I recently complete a novice body repair and paint this winter. I really want to stress "novice" aspect of my work.

I started out by using a $13 4" angle grinder that I picked up at Rural King. I am very happy with my purchase, because I not only used it to grind away larger areas of rust but also bought a couple cutting wheels for it and used it to cut out bad sheet metal and new metal for patches. Areas that I could not reach with the grinder I used a $20 sandblaster that I got from TSC. I purchased a 50lb bag of blasting material from Menards for like $3 and went to town. I dumped the material in a 5 gallon bucket and put the siphon hose of the sand blaster in the bucket and connected the other to the air compressor. I will say that the blasting material gets everywhere!! I recommend wearing glasses, ear plugs, a hat, something hooded, tucking in your shirt, and taller boots that can be covered by your pant legs. Once the rust was ground, blasted, and cut away I had my father weld in new 16gadge metal that I purchased from Lowes. It may be obvious to some, but its very easy to burn through the thin metal so take it slow. After I got the big holes filled in with new metal I began applying bondo to fill in the rest of the imperfections. I will say that if you don't have much experience with the product start with small amounts, as it will start to harden faster than you think. Also look for the kind of rubber blade type applicator(found in the bondo section of your AutoZone or the like) rather than using a putty knife, putty knifes don't "give" enough. I picked up a $12 palm sander from Wal Mart and a med grit sand paper and began sanding. It was not the perfect tool, but it was cheaper than the alternative and it did and ok job. I primed with a rattle can self etching primer, and wish I would have rattle canned the paint too. Instead I bought a cheap gun for the paint from Rural King(I would say this is one tool not to skimp on). It turned out to ruin the whole fun for me. If you do go with this method make sure there is no water in your air compressor, it maintains psi, your mixture is correct in the gun, and your gun tip is clean. I would recommend just using a rattle can if you have never tried it before.

My XJ now looks better than it did, but by NO means even close to perfect. But for being my first paint job I am overall happy. It was a great learning expirience.

Taping off your windows and such is time consuming, but just be patient. Its worth taking your time. I just used blue painters tape.
-Greg