it most useful, and as you are about to find out, i can be long winded when it comes to body and paint. he he he. well, lets start off here, if the body is straight, i wouldnt bother primering the areas. just some sanding with 400 wet paper would be the best before paint. if you have dents in the area repair them then primer them up with a good primer. i would stay away from any laquer primers or any primer in a spray can ( well, that is ok for temporary use only, like for a week then you are gonna sand it off again ). Preferably, id use a catalized primer for this job. PCL has one called Polyprimer thats pretty cheap and works well for this. its about $55 for a gallon or so. Money no object id go with Valspar's 21N primer. its VERY nice, but also alot of money. about $45..... for one quart. quite a difference eh? if you want to sand the paint all the way to metal, you can, i dont reccomend it inless its really necessary. by necessary, i mean like cracked paint, too many paint jobs or whatnot. if you do do that however, get an etching primer over the metal before you put the other primer over it. it will help it adhere better and provide a bit of insurance agains corrosion. you can leave the primer on there like that for a while while you do the rest of the car as long as you dont sand it and break through. if you do that it will start to absorb water and begin to rust underneath the paint. thats not fun

.there is alot to paint and body and i have fun with it. give it a shot and i think youll find it fun too. at times discouraging, but theres no more fun that people asking you who painted your car and saying " i did " . that and saving alot of cash. i did mine for about $500. multiply that about 4 or 5 times for what a shop would have charged me. and iff you look at the pics in the signature just below this, they wouldnt have disassembled it like that either

have fun with it! thats what its meant for.