[Ed]

Gordon-

Personally I dont have any experience with barrier coats...however, I have a friend that runs a restoration shop and I will ask him tomorrow.

Secondly, regarding bottom paint I think that really depends on where you live and how aggressive you need to be. Up here in Massachusetts....the bottom paint that I use (and my friend who runs the restoration shop) is MICRON CSC. It is an abalative paint that slowly wears off. It is not cheap about $150 a gallon (I think).

I've never heard of using two different types of bottom paint (hard & abalative)...however, I have heard of people using one color for the first coat and a second color for the finish coat so that they know when it is starting to wear off and time to repaint.