rocker panel refinish

[mlm0]

On my 89, the rocker panels are in a need of re-finishing from the owner before me driving on too many Texas gravel roads. My car is a very dark gray, almost black in color. I was thinking of spraying on some type of rock guard, bed liner, and then the gray paint over that, followed by clear coat. I am looking for some thought on the subject. I don't know any thing about body repair or painting, but I want to do it myself, just to say I did it. There appears to be no deep damage, just lots of rock chips. Can I just sand it so the chips are feathered, hit it with some filler primer and then spray coating. I can't sand coating, so I would just spray color, then clear coat. If I don't use coating, do I sand primer before I spray color?

 

[WhalePirot]

There are paintable coatings as you seek; have seen it on some P/U truck running boards. I recommend finding and following their instructions carefully. With that typically rough finish, I doubt you'd require much sanding of the chips for the usual fine finish desired elsewhere.

I tried smallish 'mud-flaps' which did little to protect the paint behind the wheels.

You might consider a 'clear bra' type material for that area; had decent result and appearance with it on the nose of our first 745Li. It won't help for huge, sharp rocks, being essentially a plastic. I like the hardness of epoxy paints, which are hard to find in our Air-Quality-Nazi zone.

Mercedes has an optional paint that is real hard and works quite well, I hear, for preventing chips in the paint of the frontal areas, but it is pricey!