stripping to bare metal

I plan to start stripping my dart down to bare metal using chemical and mechanical means. I don't foresee there being any quick progression into panel replacement, body work then paint and don't want to strip to bare metal then have to go over the car again later on because of surface rust from sitting. I think I should prime the bare metal after I have it stripped. My shop is not air equipped at the moment to buy a quality primer and shoot the car myself. Would rattle can primer be a total no no as I am looking for a top quality paint job down the road. It is a cliche but I know a great paint job begins with a solid foundation and I don't want to work again myself. I don't have a paint/body man picked out just yet so I cannot consult with him just yet about what he'd like done. Research seems to bring up the popularity of epoxy primer in today's projects, but read epoxy is a bugger to work with as is clogs sand paper easily. For those of you that have traveled down the road...can you give me some insight? I would like to do as much of the manual work to help in cost saving (and so I be as much of the build progress as possible) but also don't want to work against myself costing me more cash and headaches down the road.

Thanks,
Ryan