So my Kombi recently came out of the body shop getting major rust taken out.

Now for paint. Im running a tad tight for money, and since the coming paint job will definitely not be final i was wondering... is primer/undercoat/highfill utterly necessary?

At this point im not extremely worried about having a flat/perfect body as i plan on painting it with fun design/s and just sealing over it. The kombi is painted, and the spots where work was done has been covered with primer so there is no bare metal.

So the plan is... art -> seal. Do i need Highfill -> primer -> art -> seal?

will rust come in if i DONT highfill/primer?

any help is VERY appreciated.

Yes you need to coat the metal.
Primer coats the metal temporarily so topcoat will stick, not to cover imperfections
Hi Fill is a primer and is designed to fill imperfections and be rubbed ready for topcoat

No Primer will not last in the open air, it is porous

Yes rust will come, all steel will rust

The best soloution is to epoxy coat the entire bare metal or porous surfaces. Epotec Barrier 408 is not expensive and has proven itself well. It is carcinogenic, two part epoxy primer that sticks to EVERYTHING.

All bare metal is already covered with either top coat from the car pre-body shop or primer from post-body shop. Do I need to highfill it ontop of that? I asked a panel beater and he said that I would need to use the highfill to stop "pinholed areas" from getting rust; thats true or not quite?

Nothing stops rust ever on steel, apart from Epoxy primer or Top coat done days after primer. If non epoxy primer is left for more than 3 days, it is not technically rust proof.

There are hundreds of ways to do things and most will last for a short amount of time. Quality and time costs money.

As above I have used Epotec epoxy its the only thing to use if your not topcoating within a couple of days

Awesome, thats exactly what i needed Just some more reliable advice/information. Cant hurt to get a second opinion.

Thank you so much for helping me with this, i know its simple but yeah, im new to this whole thing.