started to take off the old paint and rust off of the body panels of my 78 blazer and was wondering what kind of automotive primer paint to use and where to get it. I dont want to use the old rattle can this time around. Any suggestions???

The type of primer to use depends on the paint you are going to use.. the best way to buy paint and primer is to get them at the same time so the salesman can make sure that they ar compatable..

You want a tintable catalyzed primer. It is as good as paint so if you never get past this step you are covered. Lacquer privers will let water through and will still rust eventually (Im sure you have seen this on a vehicle) catalyzed primers will not. The problem with catalyzed is it starts to harden as soon as you mix it (well not that fast) but you can only mix what you plan on using otherwise it will harden in the paint gun then you need a new gun.

When you sand catalyzed primer it sands great just becomes a powder great to work with when you are ready to get ready for paint and it can be applied pretty thick to help cover up flaws. Good primer I have worked with are:

Glasurit High Solids
BASF Automotive Refinish has introduced Glasurit® 285-60 Universal High-Solids Primer Filler for Wet Sanding, a versatile new VOC-compliant product designed for use under the Glasurit 55 Line basecoat/clearcoat, 22 Line single-stage,

PPG has K200 whick is also very nice to work with.

I have to agree with Joker. Depending on how much rust and if you want a show room finish or not I would use a primer sealer for bare metal spots then go over the entire vehicle with a high build epoxy primer. This allows you to sand out small nicks
and scratches (how good you want to go is up to you) big dents should be ground down to bare metal or very close then bondoed or kitty haired. Then apply primer sealer, hi build epoxy, topcoat. Make sure you sand all "orange peel" out of the primer
If you want a quality finish. I would start with 220 grit sandpaper then 320 then smooth it down with 400 grit. and apply topcoat and clearcoat or just your topcoat.

As I live in Canada I'm not sure if these products are available to the U.S. market
Dupont paint, PPG, Endura, Sikkens and International or Interlux are all good products
I'm paticular to Endura my self mainly cause I use it every day at work and I like how it sprays. Endura's primer is a two component epoxy primer with their topcoat being
a two component polyurathane. (liquid plastic) Although I'm not in the automotive spraying industry the paints and techniques are. (I sandblast and paint oilfield equipment)

I hope this helped if you decided you want to use Endura Email me with your number and I could give you a gallon of hi build
primer and if your not to picky about a colour a gallon of topcoat free but it would get shipped on your dollar.

thanks guys for the info. I'm doing some more research online with the suggested products and hope to make up my mind soon. thanks again!!!!

Also if you dont have a paint gun yet, make sure you get a gravity fed gun you will save lots of paint. They work with lower air pressure which means more going on the vehicle less floating around the room.