If I were to sand my car's paint down to it's primer gray (no rust), take off anything I didnt want painted, washed the whole car and put it in to the body shop, would that be enough prepping that the body shop would just have to put on the paint and clearcoat? or am I missing a step in the prepping process? (I think I may have to wet sand it at some point but I don't know when) any help would be greatly appreciated, thanx! Cuz I am on a pretty slim budget...:hail:

 

this all depends on what youre doing...
if youre not changing the color on the car you can sand down everything (usually to 400 grit, and feather-edge any body filler) and then the body shop usually sprays a coat of veriprime, then regular primer, and then basecoat and clearcoat (mostlikely youre going to get a bc/cc paintjob)
if youre changing the color of the car, and would like to do so properly,you have to sand whatever gets painted down to 400 , you have to take the doors off, paint the doors and door jambs the color your changing to, and also paint the engine bay along with the body of the car itself. its alot of work, and usually people who just want the car a different color go the cheap way and just paint the body and whatnot..thats why you see a black car with red door jambs and what have you. but to answer your question, unless youre spraying veriprime/primer yourself, the body shop wont be able to just paint the car.

 

may i suggest trying a technical high school or high school body shop to do your stuff..they paint it for the price of paint..around 100-300 bucks depending on what you want..