The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Painting Strategy 1950 chev truck

I am trying to keep my costs down (lol) if possible. Just got the cab, hood ,front fenders and doors back from shop. Panel painted only. I have put the cab back on frame .My question is , if I start reassembly eg I put the front inner skirt panels in (now primed dusty but I thinking of hitting with paint as is) then the lower rad supports ,fenders and hood . That will keep me busy now that I am broke. But then wheel back to shop for final paint as phase two.

The interior I just need some light body work to dash and not worry too much else. Then the next phase after will be wiring reassemble interior. Then last phase bed.

Here are pictures

Looking good.

Before assembly I would paint the inner fender skirts. I used Rustoleum Semi-Gloss Black on mine. You could do that with rattle cans pretty easily.

A question: You say your truck is a 1950, but did you delete the side cowl vent? A '50 should have one, but not a '51 or later

Thanks for noticing the missing vent which is a sore spot. I originally left the vent door in and then cut in the new cowl panel. Of course body shop did not like my welds so replaced the entire panel and cut out and saved the original door but ran out of time to put back in. Now I will have to get someone to do that for me .

But sounds like I can go ahead and start reassembly

It is actually easier to install the fender/inner fender as a loosely bolted together assembly. You will need an assistant to do it.
What do you mean by "panel painted only"?

I agree with Carl about loosely bolting inner and outer fenders together. You might also consider bolting radiator support, fender supports, etc together and install the whole front clip as a unit. It would save a lot of crawling around on the ground if you have a non-scratch surface you can put them on (lawn, blanket, etc.) upside down and get all the bolts started. I fought with quite a few bolts to get them aligned, and actually left a couple out. I have taken the front clip off as a unit after tightening all the bolts and it comes off/on nicely if picked from the two brackets for the fender braces to the firewall.

Paint is not final but seems to be one step above primed. I was “to preserve it from the elements “

Is it your plan to have the truck painted once completely reassembled?
A lot of paint shops prefer to do it that way on more modern vehicles. Personally, I can't recommend to do it that way on these old trucks. There are too many areas which are hard to get to in order to scuff the existing paint in order for the ensuing coats of paint to stick to it.
My plan of attack is to do all rust and dent repairs of all of the individual unassembled parts, stopping the dent repairs right before I start to make them worse.
Then I have everything sandblasted, and immediately epoxy primed. Then sprayed with high build primer during the advertised window of epoxy prime cure so that no scuffing of the epoxy primer is required prior to the application of the high build primer. That saves a TON of work.
Then my body and paint guy takes it from there to finish the metal work, body filler, apply epoxy primer as a sealer, and then final paint.

In your case, I recommend that you have all of the parts prepped and painted prior to reassembly to assure that all of the surfaces can be adequately scuffed so the next layers of paint with adhere properly. Then assemble the truck.

Well I have sand blasted every part of this truck and immediately etched primed those parts.

My plan is to go in stages. At present I just received back from my autobody person (attached photos) the hood fenders doors and cab and returned to me (for as much as I could afford this year especially with the amount of sheet metal work required )

The way I see my current situation is I can now either wait a year to afford to pay for the body person to complete the paint on the hood front fenders and thcab.which limits what I can work on. Or I am favouring unless there are huge disadvantages putting the pieces as is back together then have the body person complete the paint for the cab, hood and front fenders.

The final stage will be to the bed running boards etc
So this is why I am asking the question about my paint strategy . I am not sure what I hear you saying is my plan risky!

The key point that I am trying to make is that it will be difficult to scuff every square inch of your parts so that the paint will adhere to the epoxy primer, and for sanding any body filler and subsequent layers of paint.
This is especially true for the rear fenders and outside of the bedsides. I have seen a lot of paint adhesion failures there due to lack of enough room to get in there.

Thanks 52 Carl point taken. For this phase I think I am okay especially since the front fenders insides were textured coated as was the hood and interior floor.

Rick Brown, if the final color is going to be solid, as in non-metallic, painting each panel prior to reassembly will give the best rust preventative results. If you choose a metallic color, be aware that some variance in the appearance of panels could result if sprayed individually.

Maybe my question should have been project strategy. I have every new part to complete the restoration. I have a cab now removed from a cart sitting on the frame. I have the parts I have back from the shop. I can’t start the interior or wiring and the bed parts that are not new eg side panels need body work before paint and I am out of cash sort of speak and don’t want to do nothing for a year while I wait for final paint.

My hope in the end is a high gloss jet black color

You could probably start to fit some stuff together with the thought of what you want to have protected with a full color coat. If you want to bolt items together, you could first spray the joining surface with gloss black from a gun or rattle can, I would think about asking your paint man what product he would use for the final color and buy a pint or quart of that material and shoot from a gun. When you have all of the body parts assembled you could then have the paint man shoot the entire truck.

I like that strategy

Talk to your bodyshop that is doing the painting. Discuss and decide on the color you want and where they buy their paint. Then go to their paint suppler and they can make up a can or two of spray paint in that same color for you. Not cheap but that would solve your issue.

When I went to Autobody School way back in High School, we were taught to paint any place that is hidden behind fenders, hood, trunk and the doors, reassemble, adjust then paint. This way you would have less chance of damaging your paint.

Later when I worked in a shop, we even went as far as painting behind some of the trim pieces, particularly body side mouldings when they were attached to the body with clips (not the 3M adhesive type). You did have to do a real good job of masking those pieces.

That’s sounding like a great solution.I think I will try to come up with a nice high gloss black code and ask my paint guy how much I need then when I order I could alsovget a few rattle cans made up