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Your question could easily fill a full-day seminar. Much of what you are asking also depends on whether basecoat/clearcoat, -or single-stage 2k paints are going to be used. I am not a fan of excessive MIL thickness. Certain brands (Axalta for one) uses less pigments in their Chroma line vs. PPG in their Concept line. A gallon of Chroma Premier makes 5½ sprayable quarts as I recall whereas the Concept DCC makes 7 sprayable quarts out of a gallon of paint. Cheaper paint lines also use inferior pigments and older technology of binders. Cheap paint usually looks cheap to a trained eye. Most collision shops today only use BC/CC, so advice given by a counterman or painter may not be accurate if using single-stage 2k paint products.
Next, "primers" continually change. What we were using 5 years ago is basically outdated technology. Even sandpaper has changed. In my shop, we have pretty much phased out using paper with carbide aggregate attached (typical sandpaper) in lieu of a product called Net (-looks like screen wire in different grits). I can tell you what we use in-house however our method of 'cooking' may not suit your abilities or availability. For example, will you be prepping and epoxy coating the metal prior to starting bodywork? Will you be using fillers DTM or over the epoxy? Will you be using urethane or polyester surfacers?? Again, BC/CC or Single-stage??? Any post prep work such as colorsanding & buffing????
One other caution that I touched on briefly above. Many paint jobbers only have the experience they have read from their supplier's literature, -or from comments they have heard their collision shops say. The same could be said from people here giving advice, -me included. Even my own shop does not paint but 6 - 8 complete cars a year. Most collision shops do that amount of cars in a week however they typically do not use the same methods nor products as we do. So who has the applicable advice?? That is the $64,000.00 question. As I said above, folks that have experience painting a car over a year or two ago have non-applicable experience based on ever changing products that are available today.